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  • February 01, 2005

    Inside the Bar February 2005: Board prepares final report to supreme court on proposed changes to rules of professional conduct

    At its Jan. 13 - 14 meeting, the Board of Governors voted on the Wisconsin Supreme Court Ethics 2000 Committee's recommended changes to the Supreme Court Rules Chapter 20, Rules of Professional Conduct for Attorneys. The board is preparing a report for presentation to the court at the Feb. 17, 9:30 a.m. hearing.

    Inside the Bar
    February 2005

    Board prepares final report to supreme court on proposed changes to rules of professional conduct

    At its Jan. 13 - 14 meeting, the Board of Governors voted on the Wisconsin Supreme Court Ethics 2000 Committee's recommended changes to the Supreme Court Rules Chapter 20, Rules of Professional Conduct for Attorneys. The board is preparing a report for presentation to the court at the Feb. 17, 9:30 a.m. hearing.

    voters with hands raised

    The board votes with a show of hands.

    The board spent most of its two-day meeting discussing the most substantive changes recommended in the committee's 142-page final report issued last July outlining proposed amendments to SCR 20. While the board voted on more than 10 specific proposed rule changes, the two most controversial issues - pro bono reporting and fee agreements - engendered considerable discussion.

    Rule 6.1: Pro bono publico service. The supreme court committee proposes, as does the American Bar Association (ABA) Model Rule, an aspirational goal of 50 hours per year of pro bono legal service (or the financial equivalent). The board was concerned with the committee's recommendation requiring lawyers to annually report their pro bono activities. The board also concluded that the committee's definition of pro bono is too narrow, as it defines pro bono as legal services provided to low-income individuals and does not include other community service activities.

    The board did not support a mandatory pro bono reporting requirement, voting 30 - 5, with one abstention, to adopt the ABA Model Rule, which does not require lawyers to file an annual report.

    Rule 1.5: Fees. The board agreed to the first section of the committee's recommendation on attorneys' fees, which outlines the factors to be considered in determining the reasonableness of a fee. However, the board rejected the committee's recommendation that requires written fee agreements, based on the premise that fee agreements are a business matter and not an ethical issue. The vote was 23 - 11, with one abstention.

    The Wisconsin Supreme Court created the Ethics 2000 Committee to study the ABA's proposed changes to the model rules. The committee's report and petition, filed on July 29, 2004, is the most comprehensive proposal for changes to SCR Chapter 20 since the mid-1980s.

    The board first took up the petition last September. Using a knowledge-based decision-making process to analyze the petition, the board broke into small groups to address its most substantive changes. The board also considered feedback received from more than 90 individual members and law-related groups since August. The January meeting was the culmination of those efforts.

    The State Bar continues to encourage member feedback, which it will forward to the Clerk of Supreme Court. Send comments to ethics-feedback@wisbar.org or to Dan Rossmiller, Public Affairs Director, State Bar of Wisconsin, P.O. Box 7158, Madison, WI 53707-7158.


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