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Vol. 72, No. 6, June 1999 |
Supreme Court Orders
The Wisconsin Supreme Court will hold a piblic hearing on
Sept. 14 regarding the review of the lawyer disciplinary system.
Lawyer
Disciplinary System
In the Matter of the Review of the Lawyer Disciplinary System
Order 99-03
The court has determined it advisable to initiate a comprehensive
review of the structure of the lawyer disciplinary system in
Wisconsin, including the structure of its Board of Attorneys
Professional Responsibility (Board), the Board's administrative
committee, Board staff, and the district professional responsibility
committees. That review will address such matters as the relationship
of the Board to the bar, to the State Bar's BAPR Study Committee,
to this court, and to the public, and the way in which appointments
to the Board are made. That review also will examine the relationship
between the Board's investigative staff and the Board itself
in respect to the investigative, prosecutorial, and disciplinary
functions and the role of the district committees in the disciplinary
process, as well as the relationship of those committees to the
Board and to the staff. The review is intended to contribute
to a determination of the appropriate relationships among the
components in the disciplinary process in order to provide an
effective lawyer disciplinary system that best serves the interests
of the legal system and the interests of the public it serves.
The first step in the comprehensive review is a public hearing
to address the current structure of the lawyer disciplinary system
in Wisconsin and to suggest ways in which it may be restructured
to better serve those it regulates, the legal system, and the
public. The court will invite the deans of the University of
Wisconsin Law School and the Marquette University Law School,
or their designees, and a representative of the American Bar
Association Center for Professional Responsibility to make presentations
at that public hearing on the issue of structure. The court also
will invite other persons and organizations having interest and
experience in the matter to appear. In addition, the court will
hear from other interested persons by written submission or in
person who wish to present their concerns with and ideas about
the structure and process of the disciplinary system in its handling
of grievances against attorneys. The hearing will not, however,
address individual grievances against particular attorneys.
IT IS ORDERED that a public hearing on the review of the structure
of the lawyer disciplinary system and the Board of Attorneys
Professional Responsibility shall be held in the Supreme Court
Hearing Room, 119 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., Madison, Wis.,
on Sept. 14, 1999, at 9 a.m.
IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that notice of the hearing be given
by a single publication of a copy of this order in the official
state newspaper and in an official publication of the State Bar
of Wisconsin as soon as practicable.
Dated at Madison, Wis., this 28th day of April, 1999.
By the court:
Marilyn L. Graves, Clerk
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