Vol. 78, No. 2, February
2005
Getting to Know You
Understanding what members want and need is critical to the Bar in
formulating positions on policy and in delivering the services and
products members want. That's why we ask for your input in a variety of
ways.
by George C. Brown,
State Bar executive director
Understanding how you practice, the
challenges you face, and which State Bar programs and member benefits
you find useful is a constant quest of State Bar leadership and staff.
That is why we ask you for feedback on the WisBar Web site on emerging
policy issues, such as the two recent petitions to the Wisconsin Supreme
Court, one from the Wisconsin Trust Account Foundation to require you to
pay $50 to the Foundation every year and one from the Supreme Court
Committee on Ethics 2000 recommending changes to the ethics code. That
is why State Bar presidents and I have traveled to meet with you at
local bar meetings. In 2004, presidents Ballman, Burnett, Behnke, and I
visited with lawyers at more than 30 local and specialty bar
associations from Superior to Kenosha and from Marinette to Prairie du
Chien.
Research surveys are another way that we get to know you. Two recent
surveys have helped us to better understand what you find valuable in
how we deliver legal knowledge and information through this magazine and
how you use technology in your law office.
The Wisconsin Lawyer readership survey results tell us that
88 percent of respondents are satisfied or very satisfied with the
reliability of the information received through the magazine, 80 percent
want the magazine to continue to publish the court digests, and nearly
65 percent are not interested in receiving these digests electronically.
Nearly 70 percent of respondents turn to the annual Wisconsin Lawyer
Directory first when looking for contact information about other
lawyers, law firms, and other law-related entities, while 13 percent use
the LawyerSearch function on WisBar. The remaining 18 percent use other
sources. Even if the Directory were available online, nearly
half of you who responded to the survey still want a print copy because
you find it more convenient to use, especially when the Internet or
high-speed access is not available. Your responses to these and other
questions are being reviewed by the State Bar Communications Committee
and the magazine staff to determine which editorial and design changes
to make in response to this survey's results.
About every two or three years, a random sample of members is asked
to respond to a survey on how you use technology in your offices. We ask
you these questions so we can best determine the impact that technology
has on your practice and how you can use and receive State Bar products
and services. For example, previous surveys informed us that it was
feasible for us to launch State Bar CLE seminars on the Internet.
Highlights from the most recent survey tell us that only about 14
percent of respondents still use dial-up modems to connect to the
Internet; the remainder use faster connections, such as DSL, T1, cable,
or ISDN. Forty-five percent report that you use the State Bar Web site,
WisBar, to conduct online legal research, such as case law retrieval.
More than 50 percent want an electronic legal forms bank. The beginnings
of such a forms bank can now be found on WisBar, where the State Bar
real estate forms are available in Word, WordPerfect, PDF fillable, and
OmniForms.
The best way for the State Bar to improve service to you is to
understand the problems and challenges you face. Let us know what they
are through your letters, by responding to surveys, by using Web site
feedback buttons, and by visiting with us when we attend your local bar
meeting.
Wisconsin Lawyer
