December 2003

by Lindsay Thompson (well, sort of)

Portland, Oregon, October 17-18, 2003

Thucydides cheerfully admitted in his Histories that he hadn't actually been at all the great orations he recorded in his works. But, he said, he asked around, and consulted records, and if he didn't get down precisely what they did say, he reported what they should have said in the circumstances.
 
This Board's Work is like that. I missed the entire meeting, tied to my desk in Salmon Bay by a client emergency. So I've consulted around about what happened, and I don't intend quoting any orations at all. I checked among those who were there, and here are the highlights.
 
October is when The New Folks come on board. Being a new governor is a long time coming. You file in January, you don't get election results till June, you start getting invited to meetings in July, but you can't vote on anything till October. So let's see what the new president, Dave Savage (who, by the way, won't be 60 till next year—my apologies for the error in his September profile) and the new kids on the BOG—Randy Gordon, Mark Johnson, Kristin Olson, Katie O'Sullivan, and Mike Pontarolo—got done in their first at-bat.
 
Minutes: September's got approved unanimously. Good start.
 
Consent calendar: nothing removed from that. Bylaws amended to adjust deadline dates for license-fee payments; additional committee appointments approved; changes to the Awards Committee signed off on; reappointment of nonlawyer members to Fee-Arbitration Panel okayed; Northwest Justice Project board appointments inked; appointment to Office of Public Defense Advisory Committee made; new WSBA treasurer appointed; and the resolution passed at the September annual meeting (see the October Board's Work) approved. Done, and done.
 
Potential issues review: The govs did a waterfront tour of things they are likely to have to address during the coming year. Among the problems: civil legal funding for the poor (a 20 percent cut hits this year), and the civil legal-needs assessment by the Supreme Court (more on that next month) says the problem is going from bad to worse. Criminal defense, juvenile representation, and the death penalty all hover in a menacing pose. Tort reform never dies. With the Legislature come more daft ideas from all sides, eager to hold their thumb on the scale, but always, of course, in the public interest. State and local funding problems for the courts will persist. District court judges are liable to come under the legislative eye in '04 as the budget crunch tightens. WSBA ethics rules are likely to change in light of the ABA's 2000 revision of the model rules (see Scott Miller's article, November Bar News, p. 15).   

New real estate for the WSBA: a water pipe broke just as everyone decamped to Portland, flooding part of the offices. That, plus the air-quality problems afflicting the space earlier this year, is moving the BOG toward trying to get a new space lined up for action next month. The WSBA's sponsored liability-insurance program is up for renewal in Ought Four; look for its being put out to bid. CLE issues: there's always tinkering going on there. Meanwhile, the Council for Public Legal Education continues as WSBA's pushmi-pullyu, neither one thing nor the other, and it will have to become something other in the coming year. President Savage has his holiday list as well: increasing committee membership diversity; doing something about the insider's game the election of presidents has become; GR 12 guidelines for WSBA sections; looking at the Rule 9 Intern Program; providing cheap online legal research to members; and auditing limited practice officers. Looks like a year of either rollercoaster thrills or one tired hamster in the treadmill.
 
CLE Director Mark Sideman brought forth his Three-Year Plan. He sees things like webcasting CLEs on the net, special sales, and other marketing and service innovations.
 
Tom Kelly won a unanimous nod to serve on the Supreme Court Ethics Advisory Committee, which advises judges on ethical conundra.
 
Lee Ripley, one of y'r ob'd't s'v't's favorite legal ethics mavens, and Ellen Dial talked about possible changes to the attorney-client privilege rules as part of the larger ethics overhaul. It's a work in progress. More to come.
 
Governor Joni Kerr moved and passed —unanimously—a motion to create a group to study how title officers subject to IOLTA operate outside any kind of Supreme Court regulation or ethical rules. Governor Bryce Dille, the new treasurer, reported on some technical stuff.
 
The Board also met, during its visit, with y'r ob'd't s'v't's two favorite bar associations, Clark and Cowlitz-Wahkiakum, from whom they doubtless learned much.

Next meeting: December 5-6 in Leavenworth.

Ciao, bella, happy holidays!