A push that began a few years back to raise the profile of the San Fernando Valley Bar Association has yielded a newly energized group with some 2,000 members. Now, as Patricia L. McCabe takes the reigns as the bar association’s president for the 2006 2007 term, she is hoping to make sure that those members find what they are looking for in the organization, and even some things they may not know they want. Q: What are your goals for the coming year? A: The last two years we made a big push at community outreach and trying to get the bar well known in the community and that’s good. But we have 2,000 members. Do those members really know the programs we offer? And do those 2,000 members really know the benefits we offer? I want to make sure they do. My goal is to make sure my membership feels at the end of the year they know why they’re a member and they see the benefit and they’re glad. This all started in July when I was writing a check to another organization. And every year when I write the check I always say, why am I a member? I get my disability insurance from them, and that’s the only thing I get. I want my members to get more than one thing. I think the time has come for us to analyze our programs and take a look at where we are and where technology is and where our members are and really offer our members the best programs they can receive. Q: What are some of the programs you would like to institute? A: We have members that want to have networking and I plan on bringing back networking opportunities. We’re revamping MCLE (mandatory continuing legal education). There are all these providers you can go through. There are specialty bars, county bars, women lawyers, plaintiff bar, Chinese-American lawyers there’s every possible bar association. Members are members of my bar because they either feel they’re getting benefits or they feel an affinity or they feel an association with this bar, and I want to make sure that’s respected. And I’m hoping by giving back to members benefits and programming and other services that will give us the opportunity to reach the people who aren’t members. There are so many lawyers in the Valley who aren’t members and I don’t know why. Q: What prompted you to become an attorney? A: My undergraduate degree is in microbiology, and I have a master’s in clinical psychology. Before I became a lawyer I was a clinical psychologist. I thought I’d be a doctor, but organic chemistry got in the way. I had a patient who had very serious problems with his health insurance company, and it made me realize I would have a greater ability to change these sorts of things if I were a lawyer. Q: How did you come to your acting career? A: It was trial by fire at the law firm I joined after school. The day I was sworn in, they had me doing trial work. One of the attorneys I had met told me to take acting class because it would help in the courtroom. So I did. And my acting coach said, ‘you’re really good. You can do this for a living.’ Well this is L.A. So I actually got an agent for commercial work, and I actually booked commercials. We arranged them to film in late afternoon. I also had a small, non-speaking role on “It’s Garry Shandling’s Show.” I did it for four years, and then when I opened my own office, I had to stop. Q: What keeps you in the practice of disability litigation? A: I sue the government. If Congress rewrote the act tomorrow, I would have no problem saying they changed the law, this is how it is. But as it stands, there are promises made and these people qualify and for whatever reason they’re denied and that’s unjust. I do it to keep that system of balance in place. I have friends in the same practice because they came from a legal aid background. They always worked for the poor, and that wasn’t necessarily me. For me it’s keeping the balance of justice. The law says if you do everything the way it’s supposed to be done, we will do this, and they don’t do it. So that’s wrong. Q: Who is your most admired person? A: I had a client who was a single mom. This mom had been living in a camper shell with her two daughters, no hot water, no heat for almost three years. And she’d been getting them to school clean every day, making sure they did their homework and feeding them. She wasn’t asking for handouts. She had been an office administrator for a law firm and then she got multiple sclerosis. I look at somebody like that and I don’t think I could do that. I don’t think I could live in a camper shell without hot water for three years. After we won she said, ‘do you think we can have hot water?’ That’s why I do what I do. Q: What do you consider your greatest accomplishment? A: I’m a work in progress. I don’t know yet. SPOTLIGHT Patricia L. McCabe Title: President, San Fernando Valley Bar Association Firm: Law offices of Patricia L. McCabe, Van Nuys Practice: Disability Litigation Born: Sept. 20, 1961 Personal: Single, no children. Education: San Diego State University, B.S. micro-biology and B.A. in history; Master’s degree from SDSU in clinical psychology; J.D. from Franklin Pierce Law Center.