Wisconsin Lawyer: Wisconsin Lawyer July 2000: President's Profile

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July 01, 2000

Wisconsin Lawyer July 2000: President's Profile - Gary Bakke

Status Quo is Not an Option

Bakke The "up in the air" description aptly portrays what's going on in the law profession today, making it ripe for change, Bakke believes. In fact, such thinking had much to do with his decision to run for State Bar president - an idea he cast off as "silly," he admits, when a colleague first suggested it. After all, Bakke is a self-described Bar "outsider." While long active in the Bar, "my activity has been in the sections," he notes, "as opposed to the Board of Governors." He is a former director and chair of the Law Practice Management Section and of the Family Law Section.

After further consideration, however, Bakke felt the timing might be right to run for the Bar's top post, which he assumed July 1. "I decided this was a good time to try to lead in the direction I think the profession has to go," he explains. "My philosophy is that the status quo is not an option, for the profession or for the Bar association. That's a theme you'll hear from me throughout the year."

Some may be surprised to hear such words coming from a man who's been practicing law for 35 years, all of it in a small-town Wisconsin firm. A native of Menomonie, Bakke attended the University of Wisconsin, majoring in math as well as physics, until an inclination to pursue a law degree led him to switch his undergraduate focus to economics. He graduated from the U.W. Law School in 1965, intending to head to the west coast or Minneapolis to use his law skills in a business setting. Instead, he landed in a small private law practice in New Richmond - the "best of both worlds," he says, because it was only 30 miles from Minneapolis and yet a small-town environment for raising a family.

After 20 years with the same firm, Bakke partnered in 1985 with George E. Norman and Thomas R. Schumacher to launch their own firm, which now has attorneys working out of offices in Baldwin, Hudson, and Menomonie, as well as New Richmond.

Legal Profession Faces Escalating Competition

From his vantage point of three-plus decades as an attorney, Bakke sees dramatic changes in the legal profession. Contrary to what some may believe, these transitions are not a distance off in the future. They're already under way. And Bakke believes that most lawyers don't recognize that yet. Lawyers in private practice, for example, feel the economic pressures individually, as many of them now work extremely hard to earn $30,000 or $40,000 a year. "But they don't realize that what they're feeling is part of a sea change affecting the entire profession," Bakke contends. "This isn't something we can fix by marketing. We have to change what we do."

What are some of the shifts currently in motion that attorneys need to respond to? Take, for starters, the new competition they face, which is likely to escalate. "In my lifetime," Bakke notes, "lawyers have lost huge areas of business. When I started practicing, I used to do 150 tax returns a year. Lawyers don't do that any more. Real estate has never been part of my practice, but it's been part of my firm's practice, just as it's part of the practice of almost any firm. But lawyers basically have lost that business to title insurance companies, abstract companies, and realtors."

Any discussion of growing competition invariably brings up the topic of multidisciplinary practices (MDPs), in which lawyers set up shop with other professionals, such as certified public accountants (CPAs) and financial planners, to offer services to clients. "Technically the issue around multidisciplinary practice is whether lawyers can combine with nonlawyers to provide services," Bakke says. "That's an important debate, but it misses the real point, which is that other professionals are going to provide those services regardless of the Bar's position on MDP. The question is can lawyers participate.

"Right now, we have accounting firms advertising their estate planning departments. We think that's unauthorized practice of law, but we're never going to make that stick. The clients aren't going to put up with lawyers defending their traditional turf."

Realtors, CPAs, and other professionals make up part of the new field of competitors, but Bakke says most lawyers fail to recognize their primary competition: their own clients. "Most of the things we do," he says, "clients have the option of doing themselves. There's software available that allows them to draft their own estate plans, or employment agreements, or employee handbooks. Already many potential clients choose to represent themselves in court, including many who can easily afford an attorney."

While statistics from various sources differ, "up to 80 percent of all family cases nationwide have at least one party appearing pro se," Bakke points out.

Add to the list yet another form of competition: the Internet. Bakke pulls out an example of a printout from a Web site of a Harvard professor who acts as a clearinghouse to find flat-fee counsel for individuals or businesses through his nationwide attorney network. At another site, consumers can post their legal problems and receive bids from attorneys who want to do the work.

"I'm not saying these Internet ventures are going to be successful," Bakke explains. "But the point is that so many things are changing out there. The status quo isn't going to work." While lawyers aren't alone in coming to grips with these developments - look at what's happening to booksellers, mortgage brokers, travel agents, and stockbrokers - lawyers have been slow to acknowledge what's going on and search for ways to adapt, Bakke says. That's not surprising behavior, he adds, for a profession made up of people who are taught to look at precedent.

Lawyers Need to be Visionaries

"We are always looking backward. 'How did they do this last time?' It's very difficult to look forward at the same time. We're not into being visionaries," he says. Still, Bakke feels it's a role lawyers must learn to assume. '"I hope we in the Bar association can help guide the changes," he says, "to a place that's good for the profession and the public."

For instance, attorneys must become much more efficient in producing their work products. And that goes beyond employing computer technology. "Just having computers doesn't cut it," Bakke says. "What you need is a system such that you type in a client's name correctly the first time he or she walks into your office, and then never have to type that name again. It should go into every form, every bill. We have that ability in my office today, but we don't use it consistently. That has to change."

But that's just the beginning. Although his law office has a reputation for being on the technology cutting edge among Wisconsin firms, "we're in the Neanderthal era compared to other businesses," Bakke says, citing as an example a recent visit to his hometown bank to obtain a home equity loan. In the time he and his banker chatted about their families, a bank employee produced all the necessary documents and disclosures - in personalized, not merely fill-in-the-blank, format. "You can't do that in my office," Bakke notes.

Becoming more efficient also may require commoditizing some legal services, in order for clients to see them as cost-effective. Many routine legal matters can be off the shelf, rather than designed from scratch for a particular client, Bakke suggests.

But above all, lawyers - whether they're working in private practice, corporate law, or the public sector - need to transform how the public views them. "We have to have the reputation -to earn the reputation - for being problem solvers," Bakke says. "Many people avoid hiring lawyers because they think we're going to make things worse, rather than better. We have the opportunity to be good counselors and problem-solvers, and to be cost-effective and efficient - what the CPAs claim to be. But we can be better at it because, as lawyers, we have a much broader perspective. We can understand matters and put them in context. Good lawyers are Renaissance men and women."

Too often, however, lawyers get caught up in an adversarial demeanor and forget the counselor role, Bakke observes. Many new law school graduates seem to feel it's their job to be argumentative and confrontational. "I'm distraught by that," Bakke says. "Now, there are cases where strong, zealous advocacy is important - in criminal cases or cutting-edge tort litigation. If you're going to take on Ford Motor Company, you'd better be aggressive. But that doesn't mean you do that if you're dividing the home 40. Or if you're helping two people who once chose each other in marriage to resolve matters in a civil way, without burning every bridge, throwing bombs, and helping them hate each other forever. And hurting their kids. Some lawyers don't make that distinction. But we have to."

All of these factors - the economic pressures, increased competition, combative lawyering - combine to create severe consequences for attorneys, both in terms of the public's perception of the profession and in lawyers' personal lives, Bakke says. He notes that lawyers now rank highest among all professionals for incidence of depression. Maintaining balance is vital. For Bakke, a former marathon runner and competitive ski jumper for 20 years, "Physical work is my recreation," he says. Some of that "recreation" took the form of designing and building his own home a few years ago. Family is another focal point of his personal life; he and his wife have two daughters, ages 36 and 24, and two adopted sons, 12 and 6.

As Bar president, Bakke hopes to stir discussion among his fellow lawyers about the dilemmas and problems they must face. "I don't know the answers," he says, "but I can help us focus on the issues. I know that people who are smarter than I am can find solutions. I have a lot of confidence in lawyers when we work together."

Dianne Molvig operates Access Information Service, a Madison research, writing, and editing service. She is a frequent contributor to area publications.