"The new space will provide the Asian American Lawyers Association (AALAM)
with a place to call home. Equally important, it will go a long way toward
fostering ever closer relationships between AALAM, other affinity bar
organizations, and the BBA for the benefit of the members that we serve." -
Sarah G. Kim, President, AALAM, Counsel, Bingham McCutchen
"The Massachusetts Association of Hispanic Attorneys (MAHA) looks forward to
opening offices at 16 Beacon Street. We expect that putting ourselves in the
same building as the BBA and other affinity bar associations will accelerate the
already substantial efforts we have all made to coordinate our activities to
better serve our constituencies." - Carlos Perez-Albuerne,
President, MAHA, Partner, Choate Hall & Stewart
"Now the Massachusetts Black Lawyers Association (MBLA) has a
permanent home. Our members and friends will always know how to reach us and we
will have a place to store our historical records - which also have been moved
from place to place over the last 37 years. We are very excited about this
development and our partnership with the BBA." - Damian W. Wilmot,
President, MBLA, Partner, Goodwin Procter
"This office space will mean a permanent, consistent place that the
Massachusetts Black Women Attorneys (MBWA) would be identified with by its
members and the outside legal community. It also represents an opportunity to
collaborate with other affinity bars and the BBA. - Keidi S. Carrington,
President, MBWA, Attorney-at-Law
"The office space provided by the BBA to the Massachusetts Lesbian and Gay
Bar Association and other affinity bar associations will offer tremendous
opportunities for our members in providing a 'brick and mortar' home for
programming, administrative needs, and inter-organizational cooperation." -
David W. Eppley, 2009-2010 Co-Chair, MLGBA, Director, Rackemann Sawyer
& Brewster
"As a relatively new and rapidly growing affinity bar association, the South
Asian Bar Association (SABA) is thrilled not only to have a permanent address at
the BBA, but also to further solidify our partnership. We look forward to many
years of working on common goals." - Natasha Varyani, President,
SABA, Associate, McCarter & English
A few years ago, the Boston Bar Association's Diversity Leadership Task Force
suggested that greater inter-bar collaboration would help Boston's diversity
efforts. More recently, Ernest Haddad, Associate Dean for Special Projects at
Boston University School of Law, and Minita Shah, Manager of Diversity &
Inclusion at Bingham McCutchen - both members of the BBA's Diversity &
Inclusion Section - began having discussions with leaders from six affinity
bar associations (AALAM, MAHA, MBLA, MBWA, MLGBA, and SABA). The
affinity bar leaders spoke about their missions, goals and efforts to serve
their members, and what they do to create unique networks for attorneys of
different backgrounds. They all observed that the BBA could help by providing
them with permanent office space.
Yesterday, the BBA "broke ground" on that project, by beginning renovation of
its lower level to create offices that will be shared by these six affinity bar
associations. The space, once used to house meetings of the BBA executive
committee and special task forces, as well as a formal dining room, will be
ready for a tour by September 23, the date of the annual Affinity Kick-Off Fest
being held in the BBA's new Clafflin Center.
"We want to provide basic infrastructure to help the affinity bar
organizations grow and thrive," said BBA President Jack Regan. "At the same
time, our collaborative relationships are about more than space and resources,"
added Regan. "We look forward to working with all of the affinity bar
associations to identify future leaders and also to collaborate on mutually
beneficial and innovative programming."
Boston area law firms have been generous in hosting affinity bar events and
providing space for meetings, a practice expected to
continue.