 Truth be
told, for the last three years, the board of governors has necessarily had only one focus:
the survival of the State Bar. The veto of the dues bill created chaos. More than 500
valued employees had to be fired. Then, for over a year, the State Bar struggled along
with minimal staff. Finally, after the Supreme Court ordered some funding and the
Legislature passed the dues bill, the State Bar began rehiring. Well, at long last, all of
that is now behind us. Under Judy Johnson’s leadership, we have filled most of the
staff positions and the bar is up and running. This means that for the first time in a
long time, the board of governors can now turn its attention to steps that the State Bar
should be taking to improve our profession.
In light of the change in circumstances, the board has reorganized
itself to allow it to address policy issues. In the past the board’s agenda has been
so filled with the details of running a $75 million organization that it has not been able
to find the time to address important policy issues. The board decided last year that it
should remove itself from the business of micro-managing the State Bar so that it can
direct its attention to policy issues. In order to accomplish this goal, the board had to
find time so that it could educate itself and deliberate about policy issues. To make time
for this education and deliberation the board decided to commit over 80 percent of its
meetings to a focus on policy issues.
Having created time that will allow it to consider policy issues, the
board then identified possible policy issues. We canvassed the board and staff for a list
of policy issues that might be considered by the board. Among the issues that were
identified as calling for attention are topics such as multi-jurisdictional practice,
multi-discipline practice, MCLE, membership services and the like. At its planning
meeting, the board decided that the policy issues it wants to focus on first include
investigating what steps the State Bar can take to increase access to justice and the
diversity of attorneys in our profession. Most importantly, the chief justice and the
special master, Justice Elwood Lui, have both called for the board of governors to take a
hard look at how it runs itself so that the board can migrate further from
micro-management towards a “board governance” model. The board embraced the
suggestion of the chief and Justice Lui, deciding to devote time this year to considering
how to restructure itself.
In sum, the board has set its course for the coming year. The board
is going to leave management of the day-to-day affairs of the State Bar to our
professional staff so that the board can focus on policy. I have high hopes that this new
focus will enable the board to make more significant contributions to the improvement of
our profession.
Palmer Madden can be reached at statebarpresident@calbar.org.
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