December 2004
The Board's Work
by Lindsay Thompson
Richland, October 22-23, 2004
Coming to town near you: The BOG adopted a 2005-06 meeting schedule. Why not come see your elected reps at work? Here’s the schedule: Vancouver, WA, 10/28-29; Bremerton, 12/9-10; Olympia, 1/20-21; Seattle, 3/3-4; Walla Walla, 4/7-8; Bellevue, 5/12-13; Yakima, 6/9-11; Port Angeles, 7/21-22; Seattle, 9/14-15.
Appointments everywhere: WSBA members were confirmed to membership on a variety of standing committees — the Legal Foundation of Washington Board; WSBA’s Hearing Officers Panel; the Committee on Public Defense; the Lawyers’ Fund for Client Protection. The BOG elected Governor Joni Kerr of Vancouver as WSBA’s treasurer for the coming year.
Let a guidance statement be your guide: The Board adopted policies setting guidelines for CLE program offerings, as well as for how to interpret General Rule 12, which sets out what WSBA should and shouldn’t get involved with in the public arena.
Court rules changes: Committee chair David Swartling went over proposed changes to CR 26 and CR 35, designed, he said, to more closely conform to the federal Rules of Civil Procedure. CR 26(b) would be amended to require reports from testifying experts. Governor Randy Gordon moved to reject the change, citing concerns over additional costs to plaintiffs and adding complications to the discovery process. Others worried the change might discourage meritorious small-dollar cases and make family law more expensive. Down it went, 12-1.
CR 35 should be amended to expand the enumerated professionals who can do mental or physical examinations. Same concerns, same result, but by a smaller margin. Down it went, 8-5.
Thank goodness we’re already admitted: Gabe Galanda of the Northwest Indian Bar Association pitched the BOG the idea to add Indian Law to the Bar Exam. The NIBA has been working on the proposal for two years and racked up all kinds of endorsements for the idea that Indian Law is becoming a big enough deal in Washington to warrant including it on the exam.
Bar Examiners Chair Frank Slak, making a rare appearance before the BOG, thought there were other, better ways to make Indian Law more known by the state’s lawyers. He told them how hard it is to construct bar exam questions and that the examiners didn’t want to add this.
After considerable discussion, the BOG determined that there’d been plenty of input sought on the proposal; that Indian Law is coextensive with state and federal law; that doing this wouldn’t be a slippery-slope exercise, and that since the change wouldn’t happen till 2007, there’d be plenty of time for the law schools and law students to adapt. The Board looked at things like whether to add Indian Law to CLEs, or to the new preadmission course for lawyers. On a motion by Governor Eron Berg, the change was adopted, 14-0.
In other law student news, the Board accepted a Professional Development Implementation Committee recommendation to let law students join WSBA sections, voting aye, 13-0.
Well, of course, I wrote a check as soon as I got the invoice: A disbarred WSBA member has taken it in mind that he has a common-law copyright and trademark interest in his name. When his name got printed in this magazine, he sent out invoices to everyone he could think of in the courts and bar association who might arguably have anything to do with his case or the printed notice, claiming infringement and damages.
Needless to say, it gets a little irritating getting this sort of stuff, and you get a good bit of it being in leadership (one evening some years ago, during my BOG service, I arrived home to the question, ‘How was your day?’ ‘Fine,’ I replied, ‘I got sued for $175 million.’). WSBA has been trying to get the guy to lay off; the Postal Service and the U.S. Attorney have not yet taken action.
I don’t mention the man by name here because (1) he used to be a friend and colleague; and (2) he’s already invoiced me for $2.8 trillion.
Calling Eliot Spitzer: The Board reviewed the WSBA-sponsored insurance programs, which are set to expire in January. They asked the Insurance Committee to look into the allegations being made against Marsh, WSBA’s insurance broker, by the attorney general of New York, and if WSBA ought to do anything.
Other matters: The BOG heard reports from James Williams, chair of the new WSBA Leadership Institute; from Treasurer Joni Kerr on WSBA’s budget (in fine fettle); from Paula Littlewood on implementing the four-hour pre-admission skills-training course new admittees will have to take starting in 2006; and from Steve Marsalis, president of the Young Lawyers Division.
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