Welcome

President's Message

It is an honor and privilege to serve as 2007-08 President of the American Counsel Association, the oldest association of independent law firms in the world. It is also particularly humbling to follow the energetic leadership of the ACA's immediate past President, Tom Bolt, who motivated and accomplished great innovations for the ACA during his term.

As a focal point of my tenure as President of the American Counsel Association, I want to emphasize one of the original and continuing principal goals of the ACA - to support through scholarship grants exemplary law students facing significant financial challenge. In recent years, ACA leadership has faced particularly challenging choices in awarding our limited law student grant fund. We have many deserving candidates who seek ACA financial support simply to continue their legal education; or whose financial need relates to their desire to pursue low-paying public service or human rights career paths following law school.

American Counsel Association members can be gratified that their organization seeks to address each of these deserving, but different, need situations. However, the grants which the Association currently has the resources to award each year do not go far enough to address these worthy need situations. I believe and hope that in the upcoming year, as well as in the years following, the membership of this outstanding organization will do more to assist the many law students recommended each year by the Deans and faculty of their respective law schools and who are well-deserving, both academically and financially.

A second principal objective of the ACA which I will note and emphasize by this message is the Association's facilitation of personal and professional relationships among members. The most recent examples of the ACA's emphasis on close personal and professional relationships were the ACA Annual and Mid-Year dinners held in San Francisco and Los Angeles during the past twelve months. As is the tradition with the ACA, both events were convivial as well as elegant. Being active in several different legal organizations, I can state from experience that the good humor and friendship always experienced at an ACA dinner is as good as it gets, and, I encourage each of you to prioritize attendance at the American Counsel Association's Annual Dinner to be held In New York in August 2008. The ACA's New York annual dinner at Del Posto will be a memorable experience and opportunity to renew old friendships, make new ones, and build and enhance lasting professional relationships. Indeed, the ACA's significant increase in European and Canadian lawyer membership provides the opportunity for making world-wide contacts at ACA gatherings.

I cannot miss this opportunity to gratefully acknowledge and express deep appreciation to all of the members of the American Counsel Association who have devoted so much in time, effort and energy to the ACA's ongoing success and accomplishments. Even though it is not possible to name all those responsible for the continuing accomplishments and vitality of the Association, and in addition to Tom Bolt recognized at the outset of this message, the effort and dedication of Jim Dorsett, the ACA's current Secretary-Treasurer and past-President, bears special and unique recognition, as does the energetic and enthusiastic leadership of the ACA's President-Elect, Wes Horton. As the American Counsel Association's current President, I understand as much as anyone how the ongoing viability and value of this organization depends upon the effort and interest of each and every one of its members. Therefore, I encourage each member's active, present and future support of this outstanding organization through your active involvement.

Best wishes,

Douglas L. McCoy
President, American Counsel Association