Helping Katrina victims
Pasadena lawyer Julianne Lapham will long remember what she saw during two post-Katrina pro bono stints in Mississippi: A landscape of dead plants and trees. Piles of trash. Stairs to nowhere. Flies. Rifle-ready military personnel demanding picture I.D.s and statements of intention. Long lines of the displaced.

Bar gets tougher on ethics exam
Any student who enrolls in law school in 2008 or later and who wishes to become a California lawyer must score higher on the national ethics exam than today’s students, following action by the State Bar Board of Governors to raise the required passing score.

Private judges must go active
Following more than two years of discussion among the State Bar, private judging organizations and the California Judges Association (CJA), retired judges who serve as private Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) neutrals will be required to pay active State Bar fees beginning this year.

Moderate picked for the Supreme Court
The Commission on Judicial Appointments was set to consider the nomination of state Appellate Justice Carol Corrigan to the Supreme Court early this month after she was named to the court by Gov. Schwarzenegger, an appointment that is widely believed will solidify the court’s moderate balance.

Possible disclosure rule for uninsured lawyers
Lawyers who do not carry professional liability insurance will have to disclose to their clients, in writing, that they are uninsured if a proposal by a State Bar task force is approved by the Supreme Court.

Looking for a few good volunteers
When Debra Bowen was a private attorney handling land use and environmental issues, she joined the State Bar’s Public Law Section, eventually serving on its executive committee.  Elected to the state Assembly in 1992, Bowen said her time on the “excom” was “part of what led me to carry a piece of legislation that probably was one of the most important things I’ve done — the bill that put the legislature’s information online.”.

2006 membership fee lobbying, optional program deductions
As a requirement of bar membership, California lawyers must pay statutorily mandated membership fees. The fees are used primarily to fund core functions of lawyer discipline and regulation, but a small percentage has also been used to further the State Bar's statutory charge to provide assistance to improve the administration of justice.

2005 Exhibitor Directory
The businesses and services listed here support the State Bar through various means, most notably as exhibitors at the State Bar's Annual Meeting. Visit them online or via phone to serve your individual needs.

2005 Exhibitor Directory
The businesses and services listed here support the State Bar through various means, most notably as exhibitors at the State Bar's Annual Meeting. Visit them online or via phone to serve your individual needs.