President's Perspective
This is Not Your Father's Bar Association
by Gary L. Bakke
Professionally Managing Our Bar
Our Bar recently passed the
20,000-member milestone. We now officially have 20,203 members. We have
three divisions – nonresident, government, and young lawyers
– with significant efforts underway to create a senior lawyers
division. We have 25 active sections, each with a chair and board of
directors. There are more than 40 committees,
including the standing committees created by Supreme Court Rule:
Professional Ethics, Legal Assistance, CLE, and Communications. Our
annual budget is about $10 million, of which only one-third is generated
by dues.
Our membership includes 2,333 solo practitioners in Wisconsin; 5,664
members of firms of two or more in Wisconsin; 2,109 government lawyers,
including judges; and 6,031 nonresident lawyers. The remaining 4,000 are
in an emeritus, inactive, or another special category.
Maintaining the Bar's relevance to this extraordinarily diverse group
is a formidable task for leadership – a task that requires a
renewed focus on global policy issues facing our profession and our
association. The Bar must continually challenge itself to give value and
benefit to members. Executive Director George Brown explains this
concept best: "We must treat all members as if they are voluntary
members."
Maintaining relevance and responding to member needs must be done
with the understanding that we are not a trade organization. Our mission
is much larger than merely advocating for the financial interests of our
members. As a creation of the Wisconsin Supreme Court, the State Bar of
Wisconsin is charged with fulfilling its designated purposes, which are
to assist the courts in carrying on and improving the administration of
justice and a myriad of other public interest objectives set forth is
SCR 10.02 (2). (Reprinted at page 624 of your 2000 Wisconsin Lawyer
Directory and online at
www.courts.state.wi.us/html/rules/CHAP10.htm.)
Together with the Bar membership and its more than 90 employees, the
State Bar is recognized as a national leader in providing CLE books and
seminars to members, publishing a first-class monthly magazine,
maintaining a highly respected lobbying presence in the State
Legislature, and implementing numerous initiatives to improve the
administration of justice and to increase the public's trust and
confidence in the justice system.
In my travels on behalf of the Bar, I am continually impressed with
the fact that other bar associations look to the excellence of Wisconsin
as a model. The credit goes jointly to member volunteers and staff. We
have a great team.
This is not your father's bar association. We cannot be effectively
managed by part-time officers working with a committee of 50 (the Board
of Governors) that meets only five times a year. Nor will
micromanagement advance the overriding purposes for which we exist.
Professional management is essential to any organization of this size
and complexity. That professional management must be guided by a focused
group of volunteers who can be expected to devote considerable time to
the task of understanding and guiding this complex organization.
We have in place both the professional management at the staff level
and the appropriate oversight mechanism. Starting at the top, our
executive director, George Brown, is a talented "people person" with
years of experience in the Bar association. He brings his awesome
knowledge of the profession and its direction to the task of
representing us to the staff and the lay community. At the director
level, Katy Duren, Betty Braden, Joyce Hastings, Linda Barth, Pat Kelly,
and Gene Goswehr bring talent and experience to their areas. Dedicated
and talented individuals staff every department.
Oversight is the task of the Executive Committee, chaired by Jim
Brennan, and the Finance Committee, chaired by Kathleen Grant. These
committees work on a continuous basis with the staff to watch the till
and assure that our efforts are on target.
In June, the Board of Governors adopted the recommendation of the
Governance Committee, chaired by John Macy and Bob Hagness, that the
Board take a stronger role in policy making and that management
oversight be delegated to the Executive Committee for the most part. I
strongly supported that proposal. A minor reason for my support was that
such a large group cannot efficiently or effectively manage a large,
complex organization. The major reason for my support was my observation
that excessive attention to day-to-day management detail was diverting
the Board of Governors' attention from very important policy issues.
The issues on our plate include multidisciplinary practice,
unauthorized practice of law, the developing new lawyer regulation
system, Ethics 2000, and quality of life and financial issues for our
membership. Internal Bar organization concerns include the need to
diversify our staff to better reflect our membership, increased
competition for CLE and books, providing case law and other information
to our members, and continually upgrading our service to members and our
quest to serve the public. These are among the issues facing our
profession and the Bar that require our leadership to rise above the
need to micromanage.
Thus, you can see that the Bar's elected leadership is changing in
response to the increasing size and complexity of our organization and
our changing needs. The status quo is not an option; micromanagement is
out. Policy issues and overall direction of the Bar are receiving
increased attention. Simultaneously, more of the daily management
functions are delegated to the staff professionals consistent with the
policy objectives of the Board of Governors – always with careful
oversight by the Executive and Finance committees.
I look forward to this year and to discussions and lively debate
about the issues that are key to the future of our profession and the
viability of our organization. Contact me with your thoughts at gbakke@bakke-norman.com, or
contact your district governor.
Wisconsin Lawyer