Strategic Partnerships
Cosponsored Programs

by George C. Brown,
State Bar executive director

A COUPLE OF WEEKS AGO, MANY OF YOU RECEIVED A CLE seminars brochure advertising a program titled "Business Valuation: What Judges, Attorneys, and Business Appraisers Need to Know." In many ways this is a typical seminar produced by the State Bar. It is a topic of interest and value to a wide range of our members. But it has one important difference from many of our other seminars. It is cosponsored by three major associations whose members also will benefit from such a program, including the Wisconsin Institute of Certified Public Accountants, the National Association of Certified Valuation Analysts, and the American Society of Appraisers.

These cosponsorships illustrate an upward trend in the association world that already has occurred in the for-profit business world: the growth of strategic partnerships in order to help bring value to our members at a reasonable price.

These strategic partnerships can occur with organizations outside the State Bar as well as entities within the Bar association. Many of you have attended or seen advertisements for seminars or convention programs cosponsored by various State Bar sections and divisions. This year alone, CLE Seminars will partner with other entities for 24 of the more than 60 separate programs they will produce. Eight of those are with sections, divisions, or committees. The remainder are partnerships with other associations much like the business valuation program, or with various other entities such as the Corporate Practice Institute or WILMIC.

Many State Bar public service programs are produced in partnership with other entities. The High School Mock Trial Program, the annual Teachers' Institute, and Court with Class all are produced in partnership with the Wisconsin Supreme Court. Many Law Day activities are developed through a partnership with the State Bar, the American Bar Association, the supreme court, and local bar associations.

For more than 10 years, we have partnered with the Wisconsin Academy of Trial Lawyers on the annual State Fair Mock Trial program. We also partner with the Department of Justice on the PEACE Initiative that trains teachers in peer mediation techniques, and we bring public forums on justice system issues to communities statewide in partnership with the Office of the State Public Defender.

Last year's highly successful Life Planning program resulted from a partnership of the State Bar, the State Medical Society, the Wisconsin Health and Hospital Association, and Gunderson Clinic in La Crosse.

And we partner with many of you to bring quick, free legal advice to Wisconsin citizens through Hometown Hotlines hosted by law firms in communities across the state.

Strategic partnerships increase the State Bar's capacity to produce quality programs that benefit you in your practice. They also increase our ability to develop meaningful public service programs that help make Wisconsin a better place to live.

Wisconsin Lawyer