AYLA

Marketing can feel overwhelming, especially when you’re just starting out or don’t have billboard budget. The good news? Effective marketing isn’t about how much you spend. It is about your purpose. Before you launch a website, post on social media, or sponsor an event, take a pause and reflect.

Before stepping into my current role, I had only a limited understanding of what trust administration involved or how my legal education and practice could benefit it. Like many lawyers, I assumed that special needs trusts existed solely to preserve eligibility for public benefits. I also believed that most other trusts primarily served wealthy clients for tax planning or probate avoidance. Both assumptions were wrong.

Each year, in the early months, hundreds of middle and high school students from across Texas gather for the YMCA Texas Youth and Government conferences to debate legislation they have spent months researching, drafting, and refining. These young people—representing communities and backgrounds as diverse as our state itself—arrive prepared to advocate for ideas they believe will make government more effective, equitable, and responsive. It is an extraordinary display of civic engagement, and one that reflects a vibrant future for our democracy.

Here are the nominees for AYLA’s Board of Directors 2026-27.

We sit down for a Q&A with AYLA member Max Massey.

This year’s AYLA Day of Service on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day was a powerful reminder that service is at the heart of leadership. AYLA volunteers showed up in a big way across the Austin community, serving with organizations like BIG, Inside Books Project, Generation Serve, and the Central Texas Food Bank.

International Women’s Day, observed annually on March 8, serves as a global recognition of women’s achievements and an ongoing call to advance gender equality. Historically, female attorneys, scholars, and activists have advanced legal arguments, challenged discriminatory frameworks, and helped redefine the contours of civil rights. In courtrooms, classrooms, legislatures, and community organizations, women have been instrumental in championing reforms related to workplace equity, education, family law, voting rights, and protection from violence and discrimination.

Each year, the presidents of the Austin Bar Association and the Austin Young Lawyers Association (AYLA) are invited to speak at the Leadership Academy Orientation. This year, I was asked to discuss leading with empathy. As I reflected on my development as a leader and how I incorporate compassion into my professional style, I immediately thought of my friends—many of whom are also my colleagues. Since my undergraduate years, these individuals have been the backbone of my perseverance.

AYLA recently sat down with member Toni Rask to get to know her better. This is another installment in AYLA’s ongoing Member Spotlight series.

Three years and 2,000 miles apart, we each reached the same crossroads. Both of us worked as public defenders—Mindy in California, Lindsay in Colorado—where success was measured in jury verdicts, motion wins, and sheer survival in a relentless, high-stakes system.