It is my great honor to serve as your 2026 President of the Marin County Bar Association. We have a number of initiatives we plan to pursue this year, so please stay tuned. Here, I wanted to recap some comments I made at our very successful February 2026 Installation Dinner.

On the front page of the MCBA’s newly designed website is the mission statement of our organization, which provides: “To involve, encourage and support Bar Association members, to serve as a liaison to the Marin County courts, and to educate the community and enhance access to legal services.”

These are all things we’re committed to doing this year and in the years ahead. We will continue to expand our program offerings and build community among the legal community here in our wonderful county of Marin. Stay tuned on this.

But I’d like to take a moment to focus on the last portion of that mission statement—enhancing access to legal services.

I also want to acknowledge what is occurring more broadly in our country. We have masked federal agents murdering citizens for engaging in constitutionally-protected conduct and violating the Fourth Amendment rights of migrants and American citizens, including by conducting unlawful searches in homes without court-issued warrants. We have government officials engaging in blatant corruption with very little pushback from Congress or courts. Federal officials are engaging in some of the most vile and racist behavior we have not seen since at least Reconstruction.

How should we as lawyers respond? I understand the feeling of helplessness when doomscrolling on social media. By ourselves, we may have a sense of powerlessness in our ability, individually, to stand up for what is right and stop this conduct by our elected officials and government, and it’s only when we come together, as a community and as a nation, can this behavior be stopped.

But what can we each do, today, tonight? Tonight I’d like to challenge each and every lawyer in this room to take a step to stand up for our community and commit that in 2026 you will provide 5 hours of pro bono legal services to under-represented communities and organizations serving those in need. 5 hours. That’s it. We have a host of organizations in this county in need of legal support, and hundreds if not more struggling in need of legal services.

If you’re willing to accept this 5-hour challenge, MCBA will provide you with a list of community organizations in need of pro bono legal services. While it would be great if we could all commit to more than 5 hours in a year, a 5-hour commitment this year is something to which each of us should be able to commit. If you’re already involved in a nonprofit or other organization aimed at serving a community in need, then providing just 5 hours of volunteer service a year would be a great opportunity for you to satisfy your 5-hour pledge.

Will your 5-hours of pro bono legal services stop the oppression, corruption, and racism that we’re witnessing? No, of course not, not by itself. But as Robert Kennedy (Senior, the prophet, not his demented son) said in South Africa in 1966, each time a person stands up for an ideal or acts to improve the lives of others, they send forth a tiny ripple of hope, and these ripples, when they cross, create a current capable of sweeping down the mightiest walls of oppression.

Tonight, will you join us? Can I have a show of hands here tonight of those willing to commit to providing 5 hours of volunteer time to help those in need in our community?

Thank you for your support for this initiative, and for the Marin County Bar Association.

Tom McInerney