CAALA convention to focus on getting more plaintiffs' lawyers on the bench?

An emphasis on diversifying the bench with more plaintiffs' lawyers is a highlight of this year's CAALA convention, Ibiere Seck, president of the nation's largest trial lawyers' association, said in an interview ahead of Thursday's opening in Las Vegas.

Elected on Jan. 26, Seck is also focused for the rest of her one-year term on recruiting more young people to become plaintiffs' lawyers and encouraging others to access the resources, educational opportunities, camaraderie and networking opportunities of CAALA and other bar associations that propelled her own career.

Seck graduated from Loyola Law School and joined the bar in 2008, becoming a trial lawyer and partner at The Cochran Firm before launching her solo practice, Seck Law PC. She discussed her experience and vision for the Consumer Attorneys Association of Los Angeles in an interview with the Daily Journal. Here is the edited conversation:

Daily Journal: What are your goals for this organization during the rest of your term?

Seck: My goal is to continue to support the staff and the board and keep putting on high-quality educational programs for plaintiffs' lawyers, specifically, but also for the larger legal community. And really at the heart of that is our CAALA convention.

DJ: What can attendees look forward to?

Seck: What's different this year - and this is in line with one of the goals I set earlier in my term - is focusing on diversifying the bench, not just race and gender but also our practice areas. It's beneficial, as an organization, to see the bench reflect the bar as a whole. So, what we have been pushing for is getting our members to seriously consider applying to the bench.

There have been a number of vacancies and that has a direct impact on our clients. We cannot move our cases to trial. We need more qualified individuals to apply to be judicial officers. So what we've been doing this year through CAALA'S Judicial Pipeline Committee - this is our first year with the committee, recently formed and spearheaded by longstanding board member Jeff Westerman - is educating our members on the judicial application process, connecting them with sitting judges, directing them to resources that already exist such as the Los Angeles Superior Court's judicial mentor program.

This year in Vegas we have a program specifically for our members who are interested in applying to be judicial officers. It features Los Angeles County Superior Court Presiding Judge Samantha Jessner and Associate Justice Helen Zukin of the 2nd District Court of Appeal. We're also opening it up to the members to really have a conversation, a dialogue with all the judges who are invited to attend. That's going to take place Saturday.

DJ: In February, just after you became president, CAALA launched a new, monthly newsletter.

Seck: One of the things I was focused on when I started was finding ways to communicate more efficiently to our more than 4,000 members. And as our organization grows, we're seeing more committees, more education programs. We're putting on more than 50 programs a year with a staff of seven people. We have a very engaged and dedicated board. We have many, many non-board members serving as leaders and chairing committees and we simply had to find a better way to communicate all the benefits, all the offerings that CAALA has. We're also employing social media.

DJ: What has the feedback been?

Seck: The feedback we've been getting is, "Wow, I didn't know you all were doing X, Y, Z." We're seeing an increasing number of people registering for our programs, attending our mixers, joining our committees. People are paying more attention to what we're doing because we're finding different ways of showing them. Our members being involved in what we're doing benefits us all.

DJ: What are the benefits of networking and bar associations in your practice?

Seck: I have benefited greatly from my involvement in bar associations, not just CAALA; I sit on a number of boards. When I started practicing law, I had people who told me that if you want to do well in this industry, you need to put yourself out there, engage with other attorneys, learn from them, get involved -- and lead. And I took that to heart. As soon as I started practicing, I showed up, I was eager to learn and I dedicated a certain amount of my time each day, each week to professional organizations. I wanted to build my network; that was important. But most importantly, I wanted to learn.

As a plaintiff's lawyer I thought CAALA was perfect because so many of the leaders were well respected, accomplished attorneys who were eager to teach. They were not gatekeeping. They were interested in helping the newer lawyers become great trial lawyers. And I jumped right in.
And because of that my practice has really evolved. I feel like I am a better lawyer because of my involvement in bar associations. And then just the camaraderie. So, when I talk to new lawyers, law students even, I tell them bar associations have free or deeply discounted rates for law students. Take advantage of it now. Get to know the people in leadership. Immerse yourself in the culture. Explore all the different practice areas. Reach out to the people who you want to learn more from. It will pay dividends.

What I want people to know about CAALA is that we are vested in every member, to empower them to serve their clients in the best way possible.

DJ: What are the links to law schools?

Seck: One of the things CAALA has really been focused on is the pipeline to the plaintiffs' bar. We want younger college students and law students to begin thinking about the prospect of representing people and many of them don't know about the plaintiffs' bar. We really want our law students and high schoolers to see lawyers who are out here taking on important cases, changing laws and lives through litigation, and making a lasting impact.

So, we have a law student outreach committee. Our members volunteer to give presentations at all the local law schools. We open our membership to law students.

DJ: You have your own law firm, just you, and you're being called to try cases with all these attorneys you made connections with, is that right?

Seck: Yes, I'm a true solo. My practice is pretty niche. I don't litigate cases. My clients are other law firms. They hire me to come in and try their cases on the eve of trial, sometimes the day of, or up to 30 days out. I'm handling basic personal injury, catastrophic injury, loss of consortium, wrongful death, sexual assault, product liability cases. I attribute that to the connections that I've made over the last decade and the relationships that I built and the skills that I acquired.

DJ: I see 30% of CAALA members are sole practitioners. Are they all doing what you did?

Seck: You can run a successful solo practice using the resources that are available to you with CAALA; the membership is worth its weight in gold. We have a robust listserv where anyone can post a question and within minutes dozens of people will be responding, sharing information. We have a document base with hundreds of pleadings.

DJ: You're president of CAALA, a board member of other bar associations, jumping into trials, teaching and you're a mother. How many of you are there?

Seck: Not enough. But I make do. You make time for things that you enjoy, and you do the things that make you better. I have a lot of support. And one of the things I'm so grateful for this year is I have a really good board. They make it possible for me to do the work that I do and run an association, along with the staff. It's a collective effort.