So where to begin?
The challenge in writing a report for you on the June Board of Governors meetings is this:
How to give you information on what took place in a format that's hopefully more interesting than the meeting minutes and is not too "inside baseball?" I'm not sure that I'm going to succeed this time (if I ever have in previous reports). And all this when what I really want to relate to you is an epiphany that I'm afraid is so obvious that you may well be thinking: She's just now figuring that out?
I guess I'll start with the epiphany.
Collecting Pennies
The realization came during the Friday and Saturday meetings in which it became clear to me what a huge effect the loss of IOLTA funds, and the causes of that loss, have had on all kinds of programs. The effect of these missing dollars rattle through the State Bar's budget, as well as the diminished finances of various other organizations.
As you know, IOLTA stands for Interest on Lawyer Trust Accounts, which for about the past 25 or so years has been siphoned off to pay for all sorts of charitable legal programs or for grants to improve the administration of justice. The concept was that a few cents of interest earned on funds lawyers held briefly in trust for clients wouldn't amount to a noticeable sum for them, but when aggregated these pennies were magically transformed into a sizable accumulation of dollars for charitable distribution.
Thus, IOLTA is based on two components--the level of interest rates and the amount of money in lawyer trust accounts--both of which are now in short supply. We know that the interest being paid by banks and other financial institutions is just about non-existent these days. But also with the downturn in the real estate market, there's a lot less money being put into lawyer trust accounts.
The first discussion of the effect of this double whammy came in Chief Justice Carol Hunstein's report Friday on the state of the judiciary. She noted that Georgia Legal Services and the Atlanta Legal Aid Society are facing $800,000 to $1 million shortfalls as a result. This is a subject she has recently written about in an op-ed piece in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, in which she points out that "Georgia Bar Foundation funding for Georgia Legal Services has fallen from a high of $2.9 million in 2009 to $739,300 in 2011. Funding for 2012 could fall as low as $400,000." http://www.ajc.com/opinion/legal-aid-to-poor-958776.html
Then on Saturday, newly installed State Bar President Ken Shigley, noting that the Georgia Legal Services Program began in 1971 as a project of the State Bar's Younger Lawyers Division, urged in his remarks that we "give until it feels good" and prodded us toward the handy forms that were provided at each of our seats to enable signing up for monthly donations.
Moving on to the Saturday report of Treasurer Buck Ruffin, we learned that the State Bar has picked up $641,792 worth of contributions to programs that previously had been made by the Georgia Bar Foundation. These include Law Related Education, Bar Association Support to Improve Correctional Services (BASICS), the Georgia Resource Center, the Pro Bono Project and the High School Mock Trial program.
Meanwhile, the yield on the State Bar's investments, which due to foresight were shifted before the crash into money market funds and certificates of deposits from riskier alternatives, has been steadily dropping from a high of $564,000 in 2007 to $110,000 this past year.
Then another item on the Saturday agenda--an informational report about the Georgia Bar Foundation and the Lawyers Foundation of Georgia being combined, essentially to reduce overhead. (Established in 1978 as the Public Service Foundation, the Lawyers Foundation was a voluntary charitable organization, while the Bar Foundation was funded by IOLTA.)
Finding new pennies
So, how does this all play out for us as lawyers?
According to Chief Justice Hunstein, the Georgia legal community already has pitched in to expand volunteer work and financial giving. "Last year, Georgia attorneys provided more than $5.5 million worth of free legal assistance to people who could not afford a lawyer. They took 28 percent more cases last year than the year before. Lawyers, judges and law firms donated more than $500,000 to Georgia Legal Services," she wrote in her op-ed piece.
Meanwhile, the chief justice says vital programs aimed at giving our most vulnerable citizens equal access to justice remain in peril because of state and federal budget cuts and she urged us to stress to lawmakers the need to continue funding.
Given the competition for limited government funds, however, it seems that we also need to redouble our efforts to give of our time and open our checkbooks. And if we all pitch in just a little bit more it will begin to add up like the magic IOLTA pennies.
In Other Action
So, what else happened at the annual meeting?
On Friday, a change to the bylaws was approved that affects persons who pass the bar exam, but don't get around to getting sworn in to practice law. (I wondered how many people do that? I can't imagine there are too many.) The rule change limits the window of time for getting sworn in to five years. After that, these persons will have to appeal to the Executive Committee for a waiver. Otherwise, they will have to reapply to the Office of Bar Admissions.
Speaking of the Executive Committee, on Saturday the Board of Governors elected Rita Sheffey to fill the unexpired term of Patrise Perkins-Hooker, who has been elected Secretary of the State Bar. David Lipsomb and Bob Kaufman were re-elected to their posts on the Executive Committee and Brian D. "Buck" Rogers was elected to the post held by Nancy Whaley, who was not seeking re-election.
The Board of Governors also approved the creation of a new part-time contractor position of Coordinating Special Master to be selected by a hiring committee composed of the second, third and fourth past-presidents of the Bar. The hiring committee would also set the hourly compensation rate for the position. The CSM will maintain the list of possible special masters (currently maintained by the Court), appoint a special master for each new disciplinary case, and monitor the progress of each case to ensure that matters are handled expeditiously. The CSM could also act as a special master himself, most likely in emergency suspension cases. The position will be shared with the Office of Bar Admissions, so that the CSM will serve a similar role in selecting and monitoring hearing officers for Bar Fitness cases (there are fewer than 10 such cases per year). The budget for the 2011-2012 Bar year included $25,000 for this position.
The Board of Governors received informational reports on three items that are expected to be voted on at the meeting scheduled for August 18, 2011. These include a proposed revision of the juvenile code, a proposed uniform rule on electronic court filing, and proposed amendments to the fee arbitration rules. You can find links to these proposals on the State Bar's website, www.gabar.org.
Sorry to be so slow getting this written up. I played tourist at Brookgreen Gardens after the Saturday BOG meeting instead of hitting the keyboard. Also, it took most of Sunday to drive back from the meeting locale in Myrtle Beach, SC. Then it was back to the reality of the work week.
As always, let me know if you have any thoughts or comments or need more information on the Board of Governors.
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