September 2005
Lawyers as Leaders: Hope for the Future
Rendering Service and Exercising Responsibility Redux
The WSBA 2004-2005 Year in Review
by Ron Ward, WSBA President
My term as WSBA president commenced with the theme Lawyers Render Service and evolved into the companion message of Lawyers as Leaders Hope for the Future. It is a refrain President-elect Brooke Taylor, Executive Director Jan Michels, and I carried to local county bar associations, other professionals, government officials, and the citizenry throughout Washington and the nation during this past WSBA year.
In my very first October 2004 Bar News effort "First, Let's Bless All the Lawyers" I stated that the chief thrust of my term of service would be in the areas of assisting in obtaining increased court and justice-system funding through our legislative efforts, access to justice, diversity, and enhancement of member benefits. As you and I proceeded together, we expanded this to include maintenance of the independence of the judiciary and the concept of community. Many came together to achieve progress and fruition in these areas. In addition to Brooke and Jan, they include, but are not limited to, my incredibly giving and committed fellow members of the Board of Governors; Deputy Director Paula Littlewood and the WSBA staff; WSBA committee and section bar leaders; members of many different associations across the state; and the justices of our Supreme Court and other judicial leaders. This has allowed me to experience the pinnacle of satisfaction that service to the profession offers. Here's an accounting of WSBA 2004-2005.
The Year in Review
Court Funding and Access to Justice Efforts
The WSBA has continued to be a leader in assuring civil equal access to justice; an advocate for effective criminal and juvenile access to adequate counsel and due process; and a lion in the important role of seeking adequate, stable funding for the justice system. This is a long-term, multi-biennium, multi-year process.
Successfully undertook "Justice in Jeopardy" with the judiciary an effort that Chief Justice Gerry Alexander termed "the most significant reform effort of Washington's judicial branch since statehood."
Cosponsored, with the Board of Judicial Administration (BJA), measures to secure adequate funding for the courts.
Sponsored, with the BJA and State Office of Public Defense, improvement of defense services and adequate funding of indigent defense.
Supported measures to increase funding for civil equal justice services.
Continued to protect and enhance the practice of law, the administration of justice, and the public interest in due process, equal protection of the law, access to justice, and the eradication of discrimination, by opposing so-called "tort reform" efforts via the initiative process, in the state Legislature and U.S. Congress, and supporting freedom from discrimination based on sexual preference.
Formed the standing Committee on Public Defense to implement the recommendations of the 2003-2004 WSBA Blue Ribbon Panel on Criminal Defense.
In the second year of voluntary pro bono reporting, Washington lawyers reported 236,000 pro bono service hours 124,068 hours of services provided to persons of limited means or to organizations in matters addressing the needs of persons of limited means, and 112,030 hours of pro bono service through reduced fees to persons of limited means, charitable organizations, and by participating in activities for improving the law, legal system, or the legal profession.
Undertook an assertive and involved public campaign to maintain and enhance the independence of the judiciary via speaking engagements, the media, and other public outreach, while continuing efforts such as those of the WSBA Public Information and Media Relations Committee to respond to the unjust criticism of judges.
Legislative Successes
$3 million secured for civil equal justice funding in the upcoming biennium.
New source government funding to pay for a portion of district and elected municipal court judges' salaries.
$1.3 million allocated in the upcoming biennium to the Washington State Office of Public Defense, plus $1 million to fund a pilot project.
Created an Equal Justice sub-account in the Public Safety and Education account.
$5 million allocated to provide adequate representation to parents in dependency and termination actions.
Created new state Office of Civil Legal Aid (OCLA), which provides administration and oversight for state civil legal aid services in Washington.
Without any suggestion of decriminalizing drug use, the WSBA has supported efforts through the state Legislature in collaboration with the Washington State Medical Association, the Washington State Pharmaceutical Association, and the King County Bar Association to reduce incarceration time and emphasize treatment for drug users and education of the young with regard to the dangers of drugs.
All section bills passed.
Diversity
The WSBA continues to implement steps toward achieving diversity in the legal profession and thereby promoting it within our society, in order to better serve and be more relevant to that society.
Appointed the most persons from diverse, traditionally under-represented groups to chairmanships, vice chairmanships, and membership on WSBA committees in the history of the Association.
Appointed the third woman WSBA treasurer in the history of the Association.
Elected the third woman WSBA president in the history of the Association.
Added new full-time Diversity Advocate position to WSBA staff.
Developed and implemented the WSBA Leadership Institute and its Advisory Board (12 "Fellows of the Institute" participating during its inaugural year). The emphasis of the program is on developing leadership in lawyers who have practiced for 10 years or less, with a particular focus on diverse and traditionally under-represented groups.
Enhanced efforts at strengthening relationships and partnership opportunities with minority and specialty bar associations.
Board of Governors voted unanimously to include federal Indian jurisdiction law on the Bar Exam (beginning in the summer 2007).
Cosponsored and participated in the 2005 ABA National Conference for the Minority Lawyer in Seattle.
Elected the most diverse Washington delegation to the American Bar Association House of Delegates in WSBA history.
Held "Celebrate Diversity" listening sessions and minority law student receptions around the state.
Observed the creation of two new bar associations: the Vietnamese American Bar Association and the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender Bar Association of Washington.
Enhancement of Member Benefits, Programs, and Services
"Relevance" is about ascertaining your members' needs, and then, within the ambit of your mission and resources, moving to meet those needs. The WSBA continues to seek and achieve "relevance" on behalf of its members.
Implemented Casemaker, an online case-reporting and legal-research search engine, free of charge to members. It is available by simply accessing the WSBA website.
Continued development and commenced implementation of the Loan Repayment Assistance Program (accepting applications and giving assistance this fall), to help alleviate the heavy burden of student loans, particularly for those lawyers who desire to engage in public-interest law e.g., indigent civil legal services, prosecutors and public defenders, and like areas of practice.
Continued operation of the highly successful Law Office Management Assistance Program.
Professional development of new lawyer provisions were submitted to the Supreme Court. These provisions emphasize a program of skills training as pre-admission and post-admission to the profession requirements.
Standards for character and fitness for those seeking admission to the practice of law were developed and submitted to the Supreme Court.
Ethics 2003 Committee completed its work and submitted proposed changes to the Rules of Professional Conduct to the Supreme Court.
Established WSBA law student section memberships and an enhanced webpage on the WSBA website. Increased speaking engagements and outreach to law, undergraduate, secondary, middle, and elementary schools.
Selected new professional liability insurance and health insurance brokers to enhance the value of these programs to members.
Approved a new ABA retirement program benefit for availability to members.
Continued the development and implementation of state-of-the-art technology and software to facilitate better communications with our members and the public. This has enhanced our website and made it more user friendly, and expanded our ability to deliver information with regard to access to justice, Law Week, public legal education, diversity, and many other programs.
National Recognition and Attention
The WSBA has received national recognition and attention and has justifiably been accorded crθme-de-la-crθme status amongst bar associations in the country:
WSBA Leadership Institute awarded the national 2005 ABA Partnership Award.
University Place attorney Rhonda Brown received the national 2005 ABA Paul G. Hearne Award for Disability Rights.
WSBA Office of Disciplinary Counsel and Lawyer Services Department presented information about the WSBA's Diversion from Discipline program at two national conferences.
WSBA officers, the executive director, and several WSBA directors were requested to make presentations on a variety of justice-system topics, including court funding, diversity, marketing, lawyer assistance programs, and disclosure of professional liability insurance, at a number of national and regional conferences. Following these presentations, WSBA materials and programs are often appropriated by the American Bar Association Bar Leaders' Institute as teaching tools for bar leaders from other state bar associations around the country. Washington's Court Funding Task Force effort was lauded by the ABA's National Commission on State Court Funding as the model other states should emulate in their justice-system funding efforts.
Fiscal and Administrative Accomplishments
The WSBA has continued to meet the goal of sound fiscal management and fiduciary responsibility with regard to the stewardship of members' dues.
We have achieved a full eight percent reserve for contingencies and emergencies, and kept spending within budget. We have accomplished this while maintaining a license-fee structure that has increased less than the inflationary increases in the cost of living. This standard will be continued throughout the next three-year licensing cycle.
We have met our goal of developing a sufficient reserve fund to facilitate the move of the WSBA into its new office space at the Puget Sound Plaza Building at the end of 2006.
We have established a new Regulatory Services Department and regulatory services director, to manage all the WSBA's regulatory functions admissions, licensing, MCLE compliance, Law Clerk Program, Rule 9 Intern Program, and LPO regulation.
We again passed the annual audit with no "findings" reported.
We implemented a staff and benefits survey.
Thank You So Much
Well, my year as president is drawing to a close. It has been a fun-filled, fabulous experience. It went past with blinding speed. In collaboration with my fellow members of the Board of Governors (and in particular with those in my third-year "graduating class" Governors Andrea Brenneke, Randy Gordon, Howard Graham, Joni Kerr, and Fawn Sharp), we have striven with all our might to leave the WSBA better than we found it in terms of its relevance, its stature, its credibility, and its influence both within the legal community and beyond, and thereby to live up to the high tradition of service and achievement set by those who have preceded us.
This is an experience I unstintingly recommend to any lawyer. I believe that I am a better person and a better professional as a result of it. Consider service in bar leadership, whether it is as a WSBA officer, with the Board of Governors, with a WSBA committee or section, or with one of the other local or voluntary bar associations.
Let me leave you with this: Service of whatever kind embodies the altruistic, the idealistic, and the opportunity to give back. For a lawyer, in many instances it involves participation in making the pronouncements of our Constitution real, in the lives of real people, with real problems, often involving basic human needs. I have an absolute dread of reaching the end of this journey we call life and looking back on a personal existence that touched no one, reached no one, helped no one. The fact that so many in our profession choose to engage in service is why lawyers are leaders, and why this society has hope for the future.
It has been my privilege to render service as an officer of your Washington State Bar Association.
The question is not whether we can; it is whether we will. We can and we will because working together, there is nothing we cannot change for the better.
Ron Ward may be reached at rrw@joneswardlaw.com. If you would like to write a letter to the editor on this topic, please e-mail it to letterstotheeditor@wsba.org or mail it to WSBA Bar News, Attn: Letters to the Editor, 2101 Fourth Ave., Ste. 400, Seattle, WA 98121-2330.
