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    Wisconsin Lawyer
    August 01, 2000

    Wisconsin Lawyer August 2000: Inside the Bar

    Inside the Bar

    Using Your State Bar Center

    by George Brown State Bar executive director

    One year ago this month the new State Bar Center opened its doors. Several years of planning and a year of construction resulted in a building that better serves you, the member, in so many ways.

    George BrownMost importantly, you are actually using the building to help you in your business. In the last year, more members have used the State Bar Center than ever before. The Bar Center has hosted multi-day arbitrations, where the lawyers are from Madison and the arbitrator is from Milwaukee. Lawyers from as far away as Wausau have held depositions in the Bar Center conference rooms. Members from other cities who are visiting clients in the area have stopped in to use the phones and work spaces between meetings. And government lawyers and the State of Wisconsin have held contract negotiations in the Bar Center.

    These are only some of the stories from members I know who have stopped in to say hello or from members I had a chance to meet for the first time. In the last year (figures for the 11 months from August 1999 through June 2000 available at the time of this writing), 1,316 meetings have been held at the Bar Center. That is 449 more meetings than were held in the entire previous year at the old Bar Center. The number of meetings by members who are not at the Bar Center for a committee, section, division, or CLE meeting has nearly doubled, from 73 in the last year at the old Bar Center to 143 in the first 11 months at the new Bar Center. The trend line shows that, except for two of the first three months at the new Bar Center, member usage has increased every month over the same month last year - in several cases by a factor of four. These numbers do not include the increased usage for CLE seminars, including the 40 hands-on technology seminars held this spring in the technology training center that provided intensive training in Internet research to more than 300 State Bar members and their staffs.

    All of this points out one simple fact. The new State Bar Center is truly a members' building. Lawyers from across the state are meeting at the Bar Center to do business. The members I have talked with are impressed and proud of their building.

    The next time you need a place to hold a client meeting in Madison, call the Bar Center at (800) 444-9404, ext. 6169, to reserve a conference room. It's easy to get to. For directions, please see the site map online. But call ahead as soon as you can. We've already had several days when every conference room has been booked with meetings and CLE seminars. And when you are in the building, stop in to say "hi." If you're an old friend, I'd enjoy seeing you again. If we don't know each other, I'd like to meet you. And it would be my pleasure to show you around your building.


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