Wisconsin
Lawyer
Vol. 81, No. 4, April
2008
Supreme Court Orders
In February, the Wisconsin Supreme Court granted the State Bar's rule
petition limiting the terms of office of the president and chairperson
of the board
of governors. The court also approved changes to sections one through
four of the bylaws and rejected changes to section five.
State Bar Officers, Bylaw Amendment
In the matter of the petition for revision of SCR 10.04 concerning
the
officers of the State Bar of Wisconsin; In the matter of a petition to
review State
Bar bylaw amendment
Order 07-10, 07-13
Pending before this court are two related regulatory matters. On July
18, 2007,
the State Bar of Wisconsin (State Bar) filed a petition asking the court
to amend
Supreme Court Rule 10.04 to limit the terms of office of its president
and chairperson of
the board of governors each to a single term. On Sept. 21, 2007,
Attorney Steven
Levine filed a petition pursuant to SCR 10.13(2), asking this court to
review a State Bar
bylaw amendment proposing changes to the geographic requirements imposed
on certain State
Bar candidates.1
Because the bylaw amendment derives from the same initiative
giving rise to the
State Bar's petition to amend Supreme Court Rule 10.04, the court and
the parties agreed
it was appropriate for the court to consider these two matters together.
A public hearing was held on Dec. 10, 2007. State Bar President
Thomas J.
Basting, Sr., presented the State Bar's petition. Attorney Levine
appeared and testified
in opposition to the petition. Attorney Levine then presented his
petition urging the
court to reject the proposed bylaw change.
At the ensuing open administrative conference, the court voted,
4-3, to grant
the State Bar's rule petition limiting the terms of office of the
president and
chairperson of the board of governors each to one
term.2 With respect to the bylaw amendments,
the court noted that the proposed changes to sections one through four
of the bylaws
were largely stylistic in nature. The court approved those changes with
minimal
discussion. However, section 5 of the proposed bylaws would have
provided as follows:
Section 5. Regional Diversity of Officers.
In order to encourage participation by lawyers throughout the State
in the leadership of the State Bar, any year's nominees
for the office of President-Elect shall be from only one of four areas
within the State
of Wisconsin. The area designated for a given year shall be on the
rotation
specified herein. The four geographic areas are (a) District 2 - the
Milwaukee area, (b)
District 9 - the Madison area, (c) District 6 - the Waukesha area, and
(d) all other State
Bar Districts - designated as the Out-State area. A nominee's area is
determined by where
he or she primarily practices law. The area from which a candidate(s)
shall be eligible
to run in the election for President-Elect shall rotate each year in the
following
order: District 2, District 9, and then Out-State Districts, with
District 6 being
added following the Out-State area in every third rotation, with such
addition of District
6 being made for the April 2009 election. If no candidates are available
for
nomination from the designated area in a given year, candidates from the
area for the
succeeding year shall be solicited and the rotation moved up to reflect
the area from which
the candidates are nominated. This rotation throughout the State shall
apply to
candidates chosen by the nominating committee and those petitioning for
nomination. The State
Bar shall maintain a schedule of this rotation and the District eligible
for each
annual election for President of the State Bar.
The State Bar explained that this proposed amendment was
intended to codify the
State Bar's traditional practice and to protect the ability of out-state
attorneys to run
for office without opposition from attorneys from the Milwaukee or Dane
County
areas. Attorney Levine countered that the amendment would preclude
interested candidates
from any county from running for State Bar office for several years.
After some discussion about the appropriate standard of review
applicable to
bylaw amendments, the court voted to reject proposed section 5 in its
entirety.
Justice Prosser dissented from this decision, noting that while he did
not support
proposed Section 5, he considered it ill-advised for the court to
involve itself with
internal bar governance.
Accordingly, effective the date of this order, Supreme Court
Rule SCR 10.04 (3m)
is created to read:
10.04 (3m) Term of Office. The office of president and
chairperson of the board
of governors shall be for one term only. The offices of secretary and
treasurer may be
held for more than one term.
IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that effective the date of this order,
Article II, Section 1
of the State Bar Bylaws is amended to read:
Section 1. Nominations. The President Elect, the
Secretary and the Treasurer of
the State Bar shall be elected from a list of candidates nominated in
the
following manner herein
prescribed.
:
(a) The President of the Association with approval of the
Board of Governors
shall appoint A
a committee of five members to nominate candidates for said
offices to
be voted on at the next annual election shall be appointed by
the President of
the Association with the approval of the Board of
Governors
. The nomination committee
shall be approved at the first regularly scheduled Board meeting
following the
annual convention. Such report
The committee shall name one
issue a report naming two
or more candidates nominated by the committee
nominees for the Office of President Elect, two
or more candidates
nominated
-nominees for the Office of Secretary and two or
more candidates nominated
nominees for the Office of Treasurer. Before making its report,
the committee shall solicit from the membership the names of members
interested in
seeking nomination to any office scheduled for election. The committee
shall make its report
no later than December 15 in each year.
(b) Other persons may be nominated for any of said
offices by petition
signed in the case of each
candidate
. Each nominee must provide a petition
signed by not less than one hundred active members of the
Association. , and
The petition must be
filed in the Office of the Executive Director on or before the first
business day of February of
the year of the election, provided that before the filing of
such
petition
. Before such a petition may be filed, the nominee must consent
in a written statement shall be
endorsed thereon by the nominee to the effect that the member consents
to nomination for the office designated in the petition.
IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that Article II, Section 3 of the State
Bar Bylaws is amended
to read:
Section 3. Election of Chairperson of the Board of
Governors. A
The Board shall
elect a Chairperson of the Board of
Governors shall be elected by the
Board
from its members at its last regular meeting each fiscal year. The
President shall appoint a
nominating committee from the governors to
at the second to last regular Board meeting of
the fiscal year. The committee shall nominate one or more candidates
for this
office. at the second to last regular Board meeting of
the fiscal
year.
Those eligible for nomination and election to this office
shall be
are: all
who are then members of the
current Board members, including members whose second
terms expire that June, except for the
President and President Elect. While serving
in that office
as Chairperson of the
Board, the Chairperson of the Board shall be a governor at large and
no longer a district governor.
IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that Article II, Section 4 of the State
Bar Bylaws is amended
to read:
Section 4. Commencement of Term of
Office. The terms of all out-going officers of
the Association and the Chairperson of the Board of Governors shall end,
and the term
of their successors shall commence, on the first day of
July.
IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that the proposed creation of Article II,
Section 5 of the
State Bar Bylaws as set forth above is rejected by the court in its
entirety.
IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that notice of these amendments of Supreme
Court Rule 10.04
and the State Bar Bylaws 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.
Dated at Madison, Wis., this 12th day of February, 2008.
Endnotes
By the court:
David R. Schanker, Clerk of Supreme Court
¶1 DAVID T. PROSSER, J.
(concurring). I concur reluctantly in the court's decision
to approve the petition of the State Bar of Wisconsin to limit the terms
of office of
the bar president and chairperson of the board of governors,
respectively, to a single term.
¶2 As a matter of personal preference, I oppose the State
Bar's petition; yet I
have voted for it because of my belief that the Supreme Court should not
micromanage
the governance of the bar. I have voted against Attorney Levine's
petition for the
same reason, even though I see some merit in it.
Wisconsin
Lawyer