July 2004

The WSBA: Have It Your Way
Our commitment to member benefits

By David Savage, WSBA President

As I undertook my term last fall, I advised the Board of Governors and the membership that I intended to make diversity and member benefits my central themes. In my October 2003 Bar News column, I previewed several projects which the Board of Governors and I were launching in order to deliver on my commitment to member benefits.

Among them was the first member survey about the Bar News in over 20 years. Having persuaded Lindsay Thompson, a Seattle attorney who edited the Bar News from 1988 to 1995 and served on the Board of Governors from 1998 to 2001, to return as the independent editor of the Bar News, we sought members' comments and critiques as to the journal. Garnering a statistically significant response, the professional survey yielded a great deal of valuable member input as to the journal generally and, in particular, as to its content, medium (paper or electronic copy) and publication frequency. It revealed, for instance, that your predominant interest is in new developments in the law and substantive legal articles as well as discipline. Almost 70 percent of the respondents urged the continuance of a monthly publication and, surprisingly in this electronic age, an affinity for the hard copy. You also indicated a strong interest in the section entitled "Around the State" which chronicles the activities of local bars and lawyers of note. Lindsay resurrected this section, which had been a feature of the Bar News when he earlier served as its editor. Incidentally, this section is dependent upon your input.  Write Lindsay with your local news; I assure you he will use it.

Lindsay, the Editorial Advisory Board, and the WSBA staff continue to refine the Bar News to reflect your wishes and to better represent your interests. If you are interested in a summary of the survey responses, please write to me at my e-mail address given below or to Judith Berrett, WSBA director of member and community relations, at judithb@
wsba.org.

I want to describe two more exciting member benefits which are "just around the corner."

First, as you may recall, I advised last fall that I was assembling a distinguished group of lawyers — men and women, young and not-so-young, from large and small firms located around the state — to research and recommend a quality, low- or no-cost electronic legal research service. This group became known as the Electronic Legal Research Evaluation Team (ELRET). It is chaired by Charlie Wiggins, a former court of appeals judge and fine appellate lawyer; he is joined by WSBA Governor Katie O'Sullivan of Seattle, Doug Ende, WSBA professional responsibility counsel, Gail Gorud, former Kirkland city attorney, Deb Kelly, Clallam County prosecuting attorney, and Robert Rembert of Pullman.
    
ELRET will make its final report to the Board of Governors at this month's meeting. In completing its work, the team sent out an e-mail membership survey last month. I hope you took advantage of the opportunity to respond to it.

The team has narrowed the candidates down to three systems — Casemaker, Fastcase, and VersusLaw — although they are also considering the enhancement of LegalWA.org, an existing database of Washington materials.

Casemaker is used by approximately 17 state bar associations, including Idaho and Oregon. Casemaker has offered to provide electronic access to all Washington statutes and case law back to 1935, together with access to statutory and case law from all other subscribing states, as well as some federal law.

Fastcase, founded in 1999 by attorneys from a large Washington, D.C., firm, contends it has assembled the third-largest database of U.S. case law, trailing only Westlaw and Lexis.

VersusLaw, founded in 1985, is located in Redmond, Washington. VersusLaw claims to provide the most up-to-date coverage of any such provider.

The Board of Governors received an interim report from ELRET at its May meeting. ELRET was asked to return with a final recommendation which gives weight to the Board's desire to provide this service, if at all possible, at no cost to members. While none of these services will provide the full array of features provided by Westlaw and Lexis, any of them will offer a truly valuable service — and, we hope, at no charge to you. We hope to go online with one of these services within a year from the date of this column. Stay tuned.

Second, as of January 1, 2007, the WSBA office will be located in Puget Sound Plaza at 1325 Fourth Avenue, Seattle. I describe this as a member benefit for a variety of reasons. First and foremost, this new facility will be much more user-friendly. Occupying floors 6, 7, and 8, the WSBA will have an enhanced ability to offer conference space (which is expected to provide 80 percent of our needs) and in-house CLEs (with a consequent cost saving), as well as the prospect for partnering with other law-related entities by attracting them to locate in the same spacious building. The concept of a "law center," bringing together other law-related organizations, is under consideration. The Legal Foundation of Washington, for instance, has recently moved to Puget Sound Plaza.

Puget Sound Plaza is much more centrally located in downtown Seattle and parking is more readily available. All in all, we are very excited about this new location which, I know you'll be delighted to learn, will be available at a cost initially lower than we presently incur and it will average out to no more than our current rate over the term of the 10-year lease. This success was achieved by the vision and foresight of the Board of Governors and the Facilities Committee which was led by Brooke Taylor, a past member of the Board of Governors, and 2004-2005 WSBA president-elect.

Joining Brooke on the Facilities Committee were Past Presidents Wayne Blair, Dale Carlisle, and Dick Manning; Governors Carl Carlson, Joni Kerr, and Kristin Olson; former Governor Ken Davidson, Seattle real estate attorneys Ellen Dial and Gary Fluhrer; Executive Director Jan Michels; Deputy Director Paula Littlewood; and Director of Finance and Administration Kim Rutledge.

As we look forward to our relocation, we invite your input on how to best use this superb new facility on which the doors will open January 1, 2007.  See you there.

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Dave Savage can be reached at savage2@imsblaw.com or 509-332-3502.