b'Fall/Winter 2020Page 3 Presidents MessageDean J. Zipser* What a year. When I was moving up the ladder to President, one of my worries wasthenecessitytoalwaysmakeit ontimeto run our 7:30 a.m. board meetings at the courthouse. That becameanon-issue,butnotforthereasonsIexpected.TheCOVID-19pandemicchangedeverythingforusjust as it did for the rest of the world.But, despite the pandemic, and like so many other organi-zations in our legal community, we did not let it stop us. Although delayed when in-person events were no longerDean J. Zipser an option, we keptupwithourpro- FBA/OC President gramming,being What a year .abletooffersome uniquecontent,togetherwithour regulararrayofeventsalbeit allFBA/OC Officers virtual once the pandemic hit.And we even managed to update our Bylaws in the process!Dean J. Zipser President Although things were certainly upside down, there were some silver linings.Because all the programming turnedDavid M. Stein virtual, we were able to team up with the FBA chapters inPresident-Elect Los Angeles and the Inland Empire to co-present a num-ber of programs that would otherwise not have been avail- Brian C. Claasen abletoourmembership.Theseincludeprogramson LGBT+judgespathstothebench,emergingissuesinTreasurer blockchainandcryptocurrency,federalcriminalpractice in the COVID-19 era, and a constitutional law forum fea- Damon D. Mircheff turing Dean Chemerinsky.We also were privileged to co- Secretary sponsor a program with the Orange County Women Law-yers Association on the legal and social implications of the Michael Flynn and George Floyd cases.I hope and be-lieve that these types of collaboration will continue, even when things get back to normal.Another silver lining is you, our membership, which re-mains strong.You stood by us and continued to frequent our events and support the organization.Our board did a phenomenal job of coalescing and making this a successful year despite the challenges. Our board attendance was at alltime highs, everyone picking up the slack and keeping the organization moving forward dur-(Continued on page 4)'