Washington State Bar Association Board of Governors to Meet September 13 in Spokane

Seattle, Washington, September 5, 2000 - The Washington State Bar Association (WSBA) Board of Governors will hold its next meeting at the WestCoast Grand Hotel at the Park in Spokane on September 13. Governor John Powers of Spokane represents WSBA members from the fifth congressional district.

The Board of Governors, the body responsible for the governance of the WSBA, meets every six weeks at various locations around the state. Its meetings are open to the public.

On the agenda are discussion and possible action on the definition of the practice of law. A proposed court rule to define the practice of law was adopted by the Board of Governors at its September 1999 meeting and submitted to the Supreme Court. Subsequently, the Supreme Court received comments, which it then forwarded to the WSBA. The Board of Governors may amend the proposed rule and submit it to the Supreme Court for consideration, re-submit the rule as it now stands, or delay action. The Board will also be considering recommendations regarding future enforcement of restrictions on the unauthorized practice of law, and possible criteria for future limited licensing of nonlawyers to practice law.

A new governor to represent members in the sixth congressional district will be selected at the meeting. This will be a replacement for the seat vacated by Dale Carlisle, who is the new president-elect of the Association.

Also on the agenda is review of a proposed change to the Rules of Professional Conduct which would make it professional misconduct for a lawyer to commit a discriminatory act on the basis of sexual orientation if such an act would violate the rule when committed on the basis of sex, race, age, creed, religion, color, national origin, disability or marital status. The proposed rule change was originally submitted to the Supreme Court for consideration in 1996 and was resubmitted last year.

The Board will be reviewing recommendations from the Lawyers' Fund for Client Protection Committee to make gifts totaling more than $120,000 to help compensate those individuals who have been the victims of wrongful acts by the few lawyers who fail to comply with their professional obligations. (Every active lawyer in the state makes an annual contribution to the Lawyers' Fund for Client Protection. No public funds are involved; these gifts are financed solely by lawyers.)

There will be discussion and possible vote on the addition of a position of diversity to the Board of Governors. This has been the subject of much interest and discussion over the past six months.

Also on the agenda are a report about the Greater Access and Assistance Project (GAAP), which establishes reduced-fee panels of attorneys to assist clients of modest means, and a proposed civility code presented by the Professionalism Committee.

The Washington State Bar Association is a nonprofit organization authorized by the Washington State Supreme Court to license the state's 26,000 lawyers. Lawyers must be members of the WSBA in order to practice law in the state. Governors are elected for three-year terms by members of the Association – there are three governors from the seventh congressional district, and one from each of the other eight districts. The current president of the WSBA is Spokane attorney Richard C. Eymann, and the president-elect is Jan Eric Peterson of Seattle.

The Washington State Bar Association both regulates lawyers under the authority of the Court and serves its members as a professional association - all without public funding. As a regulatory agency, the WSBA administers the bar examination, provides record-keeping and licensing functions, and administers the lawyer discipline program. As a professional association, it provides continuing legal education for attorneys, in addition to numerous other educational and member-service activities.