Letters
Letters to the editor: The Wisconsin Lawyer
publishes as many letters in each issue as space permits. Please limit
letters to 500 words; letters may be edited for length and clarity.
Letters should address the issues, and not be a personal attack on
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Please mail letters to "Letters to the Editor," Wisconsin Lawyer, P.O.
Box 7158, Madison, WI 53707-7158, fax them to (608) 257-4343, or email
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Coalition of Wisconsin Aging Groups also serves the poor
elderly
I read with interest the fine article on legal services for the
poor by Hannah Dugan in the May issue. I was gratified to see the
Bar taking such interest in this underserved population. The article,
however, covered only those organizations that receive any assistance
from the Wisconsin Trust Account Foundation (WisTAF). Some organizations
such as ours do not receive any assistance from WisTAF but are critical
to the delivery of legal services to the poor elderly.
We are the Elder Law Center of the Coalition of Wisconsin Aging
Groups. In 65 counties we provide legal backup attorney assistance for
the Benefit Specialist Program. (The remaining counties receive legal
backup from Senior Law, a part of Legal Action of Wisconsin.) We staff
the Guardianship Support Center and The Medicare/Medicaid Fraud and
Abuse Project. We train attorneys and nonattorneys in the areas of elder
rights and benefits and publish a book by the same name. The poor
elderly are the most overlooked poverty group, since the marketing
forces emphasize the elderly with large disposable incomes.
Although WisTAF and other initiatives from the Bar have focused more
attention on the needs of the poor, please do not assume that those of
us who do not get money from WisTAF are not providing a valuable service
and that we are adequately funded. We are funded by government grants,
but, like all legal service providers, our lawyers are overworked and
underpaid for their talents and dedication. We need additional lawyers,
who we cannot fund unless we can find additional funding sources. We
urge all attorneys to become more concerned about the underfunded
programs, including ours, so that WisTAF and the Equal Justice Coalition
will have more money and can help elderly legal services in the same way
they have helped children and families.
Helen Marks Dicks, Director
CWAG Elder Law Center
Madison
Lawyers must prove their value to clients
Of all the reasons to oppose the MDP issue - and there are many -
fear of the Big Five might be the least compelling. While they may
indeed be the "driving force" behind the issue, ultimately it will be
the clients who must judge whom they want to counsel them. If practicing
lawyers are able to provide high quality services that add value to
their clients' transactions, there should be no fear of role
usurpation.
In fact, licensed attorneys would sleep easier at night if they knew
their Big Five counterparts. Few people enter law school with the dream
of doing Big Five consulting work upon graduation, and those who do end
up there begin at salaries far lower than their law firm counterparts.
And in big cities, consultants stand to earn only one-third of what
first-year attorneys take home at the large law firms. The point is that
as long as law firms continue to attract the best human capital, clients
should presumably choose law firms over accounting firms.
But simply having bright legal graduates will not ensure that law
firms continue to succeed, which is perhaps why the threat of
billion-dollar law-practicing corporations may appear so ominous. The
real problem, it seems, is that lawyers may not have done enough in the
past to persuade their clients that their legal services create real
value. Instead, clients overwhelmingly tend to view lawyers as a
necessary evil and view legal expenses in the same way they view their
office's utility bill.
The key for law firms is to emphasize to their clients exactly how
their legal services are superior to services they might receive
elsewhere. They must highlight their specialties, their experienced
attorneys, and their young talent - and above all, most importantly, law
firms must emphasize that the practice of law is a profession, an
undertaking that involves a code of conduct, fiduciary relationships,
and rigorous intellectual problem solving. If the accounting firms think
they can keep their salaries low and still compete with law firms, we
should welcome the competition, if only to prove to clients that there
is no substitute for a highly skilled and professional law firm. Bring
'em on, I say.
Steve Dries
Madison
Government lawyers also are part of the legal
profession
In the May Wisconsin Lawyer, Gary Bakke proclaims that he
has "always thought of the law as one profession." He then devotes most
of his President's Message to
warning about possible divisions between trial lawyers and
"transactional lawyers," and briefly notes that a division between small
firms and large firms might occur.
Mr. Bakke's article itself fractures the profession, dooming some of
its members to alienation and anonymity. He apparently has not realized
that there also are government lawyers. The profession that he sees, and
hopes remains unified, is only part of the profession that exists.
Fifteen or 20 years ago another State Bar president devoted a
President's Message to castigating government lawyers as incompetents
and troublemakers because many of them opposed the requirement that they
join a bar that did little or nothing for them.
I am trying to decide whether being forgotten or being castigated is
worse.
Jack Stark
Madison
Wisconsin
Lawyer