As
I
mentioned
in
this
post,
I
had
the
opportunity
to
testify
before
the
Maryland
House
Government
Operations
Committee
on
proposed
bill
HB292
which
would
gather
data
on
the
race
and
gender
of
lawyers
subject
to
disciplinary
proceedings
by
Maryland
regulators.
Although
I’ve
never
testified
before
the
Maryland
legislature
before,
this
wasn’t
my
first
rodeo.
Over
the
course
of
my
career,
I’ve
testified
before
several
Congressional
committees
on
renewable
energy
and
pipeline
permitting,
and
been
invited
to
draft
and
markup
several
different
bills.
hearing
like
this
impresses
clients
and
is
a
great
marketing
tool.
Finally,
even
if
you
don’t
have
the
chance
to
testify
directly,
writing
an
authoritative
article
that
gets
a
shout
out
in
the
Congressional
Record
is
equally
satisfying
(especially
if
you
wrote
the
piece
just
two
years
out
of
law
school).
So
if
I’ve
whetted
your
appetite
for
testifying,
how
can
solo
or
small
firm
lawyers
find
opportunities
to
do
so?
Surprisingly,
it’s
not
as
difficult
as
you
might
think
–
and
the
advent
of
virtual
hearings
means
that
many
testimony
opportunities
won’t
take
a
huge
chunk
of
time
out
of
your
day.
Here
are
some
quick
suggestions
for
finding
opportunities
to
testify:
-
If
you
track
legislation
in
your
practice
area,
reach
out
to
the
bill
sponsor
or
legislative
committee
with
jurisdiction
over
the
matter
and
offer
to
testify
or
provide
feedback
on
the
legislation.
Often
committees
are
grateful
to
hear
from
lawyers
with
expertise; -
Contact
organizations
that
may
be
advancing
legislation
and
ask
whether
they
might
want
a
lawyer
with
subject
matter
expertise
to
testify; -
Simply
submit
testimony
on
your
own.
Congressional
committees
often
invite
written
testimony
on
all
proposed
legislation,
and
in
Maryland
you
can
sign
up
to
give
live
testimony.
You
don’t
have
to
start
from
scratch
in
drafting
testimony;
if
you’ve
written
articles
or
blog
posts
on
a
subject
matter,
compile
and
submit
those; -
Most
congressional
and
legislative
committees
have
Facebook
pages
and
LinkedIn
or
Twitter
accounts,
making
it
easy
and
less
formal
to
reach
out.
As
a
lawyer,
how
often
have
you
told
a
client
that
you’d
like
to
achieve
a
particular
outcome,
but
the
law
simply
doesn’t
allow
it?
Testifying
on
legislation
is
an
opportunity
to
be
the
change
we’d
like
to
see.