An Update from the Chair

Happy Spring! As I mentioned in the first issue of the Rural Practice Section Newsletter, the goal and purpose of the Section Council is to leverage ISBA resources to benefit rural and small-town practitioners across the state. Here is the update!

First and foremost, our Section Council has continued to oversee the Rural Practice Fellows program. This year, as part of that process, we held our first ever “career fair” to assist in connecting the participating firms and potential fellows with each other. Given the positive feedback we received, I intend to organize a more general “career fair” for rural firms, which will not be limited to participation within the fellows placement program. In the meantime, rural firms are also encouraged to contact the ISBA for the discount code for posting jobs on the ISBA job board.

Also, the Rural Practice Section Council is co-sponsoring four upcoming CLE programs with the Trusts & Estates Section Council. As such, members of this Section will receive a discount on the cost. Please consider registering:

• 4/17/25 – Planning with Medicaid Asset Protection Trusts
• 4/24/25 – An Introduction to Pooled Special Needs Trusts
• 5/1/25 – Understanding the ABLE Program

As part of our goal to revamp the ISBA Affiliated Bar Program, our section council, along with ISBA staff, hosted a Rural Bar Leaders Focus Group discussion via Zoom on February 13. Leaders of rural bar associations and representatives from counties without current bar associations participated, sharing ideas, needs, and concerns. We are currently working with ISBA staff to address as much of the feedback as possible and will report back to those bar leaders at a follow-up Zoom meeting in early May. Stay tuned for these updates! If you would like information regarding the May follow-up discussion, please contact me.

Big picture, my goal is to help the ISBA connect with, and work with, rural bar associations across the state. We have already begun connecting with some local bar associations, co-sponsoring CLE, co-sponsoring panel discussions for schools, and so on. That said, the section council only knows about the events that we hear about. So, if your bar association has an upcoming event or CLE that would benefit from ISBA involvement, please contact me or one of the other section council members. We would love to help if we can! The more we work together, the better!

Please stay tuned as the Rural Practice Section Council works with ISBA staff to create and roll out additional resources and benefits. Thank you again for joining me on this adventure!

Angel Wawrzynek,
Chair