The CBA Futures Committee recently tabled an impressive report entitled “Crystal Clear: New Perspectives for the Canadian Bar Association”. This forward-thinking document considered the challenges facing lawyers, notaries and the legal profession, and it made concrete and realistic recommendations in order to address these concerns. The Report represents precisely the kind of effort that the CBA must continue to make in order to be attentive, relevant and responsive. While the Report can easily be characterized as a tool for change, it is, in reality, a call to action. The Report can be viewed online at the CBA website at http://www.cba.org/CBA/futures/Main/.
In 2005, the CBA finds itself once again at another crossroads and the time has come for us, as leaders of the CBA, to renew our commitment to the Association. In my view, the best way to renew this commitment is to embrace the call to action contemplated by the Report and to adopt the recommendations as part of our own personal mandates at home, at work and in CBA meeting rooms.
While the Report identifies eleven recommendations that inevitably must be addressed through a multi-faceted approach, the critical first steps for the CBA will be to focus on equity in its broadest sense, the image of the profession and life/work balance issues. In the short term, if the Association can make substantial inroads in these three areas, the obvious spin-off will be measurable success in implementing the remaining recommendations, such as increasing membership. The combined effect of this will have an exponential impact on other areas. For example, an increase in membership will positively affect revenue which, in turn, will assist the CBA with respect to achieving all of the other goals set out in the Report.