A Time to Take Stock

Page 1: A Time to Take Stock

Building on Past Efforts

Promoting current Bar programs will bring multiple benefits, Mowris believes. Not only do these projects offer help to people in diverse ways, but greater awareness of these programs also will elevate the general public's attitudes about lawyers. Plus, "lawyers will feel better about what they do," Mowris adds, "and about what the State Bar does. I think if more lawyers knew that the Bar works on the peer mediation program, or if they knew that the Bar provides materials to go out to talk to high school students about their rights and responsibilities when they turn 18, then more lawyers would be interested in doing things like that, too. They'd want to participate. We could reinvigorate some of our programs that way."

In a sense, Mowris's mission this year could be described as taking stock of what the Bar is already doing. Taking stock, however, is not to be equated with standing still. Besides publicizing existing programs, Mowris wants to spur self-examination. Which programs are working well? How could they be even better? How can the Bar get more attorneys actively involved?

Beyond that, Mowris wants to build upon certain efforts begun under prior presidential initiatives. The Public Trust and Confidence in the Justice System project, created in 1999 during Leonard Loeb's tenure, was a joint project of the state supreme court, the Bar, and the Wisconsin League of Women Voters, aimed at scrutinizing fairness - and the public's perception of fairness - within the justice system. After weighing input from judges, attorneys, litigants, defendants, clerks of court, jurors, and others, the committee proposed an action plan. "I'm committed to carrying that project to the next stage," Mowris says. "We could try some of the actions outlined in the committee's report and see if those are successful in turning around people's perception of the system."

Looming large on the horizon for the year ahead, and possibly for many years to come, is the Seize the Future project, stemming from a conference convened during immediate Past President Gary Bakke's term. Now that the State Bar Board of Governors has adopted the seven-part Seize the Future Resolution (see www.wisbar.org/bar/stf/stf.html), Bar committees and a special commission will study ways to implement various changes while also preserving the legal profession's core values.

Unlike what attorneys often assume, Seize the Future is about much more than multidisciplinary practice (MDP), Mowris emphasizes. "There are a lot of concepts in Seize the Future that I think we need to examine," he notes, "beyond just MDPs. That one seems to be the lightning rod. But there are other issues, such as figuring out ways to help lawyers unbundle their services so they can provide their services to people at reasonable rates."

While MDP may be the most charged aspect of the Seize the Future concept, Mowris believes lawyers can devise workable solutions that eventually will win broad support. "There are a lot of easy clichés both ways," he says, "that make people pro- or anti-MDPs. I think a better approach is to look at elements of the MDP concept that would be of benefit to lawyers, if we can figure out ways to massage our rules without compromising the ethical concerns. We'll continue to work on that."

Page 3: Making Connections