THE SEARCH IS on for a new executive director of the NH Bar Foundation, as Tina Abramson has announced she will step down as Foundation executive director within the next month. Abramson is resigning to spend more time with her family.

Although Abramson will end her full-time work for the Foundation in February, she will continue in a part-time capacity, managing the Foundation's Community Campaign for Legal Services through its first year, which will end in May. The campaign is slated to continue for another two years after that. According to NH Bar Foundation Vice Chair Steve Scudder, a search committee, which Scudder chairs, is in the process of posting notices about the search for a new Foundation executive director on page 30. The deadline for application for the position is Feb. 14, 2003. For more information, e-mail Scudder at nhbfsearch@yahoo.com.

Emily G. Rice, current chair of the NH Bar Foundation, said Abramson will be missed. "The Foundation and the legal community have been privileged to benefit from Tina's vision and thoughtful sense of mission," said Rice. "She deserves much credit for the Foundation's progress under her guidance. We will miss her creative thinking and wise counsel."

Abramson became the Bar Foundation's executive director in September 1996. During her tenure, the Foundation has experienced significant growth, Rice said. The year she started, the Foundation awarded less than $600,000 in grants; this year, it awarded $1.3 million. In addition to benefiting from the healthy economy of the late '90s, under Abramson's leadership, the Bar Foundation has also been able to take advantage of continued strong relationships with banks and innovative IOLTA bank products started by her predecessor, Lucy (Metting) Crichton. Also during Abramson's tenure, the Foundation established an IOLTA reserve for the first time, which now has close to $500,000 in it.

Abramson's accomplishments as Bar Foundation executive director are many - from establishing major giving programs to helping create a nationally-recognized loan repayment assistance program for civil legal aid lawyers. She said she is most proud of the major fundraising programs that have been established in recent years, her participation in the collaboration among NH's legal services organizations, and the national role she has played in IOLTA programming.

Abramson also cited the Foundation's Justice Society, a planned major giving program launched in 1997 with more than 60 charter members, as one of those accomplishments. The Justice Society now has nearly 100 members and has raised an endowment of 12 restricted funds totaling close to $500,000, with another estimated $500,000 in bequests.

The Foundation's annual member giving has increased steadily during Abramson's tenure, and in 2001, the Bar Foundation revamped its Fellows Program to provide more flexibility in giving to more Bar members. The program, once restricted to certain Bar members pledging $1,000 over 10 years, is now open to all members of the Bar and public annually with different levels of participation. Under Abramson's leadership, the Foundation Members and Fellows Program has grown from about $35,000 a year to about $80,000 a year.

The Campaign for Legal Services is another feather in Abramson's cap. The joint fundraising effort of the Bar Foundation, New Hampshire Legal Assistance, Legal Advice and Referral Center and the NH Bar's Pro Bono Referral Program is "the most integrated and collaborative campaign model in the country," according to Abramson.

The campaign is just one of the initiatives of which Abramson is proud that has sprung from the collaboration between those four legal services organizations - also included are the law school loan repayment assistance program and "some creative leadership and grant-making," Abramson said.

On a national level, Abramson was elected vice president of the National Association of IOLTA Programs (NAIP) in 2001 and has played a prominent role in helping to steer that group in light of pending IOLTA litigation. She has also worked to inspire the IOLTA community to do more fundraising, encouraged the National Conference of Bar Foundations to work closely with the national IOLTA community, and mentored several newer IOLTA directors in other states.

Tony McManus, immediate past chair of the New Hampshire Bar Foundation, praised Abramson for her role in developing the Bar Foundation into a nationally recognized organization. "Tina made a contribution nationally as well as in New Hampshire. As a result, she brought outside recognition to the Bar Foundation and its programs. New Hampshire was recognized as an innovator largely because of Tina's leadership," McManus said.

Charlie DeGrandpre, past chair of the NHBF, said that the Foundation and Abramson have "grown together."

"When she started, she was new to the field, but working with Bar Foundation leadership, she became a nationally prominent foundation director. Under her leadership, the Bar Foundation has vastly increased its income and, as a result, its ability to make a difference in the lives of New Hampshire's citizens," DeGrandpre said.

Of her tenure as Bar Foundation executive director, Abramson said: "It has been an honor and privilege to work with the most dedicated members of the New Hampshire and national legal community - in the judiciary, Bar Association leadership, legal aid community, private bar and through American Bar Association-related organizations."

"I am proud to leave the New Hampshire Bar Foundation with all the right ingredients in place - strong partnerships, well-established fundraising programs and strategic events and publications - to really take off and soar. With visionary leadership, the Foundation has the potential to double and triple its fundraising and grant-making and build common ground between the resources and needs of the courts and the Bar and resources and needs of the public," she said.

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