MINUTES
2002-2003 BOARD OF GOVERNORS RETREAT
July 26, 2003
Big Cedar Lodge, Ridgedale
Members Present:
Dale C. Doerhoff, President
William M. Corrigan, Jr., President-Elect Joe B. Whisler, Vice-President
Theresa L. F. Levings, Past President Keith A. Birkes, Secretary
C. Ronald Baird Erik Bergmanis Richard N. Bien
Joseph C. Blanton, Jr. Thomas M. Burke Scott Campbell Thomas J. Casey Morry S. Cole Richard J. Collins Douglas A. Copeland Cathy J. Dean
Carol Chazen Friedman Chad A. Gaddie
Mike Greenwell Richard F. Halliburton Charlie J. Harris
Bruce F. Hilton Vincent F. Igoe, Jr. John S. Johnston George E. Kapke Hon. John F. Kintz Thomas M. Lang Mark H. Levison Karen R. McCarthy Daniel A. Raniere John A.Ruth
Daniel J. Ryan Wallace Squibb
F. Dianne Taylor
Members Absent:
P. John Brady Richard Bresnahan John Cowherd
Hon. Don M. Henry Max E. Mitchell Jack Peace
Hon. Daniel Pelikan Richard G. Steele
H.A. Skip Walther
Also Present:
Maurice Graham
W. Dudley McCarter Laurence Tucker Catherine Barrie Cecil Caulkins
Kent Hopper ChrisJanku DanLehmen Gary Toohey Jack Wax
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Plenary Session
Mr. Corrigan thanked everyone for attending the Retreat, and particularly Past Presidents Messrs. Graham, McCarter, and Tucker, who will moderate the Board breakout groups. Mr. Corrigan outlined four major initiatives he would like the Board to pursue during his year as President:
1.
Lawyers in the Legislature. There are five areas in particular that seem to be likely to produce results:
a.
Meet with representatives from MATA and MODL to discuss the importance of lawyer-legislators with the goal that they would work to identify members of their organizations who might be willing to run for the legislature.
b.
Hold symposia at all four law schools to discuss the importance of this issue and to encourage law students to consider running for the legislature early in their careers.
c.
Publish profiles of lawyer-legislators on a regular basis in Bar publications so as to provide recognition and encouragement.
d.
Present programming at the Annual Meeting about what it is like to be a lawyer-legislator. Among the topics might be the need to raise money to campaign and the problems of balancing a legislative post, a legal career, and an outside life.
e.
Meet with managing partners in larger law firms to discuss the importance of lawyers in the legislators and how support by a law firm could make it possible for a firm member to serve.
2.
Law School for Legislators. This program has been successful elsewhere, and the leadership of the Missouri House and Senate are very much behind the idea. The school would be a 3-4 hour program in January held in Jefferson City and followed by a reception for the legislators. Messrs. Burke, Brady, and Ruth have agreed to serve on this committee.
3.
Lewis & Clark Bicentennial. Because of the importance of this event to Missourians, it offers the Bar a great opportunity to connect with students. Judge Kintz and Mr. Ryan have agreed to co-chair this committee. The idea is to work with Millie Aulbur and LRE.
4.
Pro Bono in Corporate Law Departments. An effort will be made to get greater pro bono participation from corporate lawyers much as has been
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done with the managing partners of law firms in St. Louis and Kansas City. Ms. McCarthy has agreed to chair this committee.
Mr. Birkes gave a brief overview of the Bar's financial operation and explained how the dues cycle works. The Missouri Bar is at the lower end of the dues scale. However, we have reached the point where expenses have risen above income, and the equity balance will begin to drop. Either we will need to increase dues, or reduce expenditures, or both.
Gary Toohey reviewed a packet of Missouri Bar publications, explaining the breadth of the Bar's efforts to tell its story to both Bar members and members of the public. Jack Wax explained that the Bar's latest newsletter, Access, is aimed at the public and is designed so that its articles can be readily copied and included in company newsletters. It is distributed to all Missouri companies that employ more than 100 people, all chambers of commerce within the state, all circuit clerks, and all libraries. Another project being developed by the Communications Department would increase distribution of the Bar's public information booklets by developing Missouri Bar Law Centers-displays that include a selection of Missouri Bar public information brochures. To introduce these Law Centers, the bar would arrange training sessions with libraries. The idea is still being developed and costs have not yet been determined.
Breakout Groups
After the plenary session, the members present broke into three breakout sessions, as follows:
Group 1
Dudley McCarter, Mod. Joseph Blanton, Rep.
Theresa Levings Ronald Baird Morry Cole Chad Gaddie Charlie Harris John Johnston Mark Levision Daniel Ryan
Kent Hopper, Staff Jack Wax, Staff
Group2
Laurence Tucker, Mod.
Carol Chazen Friedman, Rep. Joe Whisler
Erik Bergmanis Scott Campbell Richard Collins Mike Greenwell Bruce Hilton George Kapke Karen McCarthy Daniel Raniere Wallace Squibb Cecil Caulkins, Staff Gary Toohey, Staff
Group3
Maurice Graham, Mod. Richard Bien, Rep.
Dale Doerhoff Thomas Casey Douglas Copeland Cathy Dean Richard Halliburton Vincent Igoe
Judge John Kintz John Ruth Dianne Taylor
Catherine Barrie, Staff Chris Janku, Staff Daniel Lehmen, Staff
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The breakout groups met to consider these topics, identified by Board members in their responses to Mr. Corrigan's survey as being the issues of greatest interest or concern to Board members:
A.
Image of the Profession
B.
Lawyer Advertising
C.
Unauthorized Practice of Law
D.
Lawyer Discipline
E.
Committee Participation
F.
Missouri Bar Committee Meeting Format
G.
Election of Officers
H.
Other Topics if Time Allows, including
1.
Judicial Salaries and Resources
2.
Alternate Dispute Resolution
3.
Pro Bono Activities
4.
Minority Lawyers
5.
Annual Meeting
6.
Professional Liability Insurance
7.
Legal Services of the Poor
8.
Women Lawyers/Gender Bias
9.
Technology
Breakout groups met from about 8:45 until 11:00 and then reconvened into a plenary session to hear reports and discuss issues raised.
Groupl
Mr. Blanton reported that the group's discussion of the issue of the image of the profession acknowledged that the Bar has to involve itself in addressing this issue and whether it is easily changeable. Because lawyers are involved in disputes between people, people will associate lawyers with negative things about their lives. This is something we can't change. Lawyers in the urban areas in particular observed that lawyer advertising has had a very negative impact on the perception of lawyers. Participants noted that the ads they have seen never include a disclaimer that is supposed to be included in advertising. Mr. Corrigan indicated he would discuss this withOCDC.
The group also discussed what duties Board members owed to their constituents in this regard. The group's conclusion that the best thing the Board could do was to work for enforcement of the ethical rules on lawyer advertising.
Accuracy of the ads was a concern. Many ads are true and serve a purpose, but many others are not.
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The image of the profession will always be on the agenda because it does not ever go away as a problem. Rather than focusing on ad campaigns, we should focus on doing good and encouraging all our members to do good things, to work to improve lives and communities.
The group also discussed the problem of getting lawyers to think about things beyond ''billable hours" in their professional lives. Pro bono needs to be considered by a law firm's compensation committee at the end of the year. Lawyers who are involved in activities that promote the welfare of the community will be happier and more fulfilled than those whose only achievement is bringing in lucrative legal matters. The Bar should promote this idea.
The group recognized that mentoring is an important part of this. The Bar should encourage all its members to recognize and thank their mentors, to encourage veterans to mentor new lawyers. Mentors may not even know how important their contribution has been.
The group also discussed that the trend in volunteerism is to ask people to do a narrowly defined act rather than to just join a program in an open-ended commitment. This is something the Bar should be aware of and adapt to our needs. One specific idea that surfaced was the idea that lawyers could work on templates for the development of 501(c)(3) foundations for public schools to help them raise tax deductible contributions to deal with the funding crunch. If we had legal forms and materials ready to go, lawyers would be more likely to help out with this kind of effort and make a difference. Another area the group discussed was helping libraries set up foundations.
The group suggests that Mr. Corrigan appoint committees to help him with his four initiatives so that he does not overburden himself with them. Lawyers in the legislature may be a tough problem to solve. Mr. Corrigan's strategies are all good, but it is not easy to get lawyers who can afford this.
The group also discussed lawyer discipline. One issue of concern was whether there should be a statute of limitations on Bar complaints, based on a report that some lawyer was the subject of a complaint twenty years after the fact. There also seems to be a perception among solo and small firm lawyers that they receive a disproportionate amount of the disciplinary action by OCDC.
There was an agreement that encouraging participation by all segments of the Bar is important and that a good start is for Board members to get to know people who are different from themselves. All Bar members should be encouraged to reach out to other Bar members so as to obtain diverse participation in our activities. Mr. Johnston mentioned a person from Kansas City who has a very good program in this regard and suggested that perhaps the person could speak to the Board at an upcoming meeting.
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There was consensus that having the committee meetings on one day rather than two was a good idea, making it easier for everyone to participate.
Group2
Mr. Bien reported that the group had extensive discussion of the image of the profession and advertising. The group does not recommend the adoption of any guidelines for advertisements. The group concluded that there is a public service component to advertising in getting people to lawyers.
Another effort worth considering is to promote the Bar's web site to the public. The Bar's web site has every lawyer in good standing listed through it. The next step would be to get it registered with all search engines.
As part of the discussion of the image of the Bar, the group discussed the public opinion bell curve, where there are people at each end who either love or hate lawyers and whose opinions we either can't change or don't want to change. The question is whether we can have an affect on the large group in the center.
The group discussed discipline issues and suggests that a dialogue between OCDC and the Board of Governors would be a good thing. There was a concern that newly hired lawyers at OCDC will have little or no experience practicing law and the challenges lawyers encounter daily. The group also suggests that many of our members are confused about the Bar and OCDC and the relationship, if any, between them. This might be a fruitful area for public information to our members.
The group discussed member concerns about the unauthorized practice of law and suggests that representatives of the Bar should meet with members of the Supreme Court, representatives from the Missouri Attorney General, and with OCDC to discuss enforcement techniques. Perhaps special prosecutors need to be appointed.
The group discussed the Annual Meeting, and suggests that the first meeting of MoBar committees be combined with the Annual Meeting rather than occur a month or two later. This would also eliminate the present conflict between the Board of Governors meeting and the committee meetings, something that limits the ability of Board members to attend meetings of the committees.
The group discussed the election process and suggests that it would be desirable to amend the bylaws to have the old Board elect officers rather than assigning that task to the new Board. The present practice exposes new members with no understanding of how the Board works or familiarity with the candidates to the problem of choosing one candidate or the other in a contested election. The group suggests that the best solution would be for the Board to vote by paper ballot in advance of the Annual Meeting.
The Bar should encourage more participation by women and minority lawyers in the activities of the Bar.
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Group3
Ms. Friedman reported that the group discussed the image of lawyers. One issue the group discussed is what other lawyers think of their Board representatives. There was a thought that the Board should be sure that members know where their dues go and how they are spent.
It is important to have better liaison and coordination with OCDC so that they understand our concerns and so that we can work towards common goals. A specific example is the unauthorized practice of law, an area of continuing concern to the Bar. We need to be sure they understand our concerns and are following up. They might be able to bring more prosecutorial emphasis to the problem.
Another thought on member information was to add an administrative section to ESQ. so that our members would know what the Bar is doing, perhaps to help them understand the allocation of their dues dollars.
The group suggests that electioneering be discontinued for the benefit of new members of the Board.
The group suggests that a committee of the Bar be designated to review advertising, even if the committee has no authority to effect changes.
The group was somewhat concerned about the perception that the Bar is in the top ten of the organizations spending money on lobbying. [Note: it was later explained that the Bar's reported expenses for lobbying include the value of CLE books and seminars provided to lawyer legislators as well as the legislative dinners in St. Louis and Kansas City and the reception for the entire General Assembly and their staff held immediately following the State of the Judiciary address each year.]
The group saw no reason to expand the length of time involved in committee meetings. It might be advantageous to have the Board meet at a time separate from the committees. There was a suggestion that regional meetings might be possible using the fiber optic capabilities of the Missouri Extension Division.
There being no further business, the retreat was adjourned.
Respectfully submitted,
Keith A. Birkes, Secretary