In the OCBA’s annual popular election, two outstanding and contributing members of the Orange County legal community are nominated for Secretary of the OCBA to serve the term beginning January 1, 2016. Yearly, the Secretary elevates to Treasurer, President-Elect, President, and Immediate Past-President. Whomever you elect will influence the development and direction of the OCBA for years to come. If you are an active, attorney member of the OCBA, please vote. The online election will be open from Tuesday, September 1, 2015 until 2:30 p.m. on Tuesday, September 22 at www.ocbar.org/vote.

In alphabetical order, allow me to introduce your two candidates for OCBA Secretary: Steven G. Hittelman and Deirdre M. Kelly.

Steven G. Hittelman is a Certified Family Law Specialist (Certified by the State Bar of California Board of Legal Specialization) and managing partner of the Hittelman Strunk Law Group, LLP in Newport Beach. A former Deputy District Attorney for the OCDA, then a Senior Associate at the Family Law specialty firm of Minyard Morris, LLP, Steven has been an active part of the Orange County legal community for the past twenty-one years.

Steven currently serves as a member of the OCBA Board of Directors, and as the President of the South Orange County Bar Association. He served as Chair of the Family Law Section of the OCBA, is a Founding Fellow of the Orange County Bar Foundation, a founding member of the OC Jewish Bar Association, and enjoys membership in the OC Women’s Bar Association (where he was named Attorney of the Year for 2012), the OC Celtic Bar Association, the OC Asian American Bar Association, and the OC Lavender Bar Association.

As the Co-Chair of the Bridging The Gap Committee of the OCBA for the last fifteen years, Steven introduced literally thousands of newly admitted attorneys to the practice of law. As a member of the OCBA’s Blue Ribbon Panel on the Administration of Justice, Steven worked with other OCBA leaders to provide input into pending legislation affecting Civil, Family, Probate, and Criminal Law, California Rules of Court, OC local rules, and revision to the California jury instructions. A frequent provider of MCLE in Orange County and for the State Bar, Steven also continues to give back to the community through his ties to the Public Law Center and the Legal Aid Society of Orange County.

Steven will work to ensure that the OCBA continues to be on the forefront of legal issues impacting the practice of law in OC.

Deirdre M. Kelly is a commercial litigator, President of Orange County Women Lawyers, and a professor and externship director at Whittier Law School in Costa Mesa. She is an OCBA Board member.

For over twenty-five years, Deirdre has worked with many of the richly diverse elements of the legal community. As a Loyola law student, Deirdre conducted more than twenty-five trials with the L.A. District Attorney’s office. She started at Jones Day after graduation, and was then Vice President and Legal Counsel of American Savings Bank in Irvine. Afterward, Deirdre joined the litigation departments of Kindel & Anderson, and later, Paul Hastings. Today, Deirdre teaches and places externs in both the private sector (law firms and legal departments) and the public sector (courts, government staffs, and non-profits).

Deirdre is Chair of the OCBA’s Law School Task Force and Vice Chair of the Judiciary Committee. She is also a member of the Diversity, Mommy Esquire, and Pro Bono Committees. Deirdre is a member of the OCBA Charitable Fund Board, and serves on the Public Law Center’s Dinner Committee. Deirdre is active with the Coalition for Diversity in the Law, the Celtic Bar, ABTL, and the William Gray Legion Lex Inn of Court.

As OCBA Secretary, Deirdre will seek to bring together the many constituent parts of our Orange County legal community, from the bench, from the bar, and from academia, with a view to improving the strength of our communications and of our relationships, and ultimately the excellence of our practices and of our service to the community at large. She would especially focus her efforts on making the OCBA more inclusive by reaching out to underserved groups of lawyers, learning and responding to their needs, and by continuing to recruit and mentor law students who are the future of our profession. www.Deirdre4OCBA.com.