A Yellow Springs Bar Association..? Run!

My first reaction to the phone message from local attorney Barbara Boettcher was to put the receiver back in its cradle and run. Run like hell. Get out of Yellow Springs. My safe haven had suddenly dissolved. Poof!

“A group of attorneys is getting together at William’s on Saturday to talk about starting a Yellow Springs Bar Association,” the message said.

Oh, boy! I thought. Where can I hide?

It had been exactly nine years and four days, since I plea-bargained a case in Bronx Criminal Court, took the subway back to my office in Manhattan to drop off the file and gather a few things, then went home and packed my car to escape to this Bohemian enclave to become a writer. I never looked back. Then this! Well anyway, I had a Memorial Day Weekend excuse, however weak, and did not attend. I didn’t run either. My curiosity was getting the better of me. And then there was that potential for news. News for the Blog. So a few days after the fact, I called Boettcher and shared my initial reaction.

“That was my first reaction when I heard about it, too,” she said. “Run!”

But as an active lawyer, her inclination to flee was less about spending time with other lawyers, than it was about joining another Yellow Springs nonprofit.

“The last thing I need is to join another organization,” she said.

But she went to the gathering and was glad she did.

“It was Ellis Jacobs’ idea,” she said. “And it turned out to be extremely pleasant.”

According to Boettcher 15-16 local attorneys and law students turned out. In her view it’s not really going to blossom into a full-fledged bar association. Rather, it will continue to go on more as a social gathering where some of the things they might seek to accomplish would be to enhance the image of attorneys in the village and maybe put on some programs, such as educating the high schoolers about their rights. In the end, they agreed to get together quarterly.

“We are meeting again in September,” she said. “Everyone loved it.”

Then I called Ellis Jacobs and shared my initial reaction.

“That was my reaction too,” he said. “Then I remembered it was my idea.”

As to whether this is going to lead to an actual Yellow Springs Bar Association, he said he had inquired about what the legal requirements would be and was waiting for an answer. But he doubted that it would end up being so formal. For now, it will remain a place for lawyers and law students to get together and network, perhaps affording opportunities for referrals and co-counsel arrangements. They might put on a program or do something for Law Day, he said.

“It’s a just a loose association of lawyers,” Jacobs said. “We jokingly call ourselves the Yellow Springs Bar Association.”