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Bob Young elected Chair of the Law Practice Division of the ABA
by Mandy Hicks
Bob Young, partner at English Lucas Priest and Owsley LLP, was elected Chair of the Law Practice Division of the American Bar Association at the ABA’s annual conference today (August 8, 2014) in Boston. He will serve a one-year term.
The Law Practice Division helps lawyers better manage the business side of their practice. The division publishes books, holds conferences and meetings, conducts continuing legal education seminars online and works to increase diversity in the profession. In his role as Chair, Bob will have several national level speaking opportunities, including the ABA Women Rainmakers Mid-Career Workshop in November in San Diego. He will also write a column for six issues of Law Practice magazine, which is published by the Division. About 15,000 attorneys are members of the Law Practice Division.
“My focus this year will be on helping attorneys keep up with all of the many ways the practice of law is changing,” Bob says. “Besides the many advances in technology that are available to attorneys, we’ve seen a big increase in the number of young lawyers in particular starting their own firms. I’d like to help attorneys become more technology proficient, whether they’re just getting started in the practice or have been at it for decades. My goal is for more attorneys to see our division as a resource, join us and participate, and make the practice of law better.”
Bob previously served as Vice-Chair of Law Practice Division and Chair of the Law Practice Management Strategy and Planning Committee. He also was Chair of the Diversity Committee of the Law Practice Division for three years, from 2009 to 2011, leading the group through a major reorganization. His group’s work helped lead the ABA to hire a Chief Diversity Officer to assist law firms wanting to create more opportunities for female attorneys, attorneys from diverse cultural backgrounds, attorneys who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender and attorneys who have disabilities. “My focus for the past decade has been to increase opportunities for everyone,” Bob says. “I want to level the playing field for law students and attorneys from a broad range of backgrounds to become successful members of firms or to form their own firm, if that’s what they’d like to do. By doing so, we make the field of law stronger, better, and able to handle more disputes fairly. We can ultimately make better laws if we have a greater diversity of people working in the court system.”
In addition to the ABA, Bob is a member of the Bowling Green-Warren County Bar Association, American Association for Justice, Kentucky Justice Association, Kentucky Bar Association and American Bar Association. Bob received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Western Kentucky University in Bowling Green in 1986 and a Juris Doctorate from the University of Louisville School of Law in 1990. Besides the Kentucky and Tennessee Bar, his bar admissions include the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit and the U.S. District Courts for Eastern and Western Districts of Kentucky.
Bob’s law practice focuses on medical malpractice, pharmaceutical and medical device litigation.
