Robert R. Goepel

Education

• U.W.-Parkside, B.A. magna cum laude (1978)
  
  
• Illinois Institute of Technology Chicago - Kent College of Law, J.D. with honors (1982)

Practice

• Solo practitioner, Goepel Law Office, Racine, Wis.
  
  
• Circuit Court Commissioner

Professional activities

• State Bar of Wisconsin: Chair, Board of Governors, 1996-present; Board of Governors and Executive Committee, 1989-90, 1995-present; Finance Committee, 1996-present; State Bar Delegate to the ABA House of Delegates, 1988-present; State Bar Board of Governors liaison to Real Property, Probate and Trust Law and Elder Law sections; co-chair Joint State Bar/BAPR Mandatory Fee Arbitration Committee
  
  
• American Bar Association, member
  
  
• Racine County Bar Association, member
  
  
• USA&M mediator training, 1994

Comment

The last few years the Bar has made tremendous progress assisting its members into the 21st century. With a petition to the Wisconsin Supreme Court to alter the form of the official citation, a number of significant developments ensued. The Bar sought proposals from publishers to market an entire library on computer disk. The result is the LOIS CD-ROM product. This offering undercut other publishers by more than 75 percent for the basic library and subsequently drove down the prices of all competitors. A service to the members and the Bar enjoys a nice profit. The Bar grew from a computer bulletin board service to an award-winning Internet presence, with links throughout the world.

There has been progress, but there is much to be done. With technology, I believe we may begin to offer CLE on demand. It is no longer necessary to purchase an entire book when you are only interested in certain sections. It is no longer necessary to travel to a seminar, when only one hour of the half- or full-day program is relevant to the case you are working on. Selling CLE in this manner can reduce its cost, while making more of the relevant material and programming available to the members.

If elected treasurer I would advocate that the board allocate more of our annual budget surpluses to the research and development of these improvements for the members. This would further fulfill one of the stated purposes of the association.

I ask for your vote.