October 2006

Building a Future Together

Ellen Conedera Dial, WSBA President

This past month, I took office as the 116th President of the Washington State Bar Association. I am very grateful for this privilege. I look forward to the next 12 months, to meeting many of you, and to discussing with you, in this column and in person, our common goals for the future, our achievements, and the challenges that we face as lawyers. With your help, I hope to take a look at the future of our profession, what we would like it to be and what we might do to improve our chances of finding what we want in that future.

A unique presidency

My presidency is unusual for two reasons. First, I am only the second president of the Bar Association who has not served on the Board of Governors, following Cleary S. Cone. I learned about the Bar Association and its workings over many years by participating on a variety of Bar committees, section committees, CLE programs, and with bar publications. As a commercial real estate transactions lawyer, I concentrated on two of my deepest substantive interests — real estate law and ethics. My first formal role in bar governance was serving as your president-elect these past 12 months.

The second reason my presidency is unusual can be expressed in simple statistics. I am only the third woman to serve as president of the Washington State Bar Association, following Elizabeth Bracelin and Mary Fairhurst (now Justice Mary Fairhurst of the Washington State Supreme Court). I am the first woman to serve as president in almost a decade.

A different perspective

I ran for the office of president because I believe that I offer a different perspective on what members are doing in Bar service and why they are doing it. I come to this job with a deep appreciation of the good and important work that lawyers do when they volunteer — in this association, in other organizations, and in our communities. Indeed, it is your work, your commitment to your clients, to the integrity of the legal system and to your communities, that has inspired me to look for opportunities for service. Over the past year, working with President Brooke Taylor and the Board of Governors, and with many of you, I have become more optimistic than ever about the possibilities for solving the most important questions that face us as individuals trying to serve our clients well, and as the stewards of our legal system and system of justice.

Challenging issues

What are those issues? The list is a long one, and you have heard in this column from past presidents about real and pressing needs to support our courts and our judiciary, to deliver legal services to groups of people who are chronically underserved, to increase the diversity of our profession so that it mirrors the reality and hopes of our communities, and to increase the diversity of leadership in this organization so that it can be a positive force as we build a future together.

There are other issues, too, that hold a particular interest for me. They include, for example, federal encroachments into the regulation of the practice of law through prosecutorial demands for waivers of the attorney-client privilege and through negotiation for access to the profession through the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS). A more personal issue for lawyers is that of the lifestyle challenges that face all of us in an increasingly demanding profession. For example, as a group, we are a profession that experiences higher rates of depression than most others. Lawyers who are just entering the profession often face extraordinary economic pressures stemming from the high cost of law school, and still need the same help and mentoring that we all needed when we started our careers to develop the practical knowledge and skills necessary to be a competent lawyer.

Neutral observations

I am proud and honored to be able to discuss these challenges with you and with the Board of Governors. Over the past year, I have attended the meetings of the Board as your president-elect. The president-elect is not a voting member of the Board, so I have had an opportunity to observe the workings of the Board from a neutral position, not as an advocate. From this vantage point, I would make two observations. First, this bar association is extremely fortunate in its Board. The governors are, without exception, hard-working, thoughtful, respectful of others, and committed to shared values of professionalism among lawyers, and equality and justice in our communities. They do not always agree with one another, and you may expect spirited discussion by the governors of the matters that you bring to them. You may also expect — as you should — that those important matters will be treated with care, respect, and attention to the best interests of the membership and the profession.

My second observation has been made often by others, but in my judgment cannot be made too often. This bar association is extremely fortunate in the extraordinary talent and commitment of its staff. The staff touches the professional life of every lawyer admitted in this state, from licensing, to CLE, to book publishing, to discipline, to member services, to Bar News, to committee and section support — to name only a fraction of the programs that bar staff run daily. We have come to expect a very high level of service from our staff, and we get it. Each of our more than 135 staff members deserves our thanks.

Highlight on volunteerism

Over the course of the next 12 months I intend also to highlight as best I can the excellent work that volunteer lawyers are doing in the Bar’s 22 committees, 26 sections, and numerous task forces, boards, and other programs. I believe that you will be inspired, as I have been, by the creative ways in which our members are serving the profession and our communities. Every time I have talked with a lawyer who is active in one of the Bar’s committees, task forces, sections, or other volunteer bodies, I have learned something new about how we as lawyers are making a difference for the better.

An “open-door” presidency

I have always been an “open-door” lawyer, and have always answered my own telephone whenever I could. I have been warned that over the next 12 months, even though the door to my office may be open, most likely I won’t be in it. Although the telephone may ring, most likely I won’t be able to answer it. That does not discourage me, and I hope that it will not discourage you from calling and writing to me. I look forward to hearing from you. My telephone number is 206-359-8025, and my e-mail address is ecdial@gmail.com.