An Enduring Partnership: Notes from the 2025 DRI Leadership Conference and Annual Meeting
The relationship between Canadian Defence Lawyers and our American counterpart Association, DRI, is rooted in a shared mission, shared community, and shared challenges.
On both sides of the border, we find communities of dedicated Civil Defence practitioners, striving to speak with one strong voice on advocacy issues, provide relevant networking opportunities, and to meet the unique professional development needs of our members.
Each year, CDL’s Staff and Volunteer Leadership, alongside DRI’s Canadian Representatives, meet with Staff and Volunteer leaders of Civil Defence Associations from across North America.
This October, I joined CDL’s 1st Vice President, Mouna Hanna, and 2nd Vice President Alison Hopkins, in Chicago, for the DRI Leadership Conference and Annual Meeting.
Some of the challenges are universal and not unique to legal associations; creating community in an increasingly disconnected and digital first world, maintaining affordability for members as costs continue to rise sharply (felt acutely in the staggering cost of food, hotel nights and audio-visual, that put pressure on registration fees and delegate costs for in-person events), and managing volunteer and staff burnout.
Other challenges, have a more specific or legal flavour. This year’s discussions focused on issues such as; the application of AI in legal work and the role of the association in facilitating best practice sharing, creating meaningful opportunities for Young Lawyers that provide enough value to their firms for them to receive financial support (to offset membership dues and registration fees), and creating transparent and accessible pathways for members to suggest cases where the association might seek intervenor status.
Through this lens, each year CDL’s delegates to these semi-annual gatherings, return with informed Stop-Start-Continue lists, as we are able to view our strengths and opportunities through the lens of peer organizations.
On this Executive Director’s list of things to think about and work on:
On both sides of the border, we find communities of dedicated Civil Defence practitioners, striving to speak with one strong voice on advocacy issues, provide relevant networking opportunities, and to meet the unique professional development needs of our members.
Each year, CDL’s Staff and Volunteer Leadership, alongside DRI’s Canadian Representatives, meet with Staff and Volunteer leaders of Civil Defence Associations from across North America.
This October, I joined CDL’s 1st Vice President, Mouna Hanna, and 2nd Vice President Alison Hopkins, in Chicago, for the DRI Leadership Conference and Annual Meeting.
Some of the challenges are universal and not unique to legal associations; creating community in an increasingly disconnected and digital first world, maintaining affordability for members as costs continue to rise sharply (felt acutely in the staggering cost of food, hotel nights and audio-visual, that put pressure on registration fees and delegate costs for in-person events), and managing volunteer and staff burnout.
Other challenges, have a more specific or legal flavour. This year’s discussions focused on issues such as; the application of AI in legal work and the role of the association in facilitating best practice sharing, creating meaningful opportunities for Young Lawyers that provide enough value to their firms for them to receive financial support (to offset membership dues and registration fees), and creating transparent and accessible pathways for members to suggest cases where the association might seek intervenor status.
Through this lens, each year CDL’s delegates to these semi-annual gatherings, return with informed Stop-Start-Continue lists, as we are able to view our strengths and opportunities through the lens of peer organizations.
On this Executive Director’s list of things to think about and work on:
- Safeguarding CDL’s reputation by creating a clear code of conduct for staff and volunteers, who are established influencers and thought leaders on social media; particularly where those personas might be misaligned with CDL’s reputation as a professional, welcoming and supportive, community.
- Creating clear value statements for Young Lawyers, collecting testimonials of the value of involvement in Young Lawyer programming, and reinstating the New Call welcome program.
- Creating meaningful and impactful opportunities for CDL’s Past Presidents to remain engaged in the Association.