Looking to find your next great law clerk or show your support for diversity in our community? Employer and sponsor registration is now open for the 2021 Diversity Job Fair!

Women and the Law Division Executive Committee member Ellen Pactor recently sat down with Bri to discuss work, championship cycling and Kid Rock.

It's the season of giving and even during the hardships of 2020, generous sponsors, bidders and donors helped the Indianapolis Bar Foundation raise over $26,000 during IndyBar's Giving, this year's online silent auction to benefit the programs and initiatives of the foundation.

2020 has been (and no doubt will continue to be) like riding a roller coaster in a hurricane. Fortunately, for the IndyBar, we have a committed membership that has responded in amazing ways. While the pandemic will affect the practice of law for years to come, we can all be proud of the work our association did to respond in positive and uplifting ways. In a non-COVID year, we would typically recognize our IndyBar award winners at our annual Recognition Breakfast — typically a packed event with comradery and good cheer. Like many things this year, we will recognize our award winners in different (but no less important) ways.

“I’m joining the IndyBar WLD to make connections, both professional and personal.” We hear this often and agree: building relationships with other attorneys is undoubtedly a key membership benefit. But, with our new reality, meeting and connecting has become difficult.   

As 2020 ticks to a close, IndyBar sections and divisions are in the process of evaluating their committee rosters and determining vacancies for 2021. Now is the perfect time to indicate your interest in serving on a committee. While space is limited, every effort will be made to involve anyone expressing interest in some capacity.

We laugh about pandemic parenting, online learning, and socially distant play for children. Underneath the humor is the larger fact base—this pandemic is broadly affecting children’s lives. It’s crept into their education, their extracurricular activities, their home lives, their ability to connect with friends, their access to libraries, their access to needed services, and generally, their visibility into the world. They are isolated in little pandemic quarantine bubbles with their families, and maybe a quarantine family buddy.

In our profession, we are taught to be respectful and civil toward the court, toward our clients and toward our fellow practitioners. During a time where everyone is suffering through the added stress of a pandemic, you may have caught yourself being impatient, combative, dare I say, snarky, when you otherwise may not have been.  

The nomination period has begun for the 2021 Board of Directors of the Indianapolis Bar Association, and Kelley Johnson of the Law Office of Kelley J. Johnson LLP  has been appointed to chair the effort. Johnson, who is a past president of the Indianapolis Bar Foundation, will lead a committee of members in selecting a slate of officers for the coming year.

Many schools throughout the Indianapolis area have chosen to push back their start dates or have an all virtual start, and it's possible that local or state officials will eventually mandate that all schools follow suit. This fall will bring even more uncertainty into our lives as we send our children back to school. So, what is a working parent to do?