Citing diversity and business challenges among the top priorities, Connecticut Bar Association President Ndidi Moses says she has taken many steps to address these topics during her tenure.

Moses, a 42-year-old Guyana native, has served the association in several capacities. She was its treasurer, co-chairwoman of its diversity committee, vice president and then became president on July 1. Her term expires June 30.

Moses, who received her law degree in 2003 from the University of Connecticut Law School, has been an association member since 2002, when she was still in law school. She resides in Seymour, and is an assistant U.S. attorney based out of New Haven. She spoke to the Connecticut Law Tribune Thursday on several topics facing the 9,500-member association.

Here's that conversation, edited for length and clarity.

Connecticut Law Tribune: Tell us the specific strides you've taken to make the association more diverse and inclusive.

Ndidi Moses: We've diversified our leadership ranks and our officers and committee chairs.

Annually we have a diversity summit. We talk about the diversity initiatives and inclusion, and how to attract and maintain diverse talent. This year, particularly, we focused on the 19th Amendment and the women's right to vote, which was 100 years ago. We are doing a symposium in March looking at the tension between the 19th and 15th amendments. The 15th Amendment essentially said men of color could vote.

We definitely need to do to better in attracting more diverse talent into leadership roles. We have to get attorneys involved when they are young, and we are heading in that direction. We have also implemented a diversity provision in all of our bylaws.

CLT: Connecticut recently joined the ranks of states that have formed task forces to examine potential changes to the regulation of the law industry. What, therefore, was the impetus behind the association recently creating the "State of the Legal Profession Task Force"?

Moses: It was listening to stories of our members and the struggles they were facing, and also looking at complaints from the community and their concerns of being able to access justice.

Right now, we are looking at what is going on in the state. We are looking at why lawyers are struggling to make a living in certain areas. Why there are so many pro se litigants in the court?And we are looking at whether or not the rules of ethics and professional conduct assist or inhibit attorneys from practicing.

We are also looking at technology and the decline in the number of young attorneys entering the workforce here. I read that a lot of attorneys are struggling to make a living. If you go into law school absorbing all that student debt, you want to know you'll be able to pay it back and actually be able to make money too. That's one of the challenges, in that our profession is losing so much of the market share to private companies that are popping up offering alternative legal services.

CLT: The association is very up-front about seeking volunteers for pro bono work and/or pro bono clinics. How are those endeavors going?

Moses: We had our first pro bono clinic this past fall. We are looking at other creative ways to get our members, at different stages in their careers, involved in pro bono work, including retired attorneys.

We are also looking at getting assistance from attorneys outside the state to help with some of the pro se needs. There are so many people who need free legal service or need it at a reduced cost. The supply doesn't equal the demand. We are looking at different ways to meet that demand without burning out the attorneys already doing pro bono work.

CLT: You've mentioned the need for the association to be more technology savvy and more open to the younger generation. What, specifically, has the association done to be more tech-savvy.

Moses: We have tried to increase our virtual presence.

We have been using a lot more social media platforms and are doing a lot more webinars and podcasts with members. We've encouraged committees and the Connecticut Bar Association sections to have virtual meetings. We recently had our first virtual House of Delegates meeting in January. It's similar to a general membership meeting.

There is so much coming online that we have to make sure we stay on top of the current trends. We actually restructured the cybersecurity and technology committee. It used to be the privacy and data committee and we changed the name and the mission. The mission now is to look at technology that can benefit the legal profession and also the cyber threats people should be aware of and to conduct continuing legal education programs on them.

CLT: If you could point to one area where the association has fallen behind and needs to improve, what would that be and why?

Moses: We need to have a better pulse of what our members want.

For a long time, we just assumed we knew what they wanted and continued to operate the same way every year. It's clear there is a disconnect between what our members are looking for and what we are providing.

We are doing focus groups this year so we can get back in touch with our members. We are also sending out surveys to get an idea of the issues and what's on the top of the list of member concerns and what services we can provide. I know the cost of being a member for many is exorbitant. [Bar dues, Moses said, can run as high as $500 annually for some members who might sit on various section groups.]

Related stories: