April 2000

WSBA Health Check

by Jan Michels
WSBA Executive Director
janm@wsba.org

Anniversaries are a good time to assess and recommit. As I pass my second year with the WSBA, I want to share my assessment of where we are and how we are doing with our stated future goals. For this assessment, I’m using a three-point scale: strong and healthy, work in progress, problematic.

Financial Stability : Strong and Healthy

The modestly and gradually increasing license fees give the WSBA a known, stable planning horizon, and should support the future directions that the Board and members have chartered.

Strategic Directions: Strong and Healthy

The 1999 long-range plan is clear and specific. By May of 2000, we will have short- and long-term specific strategies for each of our 11 strategic goals. The plan is a true achievement and maps where the WSBA’s efforts are intended to lead. The plan will be evaluated annually.

Member Services: Work in Progress

In our information-gathering exercises last year, we heard that members want specific support and services. Some of the things mentioned were group purchase options, a wider variety of insurance, help with technology, and advice about setting up and running a law practice. The WSBA needs a clearer picture of who wants which services, where local and specialty bars fit in, whether members support a mandatory bar that accepts premiums, and how the finances of these requests would work. We need more input before we can proceed.

Public Legal Education (PLE): Strong and Healthy

The PLE Council has been formed and is prioritizing and implementing the many programs and ideas the PLE Workgroup developed. Though temporarily housed at the WSBA, the Council pictures a semi-independent board somewhat like Access to Justice, with support from educators, media and concerned citizens.

Regulatory Services: Work in Progress

Discipline will not be fully current until late 2000. The new MCLE rules and simplified tracking of reporting CLE credits will not be fully implemented until January 1, 2001. This was the first year we had a revised license renewal process and credit card use. In 2000, we will complete the steps necessary to get the WSBA’s regulatory functions into the "strong and healthy" category.

Technology: Strong and Healthy

All of the WSBA’s major internal processes are now supported on a single, modular relational database. Our website is among the most thorough and complete of all state bar associations, and our growth and improvement inventory is exemplary and doable. This is one of the WSBA’s strong suits.

Access to Justice: Strong and Healthy

There is strong energy and commitment to the principles of equal access on the Board of Governors. The ATJ Board has a plethora of successes and new initiatives. Critical will be a legislative strategy to secure additional civil legal services funding in a time of severe financial constraints.

Assessing Future Trends That Will Affect the Practice of Law: Work in Progress

The ground rules for the practice of law are shifting. We see emerging trends like multidisciplinary practice; defining the practice of law; and possible non-lawyer licensing, unbundling legal services, and Internet practice. While strong on the definition of the practice of law, the WSBA is not yet a voice or natural leader on the other trends. We need to assess what members want from their state Bar Association in information, analysis and leadership on these issues.

WSBA Administration and Morale: Strong and Healthy

Your staff is a strong professional team. Morale is good and turnover is declining. I have confidence that we are prepared to support you, the members, and the Board of Governors. If anything we do does not match these statements, I need to hear about it!

Celebration 2000: Strong and Healthy

We expect a well-attended and exciting event. Don’t forget to register and reserve your room as soon as possible. Early indications of attendance will allow us to make any necessary program adjustments.

Professionalism and Civility: Problematic

This is a stubborn goal! We all want it and we all assume that we are civil and professional — it’s the others who aren’t. President-elect Jan Eric Peterson has named improving the image of the profession as the highest goal of his presidency. A good image rests on civil, professional and courteous practices with clients, other lawyers and the public.

Helping New Lawyers: Work in Progress

We have developed a good assessment of the pains and struggles of new lawyers, pinpointed some strategies to ease the transition from law school into practice, and developed plans to reach law students earlier and offer them more WSBA services. But these steps are new and in their infancy. We need to keep up this momentum.

Diversity in the Profession: Problematic

Increasing diversity in the leadership of the WSBA is a process that will take time and energy both from the Board of Governors and from minority and specialty bar leaders and members.

If there is a life view or perspective present in the population that is not represented in the justice system, there is the appearance of bias. This is an extremely serious problem; solutions are elusive. The WSBA is watching and listening to other bar associations, members, minorities and justice leaders for any suggestions and programs that are working effectively in other jurisdictions.

Overall, it’s not a bad report. For more detail about the long-range plan and the developing strategies for each goal, check out the WSBA website at www.wsba.org. Clearly we have work to do on some new and some perennial problems for the profession. However, I can enthusiastically commit to the goals we have set and re-commit to my work with the WSBA. Thanks for the opportunity.

The following is provided as a clarification to the "Professional Responsibility Counsel – Ethics Line" section of the February 2000 Executive’s Report.

WSBA members can call the Ethics Line (206-727-8284 or 800-945-WSBA, ext. 8284) for confidential discussion of ethical issues. The primary contact at the Ethics Line is a lawyer with 30 years’ experience who was a former disciplinary counsel. His input is based on ethical rules, ethics opinions and Supreme Court rulings. The Ethics Line handles approximately 70-80 calls per week. Additionally, members can request written informal opinions from the Rules of Professional Conduct Committee; call the Ethics Line to request an informal opinion.

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