CBA's 150th President Aims to Grow Its Numbers, Foster Collaboration

Partner Trisha Rich was featured in a Q&A with the Chicago Daily Law Bulletin following her installation as the 150th president of the Chicago Bar Association (CBA). She shared that one of the central themes of her presidency will be a "one bar" approach to collaborate with other local bar associations to combat falling bar membership across the country, in addition to conducting outreach to young lawyers organizations to connect attorneys and showcase the benefits of bar affiliation.

"I generally believe that bar associations are really important. They're good for lawyers and they're good for the practice of law and they're good for judges and they're good for democracy," she explained. "And bar associations are stronger when they work together."

In addition, she talked about professional responsibility and legal ethics, areas in which she is considered one of the nation's foremost lawyers. When asked whether she's observed new legal ethics dilemmas in her years of practice, she said the core problems remain the same while the application of those problems changes. For example, the issue of artificial intelligence (AI) hallucinations in court filings marks the latest application of the issue of checking briefs and following Federal Rules of Civil Procedure.

"The way we practice law is changing, and it's changing pretty dramatically right now. That said, in legal ethics we generally live by the principle that we don't have new legal ethics problems, but rather new applications of the problems we've always had," she remarked.

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