Back to his humble fishing village
By James Herman
President, State Bar of California
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Herman |
HAMLET: Why may not that be the skull of a lawyer? Where be his quiddets now,
his quillets, his cases, his tenures, and his tricks?
Where, indeed? Last summer, 1983 State Bar President Dale Hanst, burly in his
golf shirt and sporting the summer sunburn of the lawyer-turned-Oregon-fisherman,
reflected over lunch on the State Bar of California. A retired partner on my
firm’s letterhead, Dale’s term was pre-Keller, pre-discipline system
overhaul and pre-dues veto.
But by halfway through a Wally’s salad at Santa Barbara’s Café
Buenos Aires, I knew he could gavel up a State Bar meeting without missing a
beat. Our goals, after all, remain the same: member service and public protection.
Shy about giving specific tips, Dale did tell me this year would both pass in
a heartbeat and be the experience of a lifetime.
I have you, our members, to thank for the latter. This for me was a year of
pride. At the Annual Meeting, I boasted with vainglory every lawyer in the state
would be proud to be a member of the State Bar of California by the end of the
bar year. “To preserve and improve our justice system in order to assure
a free and just society under law” is carried on our bar cards for the
first time this year to remind our 192,253-member family of our common mission.
But like the mad scientist infected by his own potion, I’m the one who
has ended up with a big dose of pride.
I did not make it to all 58 California counties this year, but I did visit
about 30, including almost every county from Imperial and San Diego on the Mexican/Arizona
border up through California’s Beltline, from Marin across through Yuba
City, Sacramento, Calavaras, Placerville and Tahoe.
Plus the wine country, the Inland Empire, the Central Valley, Orange, Los Angeles
and San Francisco counties. And my own south and central coast. I would still
visit Del Norte if there were time. I visited metro bars, smaller local bars,
young lawyers and specialty bars in all parts of the state.
I dropped in on courts as small as the two-judge Calavaras County courthouse
and as big as the 500-judge Los Angeles court, on state Courts of Appeal, on
federal District Courts and the California Supreme Court. Working with Chief
Justice Ronald George, Administrative Director Bill Vickrey and Chief Deputy
Director Ron Overholt on court funding has been a highlight of this year.
I hit law libraries, law schools, rotary clubs, chambers of commerce, high
school law campers and AARP seniors. I also enjoyed walking up to lawyers in
courthouses and making unannounced visits to local law offices and legal services
offices, just to ask the lawyers how they were doing.
Everywhere I went I met lawyers and judges. And I rediscovered what a wonderful
profession we really have. Hospitable to a fault, generous to the profession
and the community, committed to serving clients, we really are a wonderful bunch.
Pressed by the economy, plagued by criticisms of the profession, challenged
by diminishing judicial resources, we are working harder and aging as a profession.
Through it all, we still maintain an affection if not love for what we do.
To steal a line from the Al Pacino character in “The Devil’s Advocate,”
“the license to practice law is the greatest backstage pass in history.”
If it’s important, a lawyer is there. If a lawyer does bad, it’s
usually a good lawyer who brings the bad lawyer to justice.
I also must thank the board of governors and our terrific State Bar staff led
by Executive Director Judy Johnson. The presidents with whom I served, Andy
Guilford, Palmer Madden and Karen Nobumoto, are the shoulders on which I stood.
I regret every lawyer in California cannot have the experience of serving on
this board. We all bring different perspectives and opinions, but each of us,
including our appointed public members, is dedicated to a better bar.
Our vice presidents, Tony Capozzi, Judy Copeland, Carl Lindstrom, Bob Persons
and Nancy Hoffmeier Zamora, and our senior public member, Janet Green, have
worked especially hard this year.
Court funding, the Trevor Law Group (Chief Trial Counsel Mike Nisperos’
office did a great job), the Lawyers Assistance Program, the Sections Task Force,
the State Bar Web site, a balanced budget, the revival of the Bar Leaders Conference
and the Minority Attorneys Conference, an enhanced relationship with the ABA,
non-dues revenues, Seniors and the Law and the ongoing work of our committees,
commissions and task forces have kept us busy.
I also have to thank my partners (who often wonder why lightning has struck
our firm twice), our local bench and bar (especially opposing counsel who have
been patient with continuances), the Santa Barbara County Bar Association and
Santa Barbara Women Lawyers and, finally, Judge Denise deBellefeuille, whom
I’ll take on a trip abroad when this is all over. But don’t tell
her. It’s a surprise.
Whither hence? The State Bar will continue to face funding issues for itself
and the courts as well as the challenges of access to justice and diversity
within the profession.
Fortunately, my successor is more than up to the task. With a heart of gold,
an eye for politics and a golf swing like a weed whacker, Tony Capozzi is the
perfect choice for leadership of the State Bar of California. As chair of Planning,
Program Development and Budget, he balanced the budget for next year and carried
our planning cycle.
He has a vision for the future and, as a solo practitioner from Fresno, shares
with me an affinity for the rank-and-file member. He knows of the power of our
membership representing one out of every five lawyers in the United States.
As for me? Old State Bar presidents never die, they just rotate to other committees.
I am pleased with my appointment to the Commission on Access to Justice because
I believe opening the courthouse door to the 72 percent of our low- and middle-income
Californians who are unable to afford legal services is one of our profession’s
greatest challenges.
Otherwise, I’m back to my humble fishing village on the south coast,
working on my quiddets and quillets.
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