Board prepares final report to supreme court on proposed changes to
rules of professional conduct
January 24, 2005
At its Jan. 13 - 14 meeting, the Board of Governors voted on the
Wisconsin Supreme Court Ethics 2000 Committee's recommended
changes to the Supreme Court Rules (SCR) Chapter 20, Rules of
Professional Conduct for Attorneys. The board is preparing a report for
presentation to the court at the Feb. 17, 9:30 a.m., hearing. The State
Bar will publish the board's final work product as soon as it
becomes available.
The board spent most of its two-day meeting discussing
the most substantive changes recommended in the committee's
142-page final report issued last July outlining proposed amendments to
SCR 20. While the board voted on more than 10 specific proposed rule
changes, the two most divisive changes – pro bono reporting and
fee agreements – engendered considerable discussion.
Rule 6.1 Pro bono: Pro bono publico service. The supreme
court committee proposes, as does the American Bar Association (ABA)
Model Rule, an aspirational goal of 50 hours per year of pro bono legal
service (or the financial equivalent). However, of concern was the
committee's recommendation requiring lawyers to annually report
their pro bono activities. The board also concluded that the
committee's definition of pro bono is too narrow, as it defines
pro bono as legal services provided to low-income individuals and does
not include other community service activities. The board did not
support a mandatory pro bono reporting requirement, voting 30 - 5, with
one abstention, to adopt the ABA Model Rule, which does not require
lawyers to file an annual report.
Rule 1.5 Fees. The board agreed to the first section of
the committee's recommendation on fees, which outlines the factors
to be considered in determining the reasonableness of a fee. However,
the board rejected the committee's recommendation that require
written fee agreements, based on the premise that fee agreements are a
business matter and not an ethical issue. The vote was 23 - 11, with one
abstention.
The Wisconsin Supreme Court created the Ethics 2000
Committee to study the ABA's proposed changes to the model rules.
The Ethics Committee's report and petition, which was filed on
July 29, 2004, set forth its recommendations. This is the most
comprehensive proposal for changes to SCR Chapter 20, Rules of
Professional Conduct for Attorneys, since the mid-1980s.
The board first took up the petition at its September
2004 meeting. Using a knowledge-based decision-making process to analyze
the petition, the board broke into small groups to address its most
substantive changes. The board also considered feedback received from
more than 90 individual members and law-related groups since August. The
January meeting is the culmination of those efforts.
The State Bar continues to encourage member feedback on
this petition before the court's Feb. 17 hearing. Send comments
to ethics-feedback@wisbar.org.
Feedback also can be sent to Dan Rossmiller, Public Affairs Director,
State Bar of Wisconsin, P.O. Box 7158, Madison, WI 53707-7158. All
feedback the Bar receives will be forwarded to the Clerk of Supreme
Court.
