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Brian
Melendez
became the 83rd,
and youngest, president of the HCBA on July 1, 2001. In
accepting the gavel of leadership from outgoing
president Aaron Biber, Melendez began a one-year term
leading Minnesota’s largest local bar association
(also the nation’s ninth largest), representing nearly
8000 lawyers.
While becoming its youngest president,
Brian brought a wide array of bar leadership experience
at local, state and national levels to his new role. He
began his presidential year as he completed his year as
chair of the American Bar Association Young Lawyers
Division, the world’s second-largest voluntary
professional association – second only to the ABA
itself. |
Immediately following his graduation from both the
Harvard Law School (J.D.) and Harvard Divinity School (M.T.S.
in ethics) in 1991, Melendez accepted a position with
the Faegre & Benson law firm. A partner in the firm
since 1999, Melendez focuses his practice in business
litigation. Originally from the east coast, and never
having even visited Minnesota until he interviewed and
accepted a position with the firm, Melendez credits his
involvement in the bar association’s New Lawyers
Section for making him feel he had become part of the
Minnesota community. Part of his focus during his
presidency will be on recruiting, integrating and
retaining young lawyers, as they will become the bar’s
future leaders.
In his acceptance speech at the bar’s annual meeting,
Melendez also challenged colleagues to actively and
proudly carry the responsibility of the profession –
". . . to bring the benefits of due process, equal
protection, and constitutional democracy to the
underrepresented, the have-nots, and the
discriminated-against, as well as those who can afford
legal services."
Investing himself heavily in the community, Melendez
serves with a variety of law-related, educational,
religious, and political organizations, a few of which
are: Volunteer Lawyers Network, American Bar Foundation
(Fellow), American Institute of Parliamentarians,
Westminster Presbyterian Church, and DFL Party of
Minnesota (Chair of Senate District 59 and of the
Minneapolis DFL Party). |
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