MSBA promotes Anna Sholl to deputy executive director

Anna Sholl has been promoted to deputy executive director of the Maryland State Bar Association, Executive Director Victor Velazquez announced.

On Monday, Sholl said a major part of her job will be working to improve offerings for members, the better to reverse a slide in membership over the past decade.

From redesigning the association’s bar journal to offering more services on the MSBA website, Velazquez said Sholl will play an important role in expanding the MSBA’s offerings to help attract new members.

“What we need now is an acceleration of things the MSBA will do to broaden outreach to all sectors of the profession,” Velazquez said Monday.

Sholl said that the MSBA’s member renewal rate is ahead of where it was last October but that the goal is to get to a 100% renewal rate.

“The fact we have more renewals than this time last year, we hope, is a sign we’ll start to see reversal,” Sholl said.

Sholl, who previously served as the MSBA’s senior director of operations, programs and content, said her promotion will not involve a significant change in her job functions, though she noted that she will be more involved in budgetary matters.

“I think it’s primarily recognition of the work I’ve been doing,” Sholl said of her new role. “Victor has been incorporating me into more things, and this is a chance to learn a little more directly from him about the executive director role.”

Before joining the MSBA last year, Sholl worked as a litigation attorney for Pessin Katz Law.

Sholl said that since the departure of Patrick Tandy, the MSBA’s previous communications director, she has assumed that role. She also works with the MSBA’s various committees, including the strategic implementation and bylaw groups.

“I’ve been here just 20 months, but I feel really ingrained into the MSBA,” Sholl said. “I just kind of dove in, rolled up my sleeves and we had some staffing changes so I’ve had the opportunity to step up and take on something new.”