AUGUST 2006
PRESIDENT'S COLUMN
Core Functions of the State Bar of Nevada
Rew Goodenow, State Bar of Nevada President
In my July message, I covered my philosophy concerning the purposes of the State Bar of Nevada. This month, I hope to describe the Bar’s mission and how the bar may best continue to serve the profession. Usually, we focus on one aspect of the Bar’s programs at a time, so it may be helpful for once to look at the big picture.
The Nevada Supreme Court created the State Bar of Nevada as a “public corporation.” In doing so, it gave the Bar three core functions—admissions, discipline, and continuing legal education.
Admissions
There are some states where the bar association is not responsible for admissions. In Nevada, the State Bar of Nevada and the Board of Bar Examiners perform the admissions function. Together, we are fortunate to have been able to maintain high standards for admission to practice in Nevada. High admissions standards are particularly important because the state is growing so rapidly.
I am fortunate to have had the opportunity to serve the American Bar Association, a voluntary bar association, in several important roles, including my present position on the editorial board of The ABA Journal. As I have traveled the country and spoken to other lawyers, I have realized that Nevada lawyers enjoy a comparatively high quality of practice. The members of the Bar here seem, as a whole, particularly competent and professional. It is surprising to me that we were able to achieve the high standards to which we have grown accustomed, without, until just recently, a first-rate law school. The Boyd School of Law in Las Vegas has further improved the quality of Nevada lawyers and raised the level of jurisprudence in Nevada.
Discipline
The second core function of the Bar, discipline, requires a budget second only to that for administration. Having had the opportunity for the past seven years to read Bar Counsel Rob Bare’s discipline reports, I’ve come to realize that many, if not most, discipline problems fall into two main categories—substance abuse and financial stress. Frequently, these two problems are connected. Many discipline cases involve the misuse of client funds. This is why we have adopted the client security fund program. In the past year, we increased the amount of money allocated to the client security fund and have explored ways to improve our assistance to clients whose lawyers have not been faithful to their trust. Since the discipline problems we see are often caused by or connected with substance abuse problems, we have also adopted a program called Lawyers Concerned for Lawyers that identifies and helps lawyers with addictions.
Education
The third core function is continuing legal education. While the Bar is the only entity that governs the first two core functions, there are a number of competitors, operating in Nevada and elsewhere, providing continuing legal education to Nevada’s attorneys. Certification of continuing legal education programs is not a function of the State Bar of Nevada. A separate agency called the Board of Continuing Legal Education governs certification of programs. Our continuing legal education programs are designed to provide timely, high quality programs and materials, with an emphasis on Nevada practice. The continuing legal education programs also have helped establish a publications program that provides high-quality reference materials specific to Nevada practice.
Looking Beyond the Bar’s Core Functions
I believe strongly that the core functions should remain the focus of the Bar’s mission. However, in describing the core functions in this article, I’ve already mentioned some other important services the bar association provides that help to make, and will continue to help make, Nevada a great place to be a lawyer.
At the two buildings that we own, one in Las Vegas and the other in Reno, the approximately 40 members of our state bar staff provide support for lawyers every workday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and sometimes on weekends and after work hours. Among the services provided are Rule 42 statements (to assist in pro hac vice applications), a lawyer referral and information service (to assist the public in finding a lawyer), fee dispute arbitration (to resolve lawyer/client disputes over fees in a cost-effective manner), and production of our monthly magazine, Nevada Lawyer. It is hard to imagine practicing here without these services. Even though they are not “core functions,” we’ve come to expect these services and others. I believe that we can and should continue to administer programs outside the core functions, if those functions contribute to the State Bar’s mission.
Several “sections” play an active role in the Bar. For example, the Family Law Section, Access to Justice Section, Gaming Law Section, Business Law Section and the new Intellectual Property Section all have unique and important activities that contribute greatly to the quality of our practice and to the administration of justice in Nevada. While the Bar holds an excellent annual meeting with top-notch continuing legal education programs every June, the Family Law Section’s annual meeting rivals (if not exceeds in numbers) our State Bar annual meeting. Anyone who practices in the family law area should plan to attend that program. I expect that the number of different sections and their activities will continue to expand as our bar association increases in size and the practice here matures and becomes more diverse. The State Bar will continue to provide administrative support to the sections.
Finally, I should focus on the public education component of the bar association’s activities. Our Law Related Education Program provides educational programming to Nevada youth. We receive overwhelmingly positive feedback from the schools concerning our educational activities. Senator Reid recently was quoted in the Congressional Record commending our LRE program and Marcia Stribling, our LRE coordinator. We also serve as the primary source for law related information to the media. I guess that with shows like “CSI,” it should not surprise us that our profession is interesting to the public. Newspapers, radio and television contact the bar association with startling regularity. In order to remain prepared to provide accurate, unbiased information, the bar association hires an outside media consultant and the board of governors regularly discusses the form of response to specific issues of the day. While we do not attempt to speak for all the lawyers in Nevada, we do attempt to provide information, so that lawyers will be heard and represented whenever news happens. This is a function that I believe we should continue to perform. During the next year, we will be considering whether to adopt a program to assist in providing public information that will combat unwarranted and unfair attacks on the judiciary.
Looking back at all of these tasks, it is impressive that we accomplish all of it with 15 members of the board of governors, an executive director and staff of about 40. Our annual budget is about $5.5 million. Until last year, we had not raised dues in eight years. According to our five-year dues cycle plan, we will not raise dues for another five years, at least.
Let me know your thoughts
The Supreme Court wisely established core functions for the State Bar of Nevada which were broad enough to allow all future boards of governors to thoughtfully assess the current needs of the Nevada lawyers and the public they serve. We are always striving to update and improve our services and our oversight to ensure that our profession in Nevada is of the highest quality and integrity. Please write to us with your thoughts and concerns so that together we can maintain Nevada’s history of excellence. You can write to boardofgovernors@nvbar.org.