Vol. 75, No. 11, November 2002

Volunteering Time, Expertise Giving Back

by George C. Brown,
State Bar executive director

Thousands of Wisconsin attorneys volunteer time, talent, and energy giving back to your profession and communities. More than 1,000 of you annually volunteer to serve on State Bar committees, on division and section boards, and on the Board of Governors. Nearly 150 of you coach high school students in the annual statewide high school mock trial competition, and an additional 450-plus serve as mock trial judges. Each year more than 100 serve the public through the Lawyer Referral and Information Services Hotline program, providing free counsel to citizens who need brief legal advice. And this doesn't include the thousands of hours you give to your local or specialty bar associations or to your community or religious organizations, let alone all the pro bono legal work so many of you perform.

Volunteering takes all manner of time. In service to your colleagues, some of you have available only a few hours a month, so become involved in the State Bar grassroots program or serve on a committee. Others can spend more time, so volunteer to teach at a CLE program, write a CLE book chapter, or serve on the Board of Governors or a section board. For the State Bar president, volunteering is a half-time job. Because we ask so much of you as members, State Bar staff also are encouraged to give back through their communities or professional organizations.

Recently, senior government relations coordinator Jenny Boese returned from her third annual week-long trip to the Dominican Republic on missions work with her church group to improve the living conditions and spiritual lives of people in one rural village. Working with civic and church leaders, she has performed all manner of community development work. She has worked to improve housing and sanitation, including constructing latrines, and even helped start a baseball club similar to Little League by bringing hundreds of baseball gloves and balls to the villagers. Dozens of State Bar staff have answered her annual call for contributions for school supplies, clothing, and sporting equipment.

At the end of September, Joyce Hastings, the longtime editor of this magazine and the director for the State Bar's Communications Department, attended the annual conference of the National Association of Bar Executives (NABE) Communication Section. Joyce is a past president of the section and often makes presentations on publishing, Web site development, and other communications issues at national conferences. At this meeting, she gave a presentation on the Bar's branding effort to more than 100 of her colleagues from other state and local bar associations. She also returned with something special. In recognition of her leadership and contributions to the section and the communications profession, Joyce was presented with the highest award offered by the NABE Communications Section, the E.A. "Wally" Richter Award.

Jenny and Joyce are just two of the many staff members who volunteer their time and talents. Just as community service is a hallmark of Wisconsin lawyers, so is it characteristic of the staff who work for you at the State Bar of Wisconsin.

Wisconsin Lawyer