Leona Krasner, a 32-year-old matrimonial lawyer in New York City, said attending a bar association function is a lot like visiting the doctor. You dread going, but you know it's good for you.

After hearing that analogy, you're probably thinking that Krasner is one of the millennial lawyers who doesn't belong to a bar association or isn't very active. But you'd be wrong!  She chairs the communications committee for the New York State Bar Association's women in law section and she joined the City Bar in September.

Krasner said she came up with innovative ideas for her state bar section but her suggestions were rejected. She thinks bar associations should tackle topics that touch millennials' personal lives such as how to negotiate raises, how to advance in your firm and how to balance work and family. Her ideal bar association event? One she attended several years ago that mixed sushi, drinks and a conversation on ethics.

"All the millennials went to that," she recalls. "People would rather go to a fun event than one that sounds boring."

Dues are too expensive. The events aren't cool. Everyone in the room is twice my age. No one listens to me. I don't feel like I'm part of the clique. These are the complaints of millennial lawyers who are much less likely to show up at bar association events than lawyers in their 50s or older.

"The conversation that I have had most often with my peers has been about money. It always boils down to 'my student loan is due next week and you want me to shell out another $100 for a bar association event. Are you mad?' said Sarah Filcher, 33, staff attorney for the Brooklyn Bar Association Volunteer Lawyers Project and vice president of LeGaL, the LGBT Bar Association of Greater New York.

Sarah Filcher, staff attorney for the Brooklyn Bar Association Volunteer Lawyers Project and vice president of LeGaL, the LGBT Bar Association of Greater New York, at Brooklyn Borough Hall. She assisted homeowners through a Volunteer Lawyers Project clinic at Borough Hall. (Photo: David Handschuh/ALM)

"I think there is this assumption that millennials don't want to join anything," she said. "What people aren't hearing is the other end of that conversation. A bar association feels like a luxury item for a lot of millennial lawyers."

Filcher said she wishes more employers paid for bar associations because millennial lawyers, saddled with six-figure student loan debt, have little disposable income.

"I just don't think people are talking about how frequently the money is prohibitive for the individual attorney," she said. "It's almost as though you're priced out of professional development."

Andrew Gruna. (Courtesy photo)

The major social events that bar associations put on are even more difficult to justify on a millennial's budget, she said. "The galas are cost-prohibitive. To ask somebody to come up with at least $300 a ticket for one evening is a huge ask," she said.

Andrew Gruna, 26, who works for the city's Human Resources Administration, finds the events pricey. "If you're not at a firm that's willing to foot the bill, trying to get involved is tough," he said.

Gruna did enjoy going to a brewery tour in Brooklyn with the young lawyers' section of the state bar association but it didn't provide the networking opportunity that he had hoped.

"It seems to be sort of one or the other. Either come in for a three-hour ethics lecture where you'll fall asleep or grab a drink with other lawyers but we don't talk about what we do for a living," he said.