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1998 State Bar Annual Report:
Partners in Practice

Conventions and conferences

Partnerships were emphasized at the 1998 Midwinter Convention in Madison, as State Bar President Steve Sorenson stressed fostering better relationships between the Bar and other organizations. More than 200 professionals attended the first lawyer/banker breakfast meeting at the convention.

During the convention, the graduating class of 1948 was honored as 50-year State Bar members. More than 30 program chairs organized nearly 160 speakers to bring numerous CLE opportunities to the 1,000-plus convention attendees. Topics ranged from an introduction to labor law for construction attorneys to the tools of the public-interest lawyer to practical computer technology tips.

More than 700 members gathered during the June Annual Convention in Lake Geneva. There were seminars on "Balancing Life and Practice" including healthy cooking, relaxation techniques, and stress reduction in addition to the usual wide range of CLE seminars featuring more than 100 speakers.

Madison attorney Susan Steingass was sworn in during the event as the 43rd State Bar president, only the second woman to hold this position. And Jonathan Harr, the best-selling author of A Civil Action, spoke to an overflow crowd at the Litigation Section's CLE program.

For the first time, small firm lawyers and solo practitioners had a chance to share ideas and learn how to build successful practices during the 1998 Midwest Small Firm Success Conference. Held in La Crosse this two-day conference, initiated and hosted by the State Bar, included more than 300 attorneys from eight Midwest states.

The State Bar also hosted during the year two regional conferences in Hudson and in Wisconsin Rapids. The conferences, described by some as mini-State Bar conventions, reached out to lawyers unable to attend the two statewide conventions each year.

LOIS CD-ROM legal research

The State Bar of Wisconsin continues its partnership with Law Office Information Systems (LOIS) to bring members an affordable Wisconsin law library on CD-ROM. Nearly 1,500 law offices have subscribed to the service, which offers more than 250,000 pages of Wisconsin caselaw, Wisconsin Statutes, administrative code, and supreme court and court of appeals decisions.

In a new development this past year, the State Bar and LOIS established a new partnership with the Bureau of Justice Information Services and the State Public Defenders Office to provide access to LOIS and hands-on training to every public defender and district attorney in Wisconsin.

Government relations

The State Bar's government relations team worked with the Board of Governors and Bar sections to help develop policy positions on legislation that affect the legal profession, and presented these positions to the Wisconsin Legislature, Congress, and government agencies.

The Lawyers Legislative Action Network, which is now 600 members strong, is key to the Bar's legislative success. Grassroots member attorneys, found in legislative districts statewide, stay informed and in touch with their elected officials through the State Bar's Capitol Update, a weekly insider's look at legislative activities.

Grassroots success stories this year include: six additional circuit court judgeships across Wisconsin; a revamping of Wisconsin's Probate Code; an update of Wisconsin's Nonstock Law; and a defeat of proposals to eliminate judicial substitution.

Educating and Serving the Public

The State Bar takes very seriously educating the public about its legal rights and responsibilities, and working with lawyers and the justice system to ensure the public's access to the legal system. From booklets, videos, talk shows, and hands-on programs like mock trials and lawyer hotlines, the Bar's commitment to that mission is evident in its varied public outreach programs and services.

Connecting with students

The State Bar's Mock Trial Tournament, sponsored by the Law-related Education Committee, is one of the most successful and visible of the Bar's public outreach programs. The program garners extensive coverage by local and statewide media throughout the competition, generating hundreds of column inches of print media copy alone. For this year's 15th Annual Mock Trial Tournament, more than 615 justices, judges, and attorneys volunteered hundreds of hours as coordinators, attorney coaches, and judges to the more than 168 teams and 1,680 student participants from high schools statewide.

The Mock Trial Journalism Contest, held in conjunction with the Mock Trial Tournament and sponsored by the Media-Law Relations Committee, attracted nearly 30 students from 11 high schools statewide to this year's competition. Contestants are judged on the hard news and feature articles they write about the mock trial.

The Mock Trial Journalism Contest received two awards this year at the ABA Midyear Meeting in Nashville. The ABA awards recognize programs that promote greater understanding of the justice system and enhance the legal profession's community service.

Cosponsored by the State Bar and the Wisconsin Supreme Court, the Court with Class program gives high school students an up-close look at the supreme court in session. This educational tool has been overwhelmingly successful, with more than 20 schools signed on a waiting list to visit the supreme court. The program invites high school students to observe oral arguments before the supreme court, then visit afterward with a justice to discuss law-related issues.

This past year, the Court With Class program also received an ABA Award of Merit at the ABA Midyear Meeting.

Peers in Education Addressing Conflict Effectively (PEACE) teaches educators conflict resolution techniques to reduce the level of violence in their schools. PEACE successfully completed its fourth year as more than 80 teachers from 16 schools statewide attended a training session in Madison. Teacher participants in turn train students in the PEACE techniques. The State Bar and the Office of the Attorney General jointly sponsor the program.

The Commission on the Judiciary as a Co-Equal Branch of Government, and the State Bar Videotape and Law-related Education Committees produced a video for middle school students titled "Can Anyone Name the Three Branches of Government?" The video will be distributed to all Wisconsin middle schools in the fall of 1998.

Consumer publications

Published by the Law-related Education Committee with support from the Wisconsin Law Foundation, the 16-page booklet, "Opportunities in the Law," answers questions frequently asked by high school students contemplating legal careers. The booklet also paints a realistic picture of law school, attorney incomes, career choices, and life as a lawyer.

"Understanding Guardianships: A Handbook for Guardians," developed by the State Bar's Consumer Protection Committee, defines a guardian's role and duties; outlines the court procedure for choosing and appointing guardians; discusses special problems guardians face; and describes methods of tracking guardians' activities. The book includes sample forms guardians can use to take inventory, track receipts and disbursements, and provide an annual accounting.

Sponsored by the Communications Committee and written by attorneys expert on the issues discussed, the State Bar's series of consumer information pamphlets gives lawyers and firms an ideal, low-cost way to disseminate basic legal information that clients and the public need and want. Comprising 16 titles, the series covers legal issues that many people face sometime in their lives - such as marriage, divorce, probate, starting a business, and so forth. More than 258,000 pamphlets were delivered to law firms and other organizations for distribution to clients and the public this year.

State Fair Mock Trial

Cosponsored by the State Bar and the Wisconsin Academy of Trial Lawyers, the State Fair Mock Trial is in its 10th year. Each weekend during the fair, a 90-minute fictional criminal or civil trial is presented to fairgoers. Judges preside over the trials, which are argued by attorneys. Audience members serve as jurors. The program educates the public about the jury system by providing an in-person glimpse of a criminal or civil trial.

Business assistance program

This Business Law Section program provides businesses with the help they need to start up or expand. Participating attorneys donate two hours of legal counseling to businesses, or eight hours of counseling to nonprofit organizations. The program helps new and emerging businesses avoid legal problems that could result in failure or bankruptcy. More than 2,500 businesses have been assisted since the program's inception in 1992.

Local bar grants

Each year the Local Bar Grant Competition funds grants of up to $2,000 for local and specialty bar public service projects.

During FY '98 the Local Bar Grant Competition Committee awarded more than $7,600 in grants for these projects:

• production and distribution of lesson plans introducing the law (crimes) to children and adolescents - Dane County Bar Association;
• training of attorneys to staff the Richland County Circuit Court's Courthouse Resource Center to assist pro se litigants in limited matters - Richland County Bar Association;
• updating a booklet dealing with the rights of incarcerated parents - Dane County Bar Association; and
• development of a pro bono directory for Milwaukee County - Milwaukee Bar Association.

LawTalk and Wisconsin Forum

LawTalk, a 30-minute cable access television show, continued this past year with topics such as real estate law, child support, and youth violence. The program continues to run on public access systems in Madison, Milwaukee, Watertown, Sheboygan and elsewhere, with expansion expected in the next year.

The Cable and Broadcast Outreach Committee created LawTalk to educate the public about law-related issues and to help the public understand how to use the legal system and how it can best serve Wisconsin citizens.

An off-shoot of LawTalk, Wisconsin Forum aired on the Fox Network affiliate in Madison on Sunday mornings, addressing current legal and social issues.

Lawyer Referral and Information Service

Experienced LRIS legal assistants field more than 50,000 calls from the public each year - referring on average one in six callers to LRIS panel attorneys. The legal assistants carefully screen each call to be sure an attorney is needed and that the caller can pay an attorney's fees. For those callers who don't meet strict referral criteria, LRIS assistants can provide information or referrals to other resources.

The Lawyer Hotline program, which coordinates volunteer lawyers to answer consumers' simple legal questions, responded to 2,200 information requests.

Legal assistance

The State Bar and its Legal Assistance Committee focused on efforts to more effectively provide Wisconsin lawyers with programming opportunities to assist Wisconsin's low-income citizens with their civil legal needs. Special emphasis was given to:

• the impact of Phillips on Wisconsin's IOLTA program and the Wisconsin Trust Account Foundation;
• increased outreach to local bars, specialty bars and law schools;
• increased public awareness efforts of pro bono and legal services delivery issues;
• support of the Equal Justice Coalition's efforts to develop funding sources to provide direct legal services to Wisconsin's poor; and
• recognition of lawyers' outstanding pro bono efforts through annual awards programs.

The Future

The State Bar of Wisconsin is embarking on a new era of membership and public service. It pledges to listen to members, address their concerns, and meet their ever-changing needs.

One thing is certain. Members expect the State Bar to be ahead of the curve, to be in a position as the 21st century approaches to offer education and technical support for their law practices - whether solo or small-firm practi-tioners, government lawyers, public interest attorneys, large-firm practitioners, or corporate lawyers.

The initiatives undertaken in this year as Partners in Practice - from long-range strategic planning to breaking ground on a new Bar Center, from reaching out to members to bringing lawyers together at regional conferences - have helped pave the Bar's way into the 21st century.