By-Laws

  The HBA has grown and accomplished much since its inception in 1951.  Its strength and preservation is a credit to all of its members and especially those that came before us.  However, we must be able to adapt to the needs of our members.

  Almost 2 years ago, the officers and directors concluded that the current governance structure of the HBA was not well suited to accommodate our current needs and no longer fostered our necessary growth.  Being lawyers, we determined that the best starting point rested in the operational document in which the HBA is governed, namely, its By-laws.   The directors tasked a By-laws committee, chaired by Hariklia Karis and Tom Skallas, with the job of facilitating a process whereby the directors could better reflect our values in a new draft of our by-laws.  This process lasted over 18 months, involved the efforts of many people and required numerous rounds of discussion and drafting by the officers and directors.  On June 19, 2008, the members of the HBA adopted these By-laws.

  The goal of the revised By-laws was to build upon our past and create an HBA that fosters those values that are important to us: education, charity, community and transparency.    We believe we accomplished that goal and look to this new governance structure as a starting point for building a better HBA.     

  While we encourage you to read through the By-laws by clicking the link below, please allow us to highlight some of the exciting, new changes:

• We now have 4 different types of members: Regular (attorneys), Student, Associate (paralegals and other legal professionals) and Honorary Members.

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• In addition to the Annual Banquet and our many social events, the HBA nows hold Annual (June) and Midyear (February) member meetings to facilitate discussion and participation among its members.

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• Our Directors are now granted expanded authority over the affairs of the HBA and shall be required to extensively participate in its affairs.

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• Each Officer has specific job requirements and will also serve as liaison to our member committees.

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• A new Advisory Board will be formed, consisting of esteemed our members (including, but not limited to, our past presidents) who cannot commit the necessary time or energy to serve as a director, but still want to contribute to our future success.

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• Our committee structure is being completely reorganized as each committee has specific duties and responsibilities. Committees will be empowered to accomplish the necessary work required to make the HBA successful.  In order to maintain continuity, each committee will have a chair and vice-chair, with the vice chair succeeding as chair in the following year.  

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• We have created oversight and accountability so that Directors, Officers and committee Chairs will be held accountable in performing their duties.

Click here to view the newly revised By-Laws