Here are highlights of what's coming up during the State Bar of Georgia's Board of Governors meeting on Saturday October 16, followed by a copy of the entire agenda.
Proposed amendments to the Rules of Professional Conduct
From my relative-newbie perspective looking at the agenda, it appears that the main issue requiring board action is a bunch of proposed amendments to the Rules of Professional Conduct.
I’ve mentioned this before in the blog and have forwarded information about the various deadlines for submitting language changes. Back in June, the board voted to set the following schedule for consideration of proposed amendments to the Rules of Professional Conduct:
1) Suggested wording changes must be made in writing and received by the State Bar on or before Tuesday July 20, 2010, for inclusion in the Board's agenda book.
2) Brief discussion of the proposed amendments and any wording changes will occur during the Board's Summer Meeting on Thursday August 12, 2010.
3) Final suggested wording changes must be in writing and must be received by the State Bar on or before Tuesday September 21, 2010, for inclusion in the Board's agenda book.
4) Action will be taken on Saturday, October 16, 2010, at which time no other wording changes will be in order.
So, I’ve tried to keep y’all updated as each of these deadlines approached. At this point, I think it will just be an up or down vote on the proposed changes. (Though, I could be wrong on that.)
While I have not heard from any of you regarding these proposed changes, there are some folks who have weighed in to the State Bar and their comments are accessible through the link in the agenda that was loaded on-line Thursday October 14 and that I have reproduced below. (I note some of these links just get me hieroglyphics. I don’t know if the problem is with the links, the documents loaded by the bar, or the software on my MacBook. But, the link of the comments did work for me.)
What I’m not clear on from the agenda book is whether any of these comments have been addressed in the proposed amendments that we are to be voting on.
This section of the Board Book takes up about 350 pages (of the 549 page book). It would be nice if there was something saying, yes, we took so and so’s comments to heart and changed thus and such. Or is it just that these proposed changes are as previously proposed? This is something I definitely need to track down by Saturday. I will keep you posted.
Legislation
A big chunk of the agenda seems to revolve around various legislative issues, which makes sense in the Fall with the Georgia General Assembly set to convene in January.
These include:
Continued support of proposals to “modernize” the rules of evidence.
A proposal by the Women and Minorities in the Profession Commission for endorsement of legislation to appropriate $2.5 million for civil legal services in the 2012 fiscal year for low income victims of domestic violence.
A proposal by the board of the Georgia Appellate Practice and Resource Center, Inc. for endorsement of continuation funding of $800,000, which would return it to the normative baseline funding level for the years FY 2002-2008. This organization, which provides post-conviction representation to persons sentenced to the death penalty, has suffered budget cuts of 27.5 percent in FY 2009 from $800,000 to 580,000 and further cut later that year to $528,963. For FY 2010, the budget was set at $580,000, but was cut to $551.000. The state-provided budget was supplemented by the Georgia Bar Foundation and the State Bar, but the outlook for FY 2012 looks bleak. Thus, the Resource Center seeks endorsement of its $800,000 budget request.
A proposal by the Real Property Law Section for support of a measure that would prohibit so-called “transfer fee covenants.” These covenants are explained as follows:
Transfer fee covenants provide that, upon each sale of a parcel of property subject to the covenants (e.g., each lot in a subdivisions), a transfer fee (typically equal to 1% of the sales price) must be paid to a private third party (typically the property’s developer or its trustee), who otherwise has no connection to the property or the transactions. The developer or other seller establishes the covenant by either recording a covenant in the local public record or including the covenant in the deed for the property or any portion of it. Typically, these covenants are in effect for 99 years and are applied to residential properties, although they are also of concern in regard to commercial properties. The proposed bill . . . exempts from its proposed prohibition legitimate fees and assessments payable to those associations, requiring, for example, that any fees and assessments be utilized to pay the operating costs of the association and the affected property.
Other Issues
As you can see below, there are other items on the agenda, but these, at least to my newbie eyes, seem more informational, than actionable.
I will let you know if I’m off in that assessment.
Agenda
STATE BAR OF GEORGIA
233rd BOARD OF GOVERNORS MEETING
Saturday, October 16, 2010
9:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.
Edgewater Beach & Golf Resort
Panama City, Florida
1) ADMINISTRATION
a) Call to Order: Lester Tate, President
b) Recognition of Past Presidents: Lester Tate
c) Recognition of Special Guests: Lester Tate
d) Roll Call (by signature): Robin Clark, Secretary
e) Minutes of the 232nd Meeting of the Board of Governors, August 12, 2010 (action): Robin Clark
f) Future Meetings Schedule: Lester Tate
2) BOARD ACTION
a) Amendments to the Rules of Professional Conduct: Paula Frederick
(2) Comments and Suggested Wording Change
(4) Disciplinary Rules and Procedures Committee's Proposed Amendments
b) Commission on Continuing Lawyer Competency: Lester Tate
(1) Appointment to replace Lester Tate 2011-2013
(2) Appointment to replace Derek White 2011-2013
c) Judicial Qualifications Commission Nominations: Ken Shigley
3) LEGISLATION: Tom Cauthorn, Chair, ACL; Charles Clay, Vice Chair, ACL
a) Rules of Evidence: Tom Byrne, Chair, Evidence Study Committee
b) Funding Request for Victims of Domestic Violence: Allegra Lawrence-Hardy, Chair, Committee on Diversity and Inclusion in the Profession
c) Funding Request for Georgia Resource Center: Brian Kammer, Executive Director, Georgia Resource Center; Rob Remar, Chair, Board of Directors, Georgia Resource Center
d) Real Property Section Prohibition of Transfer Fee Covenants: Patrise Perkins-Hooker, Chair, Real Property Law Section
e) Overview (information): Tom Boller; Rusty Sewell
4) INFORMATION REPORTS
a) Bar Center: Lester Tate
(1) New Auditorium and Conference Room
(2) Marietta Street and Centennial Park Drive Improvements
(3) Spring Street Viaduct Replacement
(4) South Georgia Office's 2nd Conference Room
b) Treasurer's Report: Buck Ruffin, Treasurer
(1) Treasurer's Report
(2) 2011-2012 Budget Timetable
(3) 2009-2010 Auditor: Patrise Perkins Hooker, Chair, Audit Committee
c) Young Lawyers Division: Michael Geoffroy, YLD President
d) Executive Committee Minutes: Bryan Cavan, Immediate Past President
(1) September 10, 2010
ABA Amicus Brief-Red Flags Rule
FDIC Amendment to HR 4173
e) Fastcase Update: Patrick O'Connor, Co-Chair, Member Benefits Committee; Honorable Gordon Zeese, Co-Chair, Member Benefits Committee
f) Washington Economics Group's Economic Impact Report: Lester Tate
5) WRITTEN REPORTS
d) Consumer Assistance Program
e) BASICS
f) Chief Justice's Commission on Professionalism
6) CLOSING
a) Old Business: Lester Tate
b) New Business: Lester Tate
c) Questions/Answers; Comments/Suggestions: Board of Governors; Officers; Executive Committee; Executive Director; General Counsel
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