A Short History of EBALA

The scene is Contra Costa County in the 1980's. Local legal administrators have been meeting for monthly luncheons since at least 1983, when Nancy Siegel (then Regional VP) decides to meet with the group to explore the possibility of forming a local chapter of the Association of Legal Administrators. After much discussion, the group decides they aren't ready to take on that responsibility.

In May 1989, Jenny Johnson and Genny Lynn returned from a National ALA Conference in Toronto with new enthusiasm to form a local ALA chapter. For the next six months, the group discussed the pros and cons (as legal administrators, they were trained to be thorough, after all).

In November 1989, twelve administrators signed the application to become a chapter and EBALA was officially recognized at the National ALA Conference, held in San Francisco in April, 1990. Thus began the challenging and rewarding endeavor of providing quality training and support to law firm administrators in the East Bay, which continues to this day.