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Vol. 71, No. 11, November 1998
1998 State Bar Annual Report:
Partners in Practice
 It was a year for lawyers
to connect with each other, to work more closely with each other. Initiatives
such as long-range strategic planning, moving forward with a new
headquarters for the Bar, bringing lawyers together at smaller regional
conferences, and assessing member needs headlined the year.
Hundreds of members statewide joined in Project Vision, the State
Bar's long-range planning initiative. State Bar divisions, sections, committees,
and affiliated organizations held strategic planning sessions during the
year to help guide the Bar well into the 21st century.
Recognizing that the Bar simply had outgrown its existing facility, the Board
of Governors approved a recommendation to acquire land on Madison's northeast
side and construct a building to meet its current and future needs. Groundbreaking
for the new Bar Center occurred this past summer. The new 40,000-square-foot
Bar Center will provide:
- easy member access from the Interstate and major highways;
- adequate free parking;
- meeting and work space for members while in Madison; and
- space for CLE seminars and computer/technology training.
Smaller than the Bar's two yearly conventions, regional conferences
in Hudson and Wisconsin Rapids provided area attorneys the opportunity to
gather for networking and CLE programming that they might otherwise miss.
And the first-ever Midwest Small Firm Success Conference, initiated and
sponsored by the State Bar, brought more than 300 attorneys from eight Midwest
states together for special programs geared to small and sole practices.
The State Bar continually surveys its members to assess their
needs, to find out how the Bar is doing to meet those needs, and what the
Bar should be doing in the future. This research points the way to better
understand and meet member needs.
In addition to the many programs and initiatives moving the Bar and its
member service efforts forward into the next century, the Bar continued
its commitment to public service. This Annual Report highlights many of
those achievements.
This truly was a year of partners in practice with the members and the
Bar working hard to meet the needs of the legal community and the public.
Assessing Members' Needs
Understanding where the legal profession is headed and analyzing other market forces
allows the Bar to anticipate the current and future needs of
its members. Assessing member needs is a never-ending process, not just a periodic
ritual.
Member survey
The current membership survey continues the Bar's effort to gauge members'
needs and how to better meet them. (The full text of the survey was published
in the October 1998 Wisconsin
Lawyer.)
Membership Profile
1998 -- 19,732 members
% members female
25%
% members male
75%
New members admitted
703
1988 -- 15,459 members
% members female
17%
% members male
83%
New members admitted
699
1978 -- 11,197 members
New members admitted
591
(breakdown of male vs. female not available)
1968 -- 7,784 members
New members admitted
N/A
(breakdown of male vs. female not available) |
When asked to rate the value of the Bar's offerings, resident
and nonresident respondents ranked the same offerings within the top six,
but with different values. Those offerings include CLE Seminars, CLE Books,
Wisconsin Lawyer magazine, Wisconsin Lawyer Directory, CLE
seminar written materials, and the ethics hotline.
What do you need from the State Bar that is currently not provided?
Some respondents wanted lower costs or price breaks for everything from
Bar dues to convention and seminar registration fees. Others suggested that
the Bar do more to improve the public image of lawyers and to meet the needs
of government lawyers.
Nonresident members wanted better local access to Bar services, including
seminars delivered through teleconferences or the Internet, and CLE classes
convened near state borders.
How can the State Bar help you prepare for practicing law in the 21st
century? Respondents asked for more computer training, software reviews,
technology updates, and continued improvements of the Bar's Web site. Other
requests ranged from lower fees and costs, to efforts to improve civility
and collegiality among lawyers.
Law firm technology survey
The second annual 1997 Law Firm Technology Survey measured current technology
usage levels among members and identified opportunities to assist members
with adopting and using computer technology. The State Bar intends to annually
assess members' evolving technology usage and needs. (The full results were
published in the October
1997 Wisconsin Lawyer.)
The 1997 Law Firm Technology Survey revealed:
- 50 percent of responding firms have Internet access, up from
30 percent the previous year; 11 percent plan to obtain Internet access
within the next year;
- 486-based PCs are the most frequently used computers, averaging
about five computers per firm; Pentium-based PCs average four per firm;
and 386-based PCs average three per firm; and
- 57 percent of respondents are interested in downloading CLE self-study
materials from the Internet if credits were available.
Survey results are used by law firms to compare their own technology
use with that of their counterparts. This information helps lawyers plan
for future technology acquisitions and training to better position themselves
in the legal marketplace. The survey results also help the Bar meet existing
member needs and anticipate future needs - so that information and training
is available even before members request it.
Meeting Members' Needs
The State Bar recognizes that one of the most valuable commodities for
any attorney is information. To meet its members' professional challenges,
the Bar has developed a wealth of high-quality information resources, ranging
from books, seminars, and special periodicals to conventions, computerized
research services, and even a hotline to assist members with ethics questions.
Internet technology
More than one million pages of information were accessed from WisBar,
the State Bar's Internet site, testimony to the Bar's commitment to providing
members with pertinent, accurate, and timely legal information. The site
has welcomed visitors from as far away as Hong Kong, Norway, Greece, New
Guinea, Hungary, and dozens of other locations.
WisBar's goal is to provide daily practice tools for busy Wisconsin attorneys
in a 24-hour, easy-access, easy-use, secure transaction environment. In
furtherance of its goals, WisBar's advances this past year include:
The State Bar successfully broadcast its first CLE seminar live over
the Internet to a test audience. This effort lays the groundwork for
future live, online seminars.
WisBar now offers a secure environment for members to purchase
CLE books and other products and to register for seminars and other events.
Caselaw Express, a free weekly email
service, delivers subscribers the previous week's court decisions.
Lawyer Search,
a database-driven search engine allows users to search around the clock
for Wisconsin attorneys by name, city, and law school.
Resolving lawyer and client disputes
The new State Bar Lawyer Dispute Resolution Program
helps lawyers resolve differences during law firm breakups. The Professionalism
Committee developed this program to head off litigation, protect clients,
and reduce the burden on the courts.
The Resolution of Fee Disputes service provides the public and
lawyers with fast and inexpensive arbitration hearings to settle fee disputes
between lawyers and clients. Confidentiality is guaranteed. During FY '98,
more than 400 clients, attorneys, and judges contacted the State Bar for
information on the program, with a total of 57 applications accepted for
arbitration hearings.
Ethics advice
During FY '98, the State Bar Ethics Hotline
conducted 2,114 informal consultations with members on such topics as confidentiality
and conflicts of interest.
The Professional Ethics Committee also issues formal ethics opinions
at the request of members. This year the committee issued opinions regarding
representation in real estate transactions and professional obligations
that arise when a lawyer and law firm part company.
Local bar outreach
Supreme Court Rules direct the State Bar "to encourage the formation
and activities of local bar associations." Accordingly, the State Bar
sponsors an annual Wisconsin Bar Leaders Conference. This past year's
program focused on helping local bar leaders "build a better bar."
It included breakout sessions on strategic planning, structuring and organizing
the framework of local bars, and helping local bars move forward in the
rapidly changing world of cyberspace.
The State Bar also provides assistance to lawyers wishing to form their
own local bars. Door County lawyers took advantage of this service to help
form the new Door County Bar Association.
In addition, the State Bar of Wisconsin supports public service activities
of local and specialty bars through a Local Bar Grant Competition. More
than $7,600 was awarded for projects last year.
Wisconsin Lawyers Assistance Program
The Wisconsin Lawyers Assistance Program
(WisLAP) continued to help lawyers, judges, law students, and their families
cope with alcoholism and other chemical addictions, depression, acute and
chronic anxiety, and problems related to the stress of practicing law.
Trained volunteers provide information and confidential, meaningful assistance
24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Considerable attention was given to the stresses of lawyering during
the Bar's Annual Convention. The convention's theme, "Balancing Life
and Practice," set the stage for many informative WisLAP programs.
CLE books
CLE Books continued to spotlight the expertise
of some of Wisconsin's most talented attorneys as nearly 300 lawyers volunteered
to be authors or reviewers. Advising
Older Clients and Their Families, a two-volume set, was copublished
this year with the Elder Law Section. A comprehensive guide to all aspects
of elder law, 25 experienced Wisconsin practitioners wrote the handbook,
and more than 30 others served as expert reviewers.
Top six State Bar offerings members use or participate in
Wisconsin Lawyer
95% (residents)
88.9% (nonresidents)
CLE Seminars
94.4%
60.2%
State Bar Newsletter
91.6%
78.9%
CLE Books
90.5%
62.3%
CLE Seminar written materials
89.9%
57.7%
Wisconsin Lawyer Directory
87.4%
83.7% |
CLE Books also revised 12 existing publications and supplemented 22 other
books during the fiscal year. Some of the new editions included Eckhardt's Workbook for Wisconsin Estate
Planners, Worker's Compensation
Handbook, Guardian ad Litem Handbook,
Organizing a Wisconsin Business Corporation,
and Wisconsin Employment Law.
CLE seminars
CLE Seminars presented nearly 70 live programs
during this past fiscal year. It also produced more than 500 video replays
and seven teleseminars, offering a total of 370 credits and reaching
more than 12,000 registrants. More than 260 Wisconsin practitioners
volunteered their time and expertise as seminar faculty.
CLE Seminars continued to cosponsor and produce programs in cooperation
with other professional organizations, putting on successful joint programs
with the Corporate Practice Institute, the Wisconsin Institute of Certified
Public Accountants, and the American Board of Trial Advocates.
The most popular programs focused on technology-related issues, including
research on the Internet, and an examination of the law of privacy in the
information age. In response to member feedback, CLE Seminars continues
to explore alternative ways to deliver CLE, including developing cost-effective,
online, on-demand CLE programming.
Committee, division, and section member outreach
Most of the work of the State Bar is accomplished through committee,
division, and section volunteers. These entities give members an opportunity
to participate in the Bar, expand and share their expertise, and network
with colleagues who share a common focus.
Among their many work products, volunteers produce special focus newsletters,
work on legislative issues, and provide CLE programming at conventions and
conferences. This past year, for instance, the Bankruptcy Section began
issuing periodic "Supreme Court Scoop" postcards to members -
a fast way to communicate recent decisions; the Business Law Section expanded
its Business Assistance Program to cover nonprofit organizations as well
as small businesses; and the International Practice Section provided speakers
for legal issues seminars hosted by the Wisconsin World Trade Center for
the benefit of Wisconsin businesses.
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