August 2004

The WSBA Database and You

by Jan Michels, WSBA Executive Director

Keeping your information current

When you first joined the Washington State Bar Association, you provided the Bar with your name, business mailing address, business telephone, business fax, and (if you joined fairly recently) e-mail address. Once you were admitted, Admission to Practice Rules 13(b) and (c) require you to notify the WSBA within 10 days whenever your business address or telephone number changes, or if your name changes. It's easy to notify the WSBA by e-mailing the change to questions@wsba.org or sending a fax to 206-727-8319. Or, you can send a letter with the change. There's also a contact-information change form sent with your licensing packet each year. Whenever you make a change, the WSBA sends you a confirming letter.

Public information

Of the information you provide, the following is public and is provided to anyone requesting it: your name, WSBA number, membership status (current and historical), date of admission, business address, business phone, business fax, business e-mail, WSBA committee and section membership, and whether you have public discipline. This information is published annually in the Resources directory and is also on the WSBA's online lawyer directory (see this section which follows). (Note, however, that committee membership and public discipline information are not in Resources, and section membership information is not on the online lawyer directory.) All other member information is confidential.

Personal information

The WSBA also requires you to provide your home address.  This information is strictly confidential and is used only for emergency contact by the WSBA, governor elections, and other regulatory service documents or WSBA business.

Online lawyer directory

If you haven't seen the WSBA online lawyer directory — check it out! It's up-to-date (updated every business day) and easy to use. You can access it from any page on the WSBA website (click on "Lawyer Directory" in the left column), or go to it directly at http://pro.wsba.org. You can search for lawyers in a number of ways (e.g., by name, Bar number, phone number, city). When an e-mail address is listed, a click on the e-mail address opens a new e-mail to that person.

For a small annual charge, a link to your or your firm's website can be included (see www.wsba.org/lawyers/addlink.htm, or call the WSBA Service Center at 800-945-WSBA or 206-443-WSBA for more information). Note that "Website" appears only if you have subscribed to this service. Also note that "Committee/Position" appears only if you're a member of a WSBA committee. And, as a public service, a link to public discipline also appears where applicable.

Requests for information to be confidential

In rare instances, if you have concern for your personal security or have another compelling reason to keep your contact information confidential, you may request that it not be publicly available. Such requests must be submitted in writing to the executive director, who has the authority to approve the confidentiality of contact information. Approved requests are in effect for one year.

Limited selling of member-data lists

As defined by policy approved the Board of Governors, limited sale of address lists to law-related entities, such as outside CLE vendors, trial-support services, law-service vendors, and the WSBA's sponsored insurance programs, is allowed. Lists of members' phone numbers, fax numbers, or e-mail addresses are not sold, with the exception that e-mail addresses may be sold to CLE providers. All lists are sold for one-time use only.

E-mail addresses

From December 2001 through August 2003, WSBA policy permitted the sale of e-mail addresses; however, despite the restrictions the WSBA put on the use of such lists, the spate of e-mail spam led to a policy change to disallow the sale and use of member e-mail lists except by the WSBA and CLE vendors (members have told us that they prefer receiving CLE notices by e-mail). WSBA use of broadcast e-mail to members follows a procedure requiring that the subject be clear (with "WSBA" the first word in the subject line), the message be brief, there be no attachments (although links to additional information may be provided), and the frequency be conservative. Every broadcast e-mail message sent by the WSBA includes an opt-out provision. You can also request that broadcast e-mails you receive from the WSBA be restricted to official information only.

The WSBA does everything possible to protect members' e-mail addresses from harvesting or scraping by tech-savvy vendors or hackers, and will follow up on leads forwarded by members who believe their e-mail address was stolen from WSBA files, although we cannot protect one-by-one duplications from our public files.

What's ahead?

Resources directory

Although we had thought most members would prefer using the online lawyer directory for member-contact information, since it is more current than Resources, we have found that many members still find a hard-copy directory useful. Because many members appreciate this annual publication, we have no plans to discontinue its publication in the near future. (To purchase Resources, go to http://store.yahoo.com/wsbastore/20reslaw
dira.html or call the WSBA Service Center at 800-945-WSBA or 443-WSBA.)

Acquiring e-mail addresses

We currently have e-mail addresses for about 65 percent of WSBA members, and we have found communication with members via e-mail for notices, committee information, and regulatory information represents a significant financial and staff-resource savings. The WSBA Board of Governors has proposed to the Supreme Court that e-mail addresses for members who have them be required by 2006. The Court has published the proposed amendment to APR 13 for comment (the comment period expires April 29, 2005).

Areas of practice

Starting with the 2005 license-renewal cycle, members will be encouraged to add their primary practice areas to their contact information. This information will form the basis for a search function where, by geographic area and practice area, other WSBA members or the public can locate a lawyer. A list of practice areas and instructions will be included in the 2005 license renewal packet.

Demographics

The New Admittee Licensing Form includes a voluntary demographic questionnaire, requesting gender, ethnicity, and disability information. In addition, every few years, with the licensing packet, the WSBA requests this optional identification. This information is strictly confidential and is used only in the aggregate, for demographic analysis. About 60 percent of members provide this demographic information, which allows the WSBA to examine the composition of membership and better understand the diverse needs of members. There is evidence that women and minority groups under-report these demographics.

Several months ago, at the "Celebrating Diversity" listening session sponsored by the WSBA Committee for Diversity and the Board of Governors, one of the discussions focused on whether this demographic information should be required. As expected, opinions varied, and the question of whether to require demographic information is still to be decided. Comments included: "Race is not something that should be collected; gender is another matter"; "It is an invasion of privacy"; "Create models for reporting that allow for multiple identity groups"; "Emphasize that by reporting this information, members are enhancing their membership in the WSBA"; "Gay lawyers are subject to firing in most of Washington for being gay, and therefore they will not tell; voluntary disclosure gets imperfect results but better than none"; "Right now WSBA touts its diversity initiatives but does not try to measure all its minority diversity members"; "Make it anonymous and separate from member records"; "Publicize the importance of and use of information."

Technology

This month, the WSBA will implement a new and much more robust and reliable membership-records system. With its increased functionality and enhanced capabilities, the new system should result in fewer errors and speedier processing in our regulatory matters, as well as greater convenience to members. It also includes functions not handled by our current system, such as e-commerce, in-house list serves for member groups, and broadcast e-mail. We look forward to serving our members and the public better through this enhanced technology.

For more information, see "Policies Regarding Member Data and Contact Information" at www.wsba.org/lawyers/member-data.htm.

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