ABOTA’s Board and Membership voted overwhelmingly to revise its membership requirements at the National Membership and Board Meeting in Nashville, Tennessee, on October 26, 2024. The Membership and National Board voted to modify the requirements for entry into ABOTA to be more reflective of the current challenges in obtaining jury trials while at the same time maintaining ABOTA’s high standards of ability and professionalism.
The amendments were drafted based on research and polling of ABOTA’s chapter, state and regional leaders as well as the general membership over a period of more than two years
The new Constitution & Bylaw provisions maintain the requirement for eligibility as a member of 100 points as those points are currently defined in the Bylaws. As part of the 100 points, a member candidate is now required to have a minimum of 7 civil jury trials to verdict or a hung jury. The new provisions allow the additional 30 points required for membership to be achieved by additional civil jury trials to a verdict or other points, including participation as associate counsel, felony criminal trials to verdict, trials lasting longer than 10 days, a jury trial which concludes by other than a jury verdict, or a combination thereof.
All applicants are required to affirm that a majority of their practice is civil, not criminal, trial law.
The purpose of these new provisions is to make the structure of the requirements to join ABOTA at the Member level align with the requirements for higher-ranking levels. A member has long been able to elevate his or her rank through points for a combination of civil and felony jury trials to a conclusion, additional points for trials lasting longer than 10 days, trials as associate counsel, and jury trials that are concluded by other than a jury verdict.
Under the previous rules, only civil jury trials tried to a conclusion were counted toward qualification for the Member category. The amendments now allow consideration of longer trials, a limited number of felony jury trials, a limited number of trials as associate counsel, and jury trials which conclude by other than a jury verdict, or a combination thereof for eligibility for the member category just as is done for all other membership categories.
The National Board felt that other types of trial experience other than trial as lead counsel to a verdict in a civil case should be recognized toward the member category in the same way that experience counts toward all other membership categories. The civility and professionalism requirements remain in full effect as do the provisions that chapters approve all nominations for membership before a member candidate’s name is submitted to the National Board.
New membership applications and other Chapter Leadership materials and information can be found on the website at www.abota.org.
The updated ABOTA Constitution & Bylaws can also be viewed as part of our Chapter Leadership Guide here.
Should you have any questions about the new requirements or submitting membership applications to the National Office, please contact membership@abota.org.