Time for meaningful change

by ASSEMBLYMAN BILL MORROW


Recently Gov. Wilson took a bold step in vetoing SB 1145, the State Bar dues bill. This was a decision I encouraged and supported whole-heartedly. I realize that for the upper management of the State Bar, the governor’s veto was a catastrophic event.

But for the rank-and-file membership, the veto is a golden opportunity for meaningful reform and a much-needed accounting of the bar’s expenditures and policies.

Since that veto, the activities and expenditures of the State Bar have come under close scrutiny, and for good reason. Membership in the California State Bar is expensive. The dues paid in California are significantly higher than dues charged in other states. The current fee level represents a hardship for California practitioners, especially those sole practitioners who pay their own dues.

But the bigger question that should be asked is, “Does the bar provide a service equal to the exorbitant rates it charges?” My view, and the view shared by a great number of legislators here in Sacramento, is “no.” I believe the governor’s veto message said it best when he said, “The bar has become bloated, arrogant and unresponsive.”

Since the bar lacks internal incentives to reduce costs and dues, it becomes appropriate for the legislature to provide such incentives externally.

In the past, the bar has ignored opportunities to reduce dues and to focus on economic efficiencies. In order to achieve these economic efficiencies, the State Bar must focus on its core mandatory functions.

The course the State Bar should take is clear. First, dues must be reduced significantly. There is ample data to support a reduction in fees beyond what has been proposed in AB 1669, the bar-sponsored dues legislation. Minor reductions would do nothing to give the bar the needed incentive to become efficient.

Secondly, the bar must divorce itself from all activities not related to the core mission of admissions and discipline. Clearly there is too much opportunity for abuse when the State Bar takes political positions on matters its members oppose, that have little to do with attorney discipline, as it originally was created to do. It now commingles its responsibilities and revenues in such a way as to create a constant appearance of impropriety.

Finally, any reforms achieved as a result of this veto should be lasting reforms. If the bar has truly acknowledged the need for reforms, now is the time to ensure that these reforms are in place long after we have left the political arena.

I am encouraged by the openness and responsiveness of the new bar leadership. Hopefully, we can secure lasting reforms and put an end to the “business as usual” attitude that plagued the State Bar in the past.

It is time to end the continuing disputes here in the legislature, and in the courts, over the amount of annual dues attributable to political and ideological activities.


Assemblyman Bill Morrow, R-Oceanside, is vice-chair of the Assembly Judiciary Committee.

[CALBAR JOURNAL]