July 2008 Nevada Lawyer

PRESIDENT’S COLUMN

THIS YEAR IN HISTORY

BRUCE BEESLEY, PRESIDENT, STATE BAR OF NEVADA

Hello – I am Bruce Beesley, and I have the privilege of serving as the president of the State Bar of Nevada for the 2008-2009 year. Those of you who know me, or have called me in the last several years, will know that I am fond of history. I try to leave a new voice mail each day featuring an event from history followed by a request to leave a phone number and a promise to return the call. Since I cannot leave a voice mail for my president’s column, I am going to start the year with a “This Year in History” column.

The State Bar of Nevada was formed as a mandatory bar in January, 1928 by an act of the Legislature. The Nevada Bar Act relied on California’s Bar Act and was identical, other than changing the state name from California to Nevada. Prior to the Nevada Bar Act, Nevada had a voluntary bar association. It was this organization that passed a resolution on January 21, 1928 asking the Nevada Legislature to adopt special legislation incorporating the Nevada state bar association. In what would be considered lightning speed in today’s legislature, AB 12 was introduced in the Assembly on January 23, 1928, approved by both the Assembly and the Senate on the same day, and signed into law by Governor Fred B. Balzar on January 31, 1928.

In the remaining months of 1928, the bar association created a Board of Bar Examiners, adopted “Rules of Procedure,” the “Rules of Professional Conduct” and the “Rules and Regulations for the State Bar of Nevada.” The bar association held its first annual meeting one year later on February 15, 1929 at the Washoe County Courthouse.

The early bar was dominated by northern Nevada lawyers. In 1927, one year before the enactment of the Bar Act, only three members were from Las Vegas. Perhaps this was not surprising given that Reno around 1930 was a thriving city of 18,529¹ people and Las Vegas, with 5,165 residents, had a ways to go before tapping into its full growth potential.

The early bar exam would bring panic to the hearts of today’s would-be admittees. The exam lasted a full five days and included topics such as Nevada and United States history. It required a full day on a research and writing project and a full day of oral examination. The familiar essay question was the easy part. It is a common complaint that Nevada has a low bar passage rate, but the passage rate in the early years was approximately 33 percent.

The State Bar of Nevada grew very slowly. From an original membership of 345 in 1929, the bar grew only 13 percent in its first 25 years of existence. It took another 25 years before the bar tripled in size to 1,300 members. It tripled again in the next 25 years to 5,500 members in 2003. In the past five years, it has doubled to 9,500 members.

A surprising number of Nevada's pioneering legal families continue to participate and contribute to the Nevada legal community today. For over 80 years, families such as Guild, Cooke, Foley, Woodburn-Vlautin, Earl, Breen, Brown, Ham, Billeau, Cafferata and Morse have contributed Supreme Court justices, state and federal judges, Attorneys General, District Attorneys and capable lawyers. I hope that our descendants will recognize these same family names, along with the names of many who join our ranks this year, for similar contributions in the ensuing 80 years of the State Bar of Nevada.

That's my history lesson for the president's page this month… Leave your number. I'll return your call.

FOOTNOTES

¹ From the US Census Bureau 1930 Nevada Statistics, http://www.census.gov/prod/www/abs/decennial/1930.htm