2022 is not “2020, Too”

ByKetan Soni is a man with dark hair and brown eyes. He is pictured in a black-and-white photo, wearing a white shirt and a dark suit jacket. He appears smiling and has a black background behind him. Ketan Soni

Thanks for reading this post and for allowing me to be your Chair this year. Don’t sit on me too hard, please! Our esteemed and more likeable Vice Chair is Jill Jackson.

If you’d rather not go through this entire post, there is a tl;dr version at the bottom.

After reading this post, ask yourself:

“What’s stopping me from contributing to the success of our section?”

The answer is:

“You are, so just contact Ketan or Cheyenne Merrigan to volunteer.”

My proposed plan for this year involves holding myself accountable, with your help, to accomplish some professional goals in the family law arena. At our section meeting on July 15, I elicited the following goals:

  1. To draft an initial Succession Plan and “manual” for the posterity of our section. Why? So that next year’s crew doesn’t have to walk into leadership starting from scratch or attempting to remember what happened in the past. Plus, who doesn’t love a good checklist?
  2. To be more grown up like Wade Harrison. Now, I know I can’t be Wade, but I can at least try to emulate him. You may say “What the heck is Ketan even talking about?” That’s OK. I’m used to that reaction. Here’s what I mean: Wade co-chaired with Senior Resident Superior Court Judge Allen Baddour on a COVID-19 Task Force to develop model administrative orders that court officials can use to establish Webex protocols for remote hearings.

Missed that one? Here are the models.

My version of being a grown up, and hence my personal goal, is to collaboratively create model Financial Affidavits in Excel (no shock there). Thus, like Wade’s model rules, a county is free to choose all, part of, or to completely reject these models. Let’s be clear, though: I’m not dictating to anyone how things should be. That’s the job of the School of Government. ????

  1. To streamline Council meetings by:
    1. Requiring reports 10 days in advance of meetings.
    2. Doing a short executive committee meeting one week in advance of the full council.
    3. Moving committees that have no reports to the bottom of the agenda to be more efficient.

On this particular goal #3, the July 15 meeting took quite some time, and that’s because there was a lot to discuss. Normally, the first meeting doesn’t take place until September, leaving a five-month gap from the prior meeting. When y’all kick me out next year, you can decide if a July meeting is a good idea or a bad idea.

However, I’m not going to be the only one having fun this year without being held accountable. To that end, I requested that each committee attempt to come up with their own goals by the September meeting. Here’s what we have, so far:

Adoption

  1. For the committee to continue functioning as a welcoming and collegial forum for North Carolina lawyers who are interested in adoption,
  2. For the committee to continue to be involved in the state legislative process to improve and protect the adoption process for the benefit of persons involved including the lawyers, and
  3. For the committee to resume its tradition of getting together in person once or twice during the year to discuss adoption, eat sandwiches for lunch, and have cookies for dessert.

Alimony

  1. Recirculate the alimony survey to Council by email.
  2. Circulate to the larger section.
  3. Figure out if AL/PSS need to be changed.

Appeals Monitor

  • One blog post per month on a family law appeals issue

Bylaws

  • Finish bylaws by this year (2022).

CLE

  • Goals are to continue kicking butt, as they have been for years.

Custody and Child Support Committee Co-Chair

  • Looking into legislation regarding GALs/Custody Advocates

Equitable Distribution

  1. Fixing 50-20(d), 52-10 by October 1
  2. Fixing impacts of the Salvatore case – by October 1
  3. An endless stream of other items

Family Law Bench Book

  1. The plan is to get this completed this year.
  2. Apparently, I volunteered myself to finish the tax chapter.

History of Family Law

  1. Goal is to update the history of the section by end of 2022.
  2. Then, ongoing long-term goal is to update every three to five years, so the task is not too daunting.

Pro Bono (these guys are amazing, btw)

  1. Expand Custody Clinic in Wake throughout the state – to Wilmington and west.
  2. Recruit local attorneys in these new areas.
  3. Improve working w/ other sections.
  4. Get a blog post out about this important work by September 1.

Modern Family

  1. Complete a draft Uniform Parentage Act by end of 2022 (volunteers needed).
  2. Get volunteers to draft chapters. Ketan to assist.
  3. Circulate the draft UPA in January 2023 with comments open until March 2023.
  4. Get a vote on the UPA by the section, in whatever form we have it, by May 2023.
  5. Pass something to get the ball moving.

Social

  1. Get input from section members on what type of events they want.
  2. Focus on creating more “food-related” events with activities, instead of just alcohol-related.

TL;DR:

  • Ketan is drafting a succession plan, drafting a model financial affidavit, and streamlining meetings.
  • Ketan is attempting to drive committees to success by encouraging chairs to establish goals with deadlines.
  • Four vastly important projects:
    • Expand pro bono work.
    • Finalize a Uniform Parentage Act to submit to the legislature.
    • Finalize the Family Law Bench Book.
    • Finalize the History of Family Law.

Thanks for being a part of our section, and I look forward to seeing all of you in person this year!

/by