President's Perspective

This is Not Your Father's Bar Association

by Gary L. Bakke

Professionally Managing Our Bar

Our Bar recently passed the 20,000-member milestone. We now officially have 20,203 members. We have three divisions – nonresident, government, and young lawyers – with significant efforts underway to create a senior lawyers division. We have 25 active sections, each with a chair and board of directors. There are more than 40 committees, including the standing committees created by Supreme Court Rule: Professional Ethics, Legal Assistance, CLE, and Communications. Our annual budget is about $10 million, of which only one-third is generated by dues.

Our membership includes 2,333 solo practitioners in Wisconsin; 5,664 members of firms of two or more in Wisconsin; 2,109 government lawyers, including judges; and 6,031 nonresident lawyers. The remaining 4,000 are in an emeritus, inactive, or another special category.

Maintaining the Bar's relevance to this extraordinarily diverse group is a formidable task for leadership – a task that requires a renewed focus on global policy issues facing our profession and our association. The Bar must continually challenge itself to give value and benefit to members. Executive Director George Brown explains this concept best: "We must treat all members as if they are voluntary members."

Maintaining relevance and responding to member needs must be done with the understanding that we are not a trade organization. Our mission is much larger than merely advocating for the financial interests of our members. As a creation of the Wisconsin Supreme Court, the State Bar of Wisconsin is charged with fulfilling its designated purposes, which are to assist the courts in carrying on and improving the administration of justice and a myriad of other public interest objectives set forth is SCR 10.02 (2). (Reprinted at page 624 of your 2000 Wisconsin Lawyer Directory and online at www.courts.state.wi.us/html/rules/CHAP10.htm.)

Together with the Bar membership and its more than 90 employees, the State Bar is recognized as a national leader in providing CLE books and seminars to members, publishing a first-class monthly magazine, maintaining a highly respected lobbying presence in the State Legislature, and implementing numerous initiatives to improve the administration of justice and to increase the public's trust and confidence in the justice system.

In my travels on behalf of the Bar, I am continually impressed with the fact that other bar associations look to the excellence of Wisconsin as a model. The credit goes jointly to member volunteers and staff. We have a great team.

This is not your father's bar association. We cannot be effectively managed by part-time officers working with a committee of 50 (the Board of Governors) that meets only five times a year. Nor will micromanagement advance the overriding purposes for which we exist. Professional management is essential to any organization of this size and complexity. That professional management must be guided by a focused group of volunteers who can be expected to devote considerable time to the task of understanding and guiding this complex organization.

We have in place both the professional management at the staff level and the appropriate oversight mechanism. Starting at the top, our executive director, George Brown, is a talented "people person" with years of experience in the Bar association. He brings his awesome knowledge of the profession and its direction to the task of representing us to the staff and the lay community. At the director level, Katy Duren, Betty Braden, Joyce Hastings, Linda Barth, Pat Kelly, and Gene Goswehr bring talent and experience to their areas. Dedicated and talented individuals staff every department.

Oversight is the task of the Executive Committee, chaired by Jim Brennan, and the Finance Committee, chaired by Kathleen Grant. These committees work on a continuous basis with the staff to watch the till and assure that our efforts are on target.

In June, the Board of Governors adopted the recommendation of the Governance Committee, chaired by John Macy and Bob Hagness, that the Board take a stronger role in policy making and that management oversight be delegated to the Executive Committee for the most part. I strongly supported that proposal. A minor reason for my support was that such a large group cannot efficiently or effectively manage a large, complex organization. The major reason for my support was my observation that excessive attention to day-to-day management detail was diverting the Board of Governors' attention from very important policy issues.

The issues on our plate include multidisciplinary practice, unauthorized practice of law, the developing new lawyer regulation system, Ethics 2000, and quality of life and financial issues for our membership. Internal Bar organization concerns include the need to diversify our staff to better reflect our membership, increased competition for CLE and books, providing case law and other information to our members, and continually upgrading our service to members and our quest to serve the public. These are among the issues facing our profession and the Bar that require our leadership to rise above the need to micromanage.

Thus, you can see that the Bar's elected leadership is changing in response to the increasing size and complexity of our organization and our changing needs. The status quo is not an option; micromanagement is out. Policy issues and overall direction of the Bar are receiving increased attention. Simultaneously, more of the daily management functions are delegated to the staff professionals consistent with the policy objectives of the Board of Governors – always with careful oversight by the Executive and Finance committees.

I look forward to this year and to discussions and lively debate about the issues that are key to the future of our profession and the viability of our organization. Contact me with your thoughts at gbakke@bakke-norman.com, or contact your district governor.

Wisconsin Lawyer