Carla C. Lee

Governor, At-large (WYLD)

Notes from At-Large Governor (WYLD)
Carla C. Lee

Welcome to the At-Large (WYLD) Governor's webpage and thank you for visiting. As a member of the Bar, you are entitled to know the issues before the Bar, how these issues may impact you as a practitioner, and how the Board of Governors (BOG) votes on these issues.

Transparency and accountability are essential in a democracy and the first step in the process is to ensure that the members have access to relevant information. To that end, below are the highlights from recent BOG meetings, with links for more details.

Civil Legal Aid Crisis

Dear WYLD Members,

As you are aware, Washington and the nation are enduring a severe civil legal aid crisis that warrants a call to action to prevent further hemorrhaging of the civil legal aid funding.

President Johnson is proposing the adoption of a temporary $70 mandatory civil legal aid assessment for every active member of the WSBA. President Johnson is also proposing a very substantial one-time donation to the LAW Fund using a portion from the WSBA CLE reserve fund. Read the President's Column in the April issue of Bar News at http://www.wsba.org/apr09barnewspresidentscorner.pdf.

If the Board of Governors approves a $70 civil legal aid assessment, and if this civil legal aid assessment, current proposed license fees, and Lawyers' Fund for Client Protection increased assessment are approved by the Court, then WSBA dues for most active members would be $550 in 2011.

This proposal is up for discussion and possible action at the next WSBA Board of Governors meeting on April 24 in Richland, Washington. Before casting my vote on this issue, I would like to hear from you on this important issue. Here are some considerations:

Do you support the concept of a mandatory civil legal aid assessment?
If no, would you support the adoption of a mandatory yearly pro bono requirement?
If yes, is the proposed amount acceptable?
Should it include a sunset provision?
If there is adoption of a mandatory civil legal aid assessment, should the Lawyers' Fund for Client Protection assessment become a voluntary contribution?
Should the WSBA CLE reserve monies go towards low-cost CLEs for WYLD active members licensed in Washington for 5 years or less? Or, should the WSBA CLE reserve monies go towards general low-cost CLEs?

I would very much appreciate your thoughts and input. Please e-mail your comments to carlalee@comcast.net.

March Board of Governors Meeting Update

On March 6–7, the Board of Governors met in Seattle to discuss:

Action Highlights:

Discipline Review Committee Report: In 1980, the ABA Standing Committee on Professional Discipline (ABA) initiated a national program to discuss with state attorney discipline agencies the agency's discipline system upon invitation by the jurisdiction's highest court. Since that time the Washington Supreme Court, at the WSBA's request, has sent two invitations to the ABA, which led to the ABA reviewing the Washington discipline system in the early 1990s and again in the spring of 2006. In August of 2006, the ABA issued its latest report on the Washington discipline system offering 27 recommendations that they believed would improve the WSBA discipline system.

In the fall of 2006, the Board of Governors directed the WSBA Discipline Review Committee (WSBA DRC) to review the ABA recommendations and determine whether there were aspects of the Washington discipline system that warranted modification. The WSBA DRC divided into five separate task force groups to review the ABA recommendations. The timeline for BOG's review of the WSBA DRC task force recommendations is as follows:

October 24, 2008 — First Reading
December 5, 2008 — Task Force 2 Proposals with Request for Action
January 22, 2009 — Task Force 1 and 5 Proposals with Request for Action
March 6, 2009 — Task Force 3 Proposals with Request for Action
April 24, 2009 — Task Force 4 Proposals with Request for Action

The ABA recommendations can be found here.
The WSBA Discipline Report with task force recommendations and task force members can be found here.

At the March 6 BOG meeting, the BOG considered recommendations from the WSBA DRC's Task Force 3 and revisited a recommendation reviewed by Task Force 5 where the ABA recommends mandatory arbitration of attorney/client fee disputes.

Task Force 3: ABA Recommends Eliminating Mandatory Review of Suspensions and Disbarments: Highlights from this task force include the BOG's vote to adopt Task Force 3's recommendation to eliminate mandatory review of the Disciplinary Board's review of all suspensions and disbarments where neither the respondent lawyer nor disciplinary counsel appeals. The Disciplinary Board can review the findings and conclusions of any case but mandatory review of the entire record is not necessary.

ABA Recommends Eliminating Use of Prior Discipline: Task Force 3 disagreed with the ABA recommendation stating that prior discipline evidence should not be presented to the hearing officer before there is a finding of fact. Task Force 3 disagreed with the ABA on the basis that it was impractical because it would require a second hearing at considerable cost to the WSBA and the respondent lawyer. In addition, Task Force 3 reasoned that because the alleged sanction asserted against the lawyer is the primary issue, the misconduct even if contested must be considered in light of all relevant factors. The BOG agreed with Task Force 3's recommendation. Read more here.

Task Force 5: ABA Recommends Mandatory Arbitration for Attorney/Client Fee Disputes: Task Force 5 agreed with the ABA's recommendation to create a mandatory fee arbitration program to address attorney/client fee disputes. After conscientious consideration of the consequence of binding attorneys to mandatory fee disputes, the BOG voted to reject the ABA's recommendation to enforce mandatory arbitration of attorney/client fee disputes. Read more here.

First Reading Highlights:

BOG Diversity Committee Mission Statement: There was a first reading of the BOG Diversity Committee's Mission Statement highlighting the BOG's commitment to diversity and diversity initiatives. The BOG anticipates taking action on this item at the April meeting.

WYLD Diversity Plan: There was a first reading of the WYLD Diversity Plan. The BOG commended WYLD leadership for their efforts in drafting the Diversity Plan and encouraged them to move forward in demonstrating their commitment to this important issue. The WYLD BOT is expected to vote on this issue at their March meeting and to present to the BOG again for action.

WSBA Diversity Program Manager Report: The BOG heard an informative diversity update report from the Diversity Program Manager, Chach Duarte White. The report highlights current diversity demographics and trends within the WSBA. Because the data is based on self-reporting its focus is on race and gender and does not include demographical information on sexual orientation or disability. These demographics can be found here.

Diversity Program Manager Duarte White reports that, based on the responses received, the legal profession is predominately male, with 47.61% males reporting and 28.14% females reporting. There was no response from 24.25% of the lawyers licensed in Washington. Diversity Program Manager Duarte White also reports that the WSBA self-reporting membership by ethnicity breakdown as: 64.61% White, 1.47% Black, 1.26% Latina/o, 1.83% Asian, and 0.10% American Indian/Alaska Native. The report also includes statistics on the low response rate especially within the young lawyer/new lawyer segment of the bar. Charts and graphs with this and more information can be found here with tables.

Agenda Items for April BOG Meeting:

Legislative Report Wrap-Up
Outside Appointments
Recommendations Withdrawing or Retaining Formal Opinions
Chief Hearing Officer Selection Panel Recommendations
Recommendations on Family Law Local Rules
BOG Diversity Committee Mission Statement (tentative)

January Board of Governors Meeting Update

On January 22–23, the Board of Governors met in Olympia to discuss:

• Whether to adopt the American Bar Association recommendation to separate the disciplinary functions of the bar from the administrative functions of the bar;

• Whether to amend RPC 1.15A and the Rules for Enforcement of Lawyer Conduct to allow the Legal Foundation of Washington to participate in initiatives that encourages banks to provide comparable market interest rates on IOLTA accounts;

• Whether to sunset the WSBA Alternative Dispute Resolution Program because of low participation and because there are viable alternatives available for consumers and practitioners;

• Whether to make online voting available to members to increase member participation in the election of Governors;

• Whether to amend APR 15 to narrowly tailor when an injured consumer can receive restitution from the Lawyer Fund for Client Protection (LFCP) to ensure that consumers receive restitution when the injury is directly linked to the attorney-client relationship and not business or personal investments.

To learn more and to see how the BOG voted on these issues, please click here.