Ian Phillips will serve as Executive Lieutenant Governor and Brian Park will serve as Lieutenant Governor for Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) for the Fourth Circuit of the American Bar Association Law Student Division.
“Ian Phillips is a proven leader who motivates those around him to reach their full potential,” said David Lambert L’14, the recently elected Governor of the Fourth Circuit of the ABA Law Student Division. “He is driven, results-oriented, and has innovative ideas to help improve the legal profession. I am proud that he is going to be second in command of the Fourth Circuit’s leadership team.”
Park, a member of the Class of 2014 at Elon Law, will assist law schools within the Circuit in developing and maintaining VITA programs.
“Brian Park is incredibly qualified to serve as the Lieutenant Governor for VITA,” Lambert said. “He is the current President of Elon’s Tax Law Interest Group, has volunteered two years in Elon’s VITA/TCE’s tax program, and plans to make his career in the area of tax law. Brian will be developing a plan to help better educate taxpayers about taxes and how they can better prepare themselves for tax season. Brian will be a tremendous asset to the success of the Fourth Circuit.”
Describing some of the challenges and opportunities ahead for the Fourth Circuit of the ABA Law Student Division, Lambert said he intended to use leadership skills developed at Elon to advance the Circuit’s objectives.
“There are numerous challenges that large, student-led organizations face that often limit the organization’s effectiveness,” Lambert said. “I have tried to limit these shortcomings by changing the leadership structure of the Fourth Circuit. Instead of each Lieutenant Governor being in charge of an autonomous ‘department’ within the Circuit I have created a system where they will work together in more of a ‘project leader’ capacity. I believe that this will increase the innovation among the team and make it less likely that we will ‘drop the ball’ on certain projects.”
“In addition to the tasks that I assign,” Lambert continued, “each Lieutenant Governor will submit a project proposal that will either improve legal education or the legal profession. I believe that it is important for people to have projects that they are proud of and they can be passionate about completing.”