On This Day… January 15th, 2020
What happened around this time in FBA’s history? See below for some pretty cool tidbits.
Jan. 15, 1962: Two days before dedicating the Federal Bar Building, the FBA first dedicates the National Lawyers Club on the second floor. With a lounge, bar, dining room, outdoor terrace, and private meeting rooms, the club is intended to serve as “the rendezvous for lawyers in and out of government service, with facilities for their mutual attraction and benefit and with accommodations for fun and fellowship,” then–FBA President Thomas G. Meeker wrote in Federal Bar News in July 1960. About 800 people attend the dedication, with a hundred of them crowding into the lounge for the ceremony and another 700 watching on closed-circuit TV in the bar, dining room, and on the third floor. Former FBA President Earl W. Kintner, now president of both the National Lawyers Club and the Federal Bar Building Corporation — and the driving force behind the building — presides over the ceremony, while U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice and former FBA President Tom C. Clark is the principal speaker. Oil paintings of both men are unveiled to hang in the club. The audience is stacked with luminaries from the federal bench and bar, including Supreme Court Chief Justice Earl Warren and Associate Justices Charles Whittaker, William Brennan, and Stanley Reed.
Jan. 17, 1962: The FBA dedicates the Federal Bar Building, its new 12-story, $3-million headquarters — and first permanent home. In addition to the National Lawyers Club, the building includes office space for FBA staff and a law library. Held outside on a frigid Wednesday afternoon, the program is overseen by Earl W. Kintner and attended by about 700 people. Speakers include U.S. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy and Chief Justice Warren, who notes: “This building, including its library, its Lawyers Club, and its social rooms, should help your association to serve as a source of cross-fertilization among your membership, permitting them to increase their knowledge, improve their skills, and widen their service.”
Jan. 20, 1940: The FBA celebrates its 20th anniversary during its annual dinner at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington, D.C. U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Harlan Fiske Stone is the guest of honor, while newly appointed Attorney General Robert H. Jackson is the featured speaker, telling the audience of 600 members and guests: “No place in our profession offers greater opportunity and urge to grow than the legal service of the government…. The volume of experience, the intensity of it, the sheer pressure to explore special problems can hardly fail to make faithful government counsel, however humble his beginnings, outstanding among the competent men of his time.”
Jan. 25, 1955: The FBA holds the first meeting of its Toastmasters club, which has been formed “to aid the members in mastering the art of public speaking, to teach them to appear effectively before any audience, and to train them for chairmanship and effective participation in conferences.”
January 1995: The Federal Bar News & Journal is retired — and replaced with The Federal Lawyer, a sleek magazine that will be published 10 times a year. The first issue is devoted to the FBA’s 75th anniversary, with in-depth articles about the organization’s history, profiles of distinguished members, and more. FBA President Alan C. Harnisch promises that the new publication will “keep the best of the Federal Bar News & Journal” while being “more diverse, and more readable as well.”
January 1992: This month’s issue of the Federal Bar News & Journal is devoted entirely to the groundbreaking Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA), which was signed into law on July 26, 1990, with enforcement of many employment provisions going into effect on July 26, 1992. Thirteen different articles explore how the ADA will affect attorneys practicing in the federal sector.