REGULARS

The key interest for Hokokian, a Fresno County deputy district attorney in the family support division, is attorney competence. He wants the bar to beef up its educational efforts, as required by legislation passed last year, and hopes to institutionalize classes as “a major component of what the bar does.”

Hokokian, 48, said he envisions the bar contracting with the 17 educational sections to offer ongoing classes, both fundamental and advanced, in substantive areas of the law. “Frankly, I think the sections are our greatest resource,” he said. “We need to use them, to tap their expertise.”

Cautious about innovation, Hokokian said any new initiatives must stay within the core functions of the bar. Chair of the board’s legislation and courts committee, Hokokian also sits on the appointments, discipline and communications committees and chaired a redistricting task force last year.

“First things first,” says Madden, suggesting that the bar focus on what it does well. As it recovers from the 1997 veto of the fee bill, it should take a hard look at the once-vaunted discipline system, which was “really ripped up,” by the veto, he said. “A lot of our dues go into that system, and we need to make sure we’re doing it right.”

The bar is not addressing changes in the legal marketplace, like multi-disciplinary and multijurisdictional practices and practice on the internet, Madden added. “I think the board needs to look at what’s going on in the marketplace, identify real consumer protection issues that exist and start taking positions and actions to bring the profession into the 21st century,” he said.

Primarily focusing on the bar’s discipline operations during his tenure on the board, Madden, 54, currently is leading the search for a new executive director.

He recently left McCutchen, Doyle, Brown & Enersen, where he was formerly managing partner of the Walnut Creek office, and opened a mediation service. In a 27-year career, Madden has handled standard commercial litigation, defense work for financial and corporate institutions as well as some plaintiffs work and environmental litigation.

As the first government attorney representing Los Angeles on the bar board, Slifkin has long had an interest in the concerns of public lawyers, as well as a focus on the bar’s educational sections and the conference of delegates.

She now is concentrating on long-range planning as chair of P2000, the board’s committee on future planning, where she hopes to create an advisory group made up of past presidents. “One problem the board has had in the past,” she said, “is consistency. I’d like the past presidents to work with the board on issues and be a sounding board, because they have so much experience.”

A deputy attorney general who works on land law, Slifkin, 50, also wants to improve the bar’s relationship with the legislature and the Judicial Council, and hopes to promote volunteerism and increased collegiality among lawyers.

If elected, Slifkin would be only the second woman to serve as bar president.

Warwick has made increased internet capability for the bar a cornerstone of his three-year term. “My goal is for us to be a portal for legal education and information and also for facilitating communication among our members,” said the 53-year-old criminal defense lawyer.

He envisions a web site featuring a daily synopsis of Supreme Court and appellate court decisions, a catalogue of educational   programs as well as actual courses, a statewide expert witness guide, an attorney directory and eventually a brief bank offering full pleadings which can be downloaded.

“The internet has unlimited potential for making us a very important part of the everyday practice of California attorneys,” Warwick said.

He also wants to preserve and strengthen practice sections and the conference of delegates, both groups to which he has belonged in more than 20 years of bar participation.

Warwick chairs the board’s administration and finance committee,  where he says an accounting background has helped him understand bar finances “so we can appropriately apportion our money.”