In the below video, ACBA President Regina Wilson recaps the June 17 Board of Governors Meeting, the final of her presidency. She covers changes to Women in the Law Division by-laws, ACBA and ACBF insurance matters, reflections on the Bench-Bar Conference and more. 

ACBA members can receive discounts on IT services and solutions through Plummer Slade, the ACBA’s endorsed provider for these services. Plummer Slade offers computer networking, managed services, cloud backup and storage, cyber security, IP telephone services and more. For more on Plummer Slade, click the button below.

As part of the 2024-2025 Bar Leadership Initiative Project, the class produced educational training videos featuring legal experts in the fields of family law, criminal law and immigration law. ACBA members Tara Sease, Morgan Bonekovic, Jackie Martinez and Frank Walker answer common questions that relate to their practice of law to dispel cultural misconceptions and provide crucial legal insights that will enable refugees to navigate common legal challenges more effectively. These videos can be found on the ACBA's YouTube Channel at the button below.

This property and casualty insurance report from the ACBA Insurance Partners at USI provides the latest rate projections, key developments and strategies to help you mitigate risk and position your organization for success.  For more, see the article below. For more on the ACBA Insurance Program, visit www.ACBA.org/Insurance.

ACBA members are invited to a free, non-CLE webinar – “Navigating the Divorce Decree Process” – on Wednesday, July 16 at noon on Zoom. Hear from Tricia Sorg, Court Administrator of the Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas Family Division, about how to avoid mistakes and obtain a Divorce Decree as quickly as possible.

The Pittsburgh Legal Journal – the official legal journal of the Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas containing trial lists, legal notices, sheriff sales and more – is published five days per week and is available only to subscribers. It is delivered via email as an easy-to-print, 8.5x11-inch pdf. For an informational video on the PLJ, click here.

The Kennedy T. Friend Scholarship Fund was established by the will of Kennedy T. Friend, a distinguished member of the ACBA who passed in London, England in 1929. Any child of an attorney who is a member of the bar association, and/or who has their principal practice in Allegheny County, is eligible for this scholarship if they chose to attend Yale University or the successor schools of the University of Paris.

Beginning June 21, the ACBA will begin passing along a 3 percent credit card processing fee to members who choose to pay dues, event fees, CLE registrations, or other association charges by credit card. This move aligns the ACBA with many other professional organizations, vendors and businesses that have already begun passing processing fees to the end user.

To avoid the new fee, members can use alternative payment methods. Debit card payments and paper checks will continue to be accepted without any additional fees. The debit card and e-check options are available through the ACBA’s secure online payment system and are processed quickly and efficiently. The decision comes as the ACBA continues to navigate rising operational costs, including the significant fees incurred from credit card transactions. Until now, the association has absorbed these costs, but doing so is no longer sustainable as credit card processing fees for fiscal year 2024-25 exceeded $63,000. For more information, contact Ande Thomas at athomas@acba.org.

Active members of the ACBF’s Fellows GIVE program help award grants to nonprofits for projects that increase access to justice for clients with low incomes. Fellows make an annual financial commitment, which allows members to participate in the grant process from initial donation to the determination of final awards. Active Fellows help select the programs that are awarded grants.

Fellows can make their pledge at the level of their choosing:

• Advocate Level: $1,200 over 4 years
• Ambassador Level: $2,400 over 6 years
• Visionary Level: $5,000 over 8 years

Additionally, special consideration is offered for Young Lawyers Division members (who have practiced for fewer than 10 years), with the opportunity to pledge $100 for each year they have remaining as a YLD member. Please consider nominating a colleague who exemplifies the qualities of a Fellow for the Class of 2025; members may also nominate themselves.

Already a Fellow in the past? If so, there’s no need to re-nominate, just complete this form to rejoin and select your giving level.

The June 13 edition of Pittsburgh Legal Journal Opinions is available online. The Pittsburgh Legal Journal publishes timely, precedent-setting, full-text opinions from various divisions of the Court of Common Pleas. Opinions that appeared in past editions are available in a searchable database here; members must be logged in to the ACBA website to access this database.