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    Wisconsin Lawyer
    July 01, 2001

    Wisconsin Lawyer July 2001: Inside the Bar

    Living in Interesting Times
    Resisting Change

    The State Bar and other entities are studying how nonlegal groups and events threaten the traditional order of the legal profession. Outreach to members is critical, because the results will long affect the profession.

    by George C. Brown,
    State Bar executive director

    George Brown

    RECENTLY, SEVERAL FRIENDS, knowing the changes that are facing the Bar and the Bar association, have provided me a passage from Machiavelli's The Prince.

    In his 16th century pamphlet, Niccolo Machiavelli, the son of a lawyer, advised Prince Lorenzo Di Medici "... that there is nothing more difficult to carry out, nor more doubtful of success, nor more dangerous to handle, than to initiate a new order of things. For the reformer has enemies in all those who profit by the old order, and only lukewarm defenders in all those who would profit from the new order, this lukewarmness arising partly from fear of their adversaries who have the laws in their favor; and partly from the incredulity of mankind, who do not truly believe in anything new until they have had actual experience of it." (Chapter 6)

    Machievelli's words ring true today because he is writing of the human condition. Though Machiavelli writes about the political dangers to a reformer of being what we today call a change agent, he also is writing about the natural human response to change. Those who are successful under the current rules (whether those rules are statutory law, judicial opinion, or the informal rules of life and work) will resist change "with the zeal of partisans." At the same time, those who may benefit from the new rules will support them only lukewarmly because the new rules are not yet fully known, and those who may benefit do not know how or if they ultimately will benefit under the new rules.

    This resistance to change is especially strong when that change comes from the outside, whether from a conquering nation-state as in Machiavelli's time, or a group or event that threatens the traditional order of the profession in our time, such as CPAs, banks, real estate agents, financial planners, pro se litigants, or the rise of the Internet.

    In the last year, the various efforts to deal with change have included the Wisconsin Supreme Court's task force to find ways to manage the massive increase in pro se litigation that is clogging many of our courts; the joint efforts of the State Bar, the supreme court, and the League of Women Voters to understand and improve public trust and confidence in the legal system; and the State Bar's efforts to come to grips with the intrusion of nonlegal professionals into traditional work of lawyers through the "Seize the Future" initiative.

    None of these efforts is complete. There is no consensus among the profession as to their resolution. Some argue that consensus on these large issues is impossible, that leadership is required.

    In May, the State Bar Board of Governors adopted a resolution to create a Wisconsin Commission on Multidisciplinary Practice to draft a report and recommendations dealing with all aspects of MDPs for consideration by the board at its September 2002 meeting. Outreach to the members is a critical part of the process. Public hearings will be held statewide in March and April 2002, with an Assembly of Members convened during the May 2002 convention.

    The results of this process will have a long-lasting impact on the profession. And whatever has an impact on the profession most certainly has an impact on the State Bar association.

    In times like these, the assuring words of another lawyer provide strength: "I do the very best I know how, the very best I can. If the end brings me out all right, what is said against me won't amount to anything. If the end brings me out wrong, ten angels swearing I was right would make no difference." - A. Lincoln


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