Vol. 76, No. 12, December 2003

State Bar of Wisconsin FY03 Annual Report

Building on a Firm Foundation

Fiscal Year 2003 (FY03) marked the 125th anniversary of the State Bar of Wisconsin, as well as other legal history milestones. It was a time to reflect on the rich history of Wisconsin's legal community while preparing for the profession's future. The founding principles laid down in 1878 when the association was formed created a solid foundation on which the Bar continues to build today.

The State Bar Association of Wisconsin held its first meeting in the Wisconsin Supreme Court hearing room in the State Capitol on Jan. 9, 1878. That meeting was reenacted in 2003 by the Wisconsin Law Foundation. Held in the newly restored supreme court hearing room, this historical exercise illustrated the pivotal role Wisconsin lawyers play in shaping the economic, physical, cultural, and political development of our state.

Adapting to Change History tells a story and often points to the future. The State Bar has a story with 125 years of accomplishments. When I took office, I outlined three goals for my term: spearheading an effort to educate the public about the value lawyers bring to society; continuing the fight for government funding of civil legal services for the indigent; and improving diversity within the legal profession. As we delved into our history this year, in celebration of the State Bar's 125th anniversary, it was easy to see how today's efforts are tied to our organization's founding principles to serve our members, the judicial system, and the public. For instance: Continue

Over the year, the State Bar added to its legal history collection on WisBar, featured Wisconsin's legal past in convention programming and Wisconsin Lawyer content, and chronicled the Bar's history through a nine-foot-tall panel display.

Key events in FY03 include:

• implementing a "Branding the Profession" effort, a long-term public communications effort to educate the public about the value lawyers bring to their clients and communities
• reviewing issues related to multidisciplinary practice, multijurisdictional practice, and the unauthorized practice of law to gauge their impact on the profession, our justice system, and the public
• hosting the first continuing legal education seminar in webcast format
• updating our e-commerce technology on WisBar to conform to recognized Internet standards to offer users a more efficient online registration and product ordering system
• refining the strategic planning process to provide relevant services to members while maximizing limited resources

Due to space constraints, this report features only a sampling of the organization's many activities.

Membership Demographics

The number and diversity of State Bar members has changed significantly since 265 men signed the first membership roll 125 years ago. To illustrate, membership data from 2003 is compared to 1985 data the year comprehensive membership data collection began. Between 1985 and 2003, membership increased by 49.3 percent. Resident members increased by 38.4 percent, while women entering the ranks of Wisconsin lawyers rose 194.5 percent. The accompanying chart provides a snapshot of the Bar's membership demographics in 1985 and 2003. With increased membership and growing diversification, the Bar's leadership strives to achieve balance among the varying needs of the profession.

To sustain and enhance the growing needs of a diverse membership, and to better serve a diverse public, the State Bar sponsors several diversity initiatives, including:

Guidelines for the Review of Crimes and Ordinance Violations in Milwaukee County. A collaborative project of the Diversity Outreach Committee and the Milwaukee Bar Association's Community Relations Committee resulted in a new set of standards on how defendants are charged in nonfelony cases in Milwaukee County. The guidelines are designed to ensure equal treatment of similar offenses and to save taxpayer dollars.

Summer Clerkship Program. This summer, 19 first-year law students from the Marquette and U.W. law schools held clerking positions at law firms, corporate legal departments, and government agencies. The Committee to Encourage the Placement of Minority Lawyers oversees the project that provides practical exposure to legal environments. Now in its 10th year, nearly 140 students have benefited from this program.

Celebrating Diversity in the Legal Profession. E. Christopher Johnson Jr., vice president and general counsel of General Motors (GM) North America, was the keynote speaker at an annual luncheon program that showcases diversity efforts in the legal profession. The event is a collaborative project of the State Bar Diversity Outreach Committee's Diversity Counsel Program and the Wisconsin chapter of the American Corporate Counsel Association.

Diversity applies not only to gender, race, and ethnicity but also to the many practice areas of the law. State Bar members practice in nearly 50 legal areas. In 2003 the top five practice areas were business/corporate, real property, criminal, estate planning/probate, and torts/personal injury law.

Enhancing Lawyer Competence

At its founding in 1878, the association created a legal education committee to focus on lawyer competence. Inspirational speeches at annual meetings eventually gave way to practical, bread-and-butter presentations and round-table discussions. That early commitment to life-long learning in the law continues today.

CLE Seminars

In a May 2003 member survey, State Bar CLE Seminars was again rated as one of the top values of Bar membership. In FY03, CLE Seminars collaborated with sections, committees, and professional organizations to produce 45 different titles, resulting in 58 live seminars and 394 video presentations serving more than 14,000 registrants.

With an emphasis on providing current, relevant, and practical legal information in a convenient and timely manner, an average of 70 to 80 programs are offered annually.

More than 40 seminars are already scheduled for FY04 on a variety of topics and by various delivery mechanisms.

Innovative Delivery Options for CLE. In using new technologies, the State Bar can save members time and money by offering CLE seminars in a variety of convenient formats, including by phone, the Internet, or by video. In FY03, more than 550 members registered for five separate telephone seminars for regular and ethics credits.

Members now can attend select seminars right from their desktops with new webcast technology. During webcast seminars, attendees receive a live video stream via a link accessed through computers. Slides and handouts can be downloaded prior to the program and participants can submit questions to presenters during the program's interactive portion. LegalSpan.com, a national online distributor of continuing legal education, is the State Bar's online CLE partner. Webcasts provide a special convenience to nonresident members seeking Wisconsin credit.

To meet the 'right-now' demands of the legal profession, CLE Seminars also is investigating technology that will allow for portable audio playback at the member's convenience.

CLE Books

CLE Books worked with more than 300 volunteer authors who contributed their expertise to producing:

• 34 supplements or new editions, including a supplement to Wisconsin Criminal Defense Manual, featuring information on the Truth-in-Sentencing legislation;
• an update to the Probate Document Assembly software;
• revisions of Appellate Practice and Procedure in Wisconsin, Eckhardt's Workbook for Wisconsin Estate Planners, Wisconsin Fair Dealership Law, and the Worker's Compensation Handbook; and
• the new Selected Wisconsin Public Utilities Statutes.

CLE Books is exploring partnership opportunities to develop online versions of its publications in addition to the traditional print and CD-ROM versions. Plans are to convert most of the print library into an online format by spring 2004.

2003 Annual Convention

Nearly 1,000 members gathered in May at the 2003 Annual Convention in Milwaukee at the Midwest Airlines Center to share expert advice and to socialize. Registrants earned CLE credits at programs sponsored by sections, divisions, and committees; networked with their colleagues; and heard national speakers on current legal topics. In addition to presenting an array of educational and social options to attendees, the 2003 convention provided a glimpse of the past as the legal profession celebrated several anniversaries: Wisconsin Supreme Court 150 years; State Bar of Wisconsin 125 years; and Wisconsin Court of Appeals 25 years.

The 2004 State Bar Annual Convention will be held May 5-7 at the Monona Terrace Convention Center in Madison.

Delivering Services to Our Members

The State Bar is committed to providing services that are relevant and useful to members. It regularly conducts a member survey to obtain feedback, gauge satisfaction, and rate its customer service efforts. A total of 382 resident and 226 nonresident members participated in a May 2003 membership survey. Key highlights indicate that:

• members believe that the State Bar is responsive to issues facing the legal profession
• respondents rate the Bar as doing a very good job of handling customer service
• more than eight in 10 respondents think the State Bar provides adequate opportunity to get involved in Bar activities

Members consistently rank CLE Seminars, the Wisconsin Lawyer magazine, and the Wisconsin Lawyer Directory as the most highly valued benefits of State Bar membership.

Issues Facing the Legal Profession

Throughout FY03, the Board of Governors' discussion focused on multidisciplinary practice (MDP) and related future of the profession issues. In November 2002 the board acted on MDP Commission recommendations on three interrelated topics:

• Multidisciplinary Practice Rather than seek to amend Wisconsin's Rules of Professional Responsibility to allow Wisconsin lawyers to partner with and share legal fees with nonlawyer professionals, the board directed the Executive Committee to monitor developments in other states and report back in November 2003.
• Unauthorized Practice of Law (UPL) The board voted to petition the Wisconsin Supreme Court to form a committee to further define the practice of law and develop more effective enforcement mechanisms for prosecuting UPL. A public hearing is scheduled for the fall 2003 session.
• Ancillary Business Practices Before it could decide whether to seek amending the Rules of Professional Responsibility to clarify whether lawyers can own ancillary businesses, the board cited the need to define law-related services, and set forth criteria to determine proper notice to clients of contractual or business ownership arrangements.

WisBar

Work continues on a complete revamp of the State Bar's member-focused Internet site WisBar. With an average of nearly one million page views per month, WisBar provides electronic access to legal resources and information.

Work begun in FY02 to identify goals, issues, and priorities, continued in FY03 with additional user research and prototype design and testing. As part of this work to bring WisBar up to Internet e-commerce standards, the State Bar will soon launch an improved online storefront called Marketplace. Marketplace provides secure online transactions using up-to-date encryption features, and allows members to efficiently search for and purchase products and register for seminars online, among other features.

The redesigned WisBar will feature an improved search engine and navigation and the ability to track CLE credits and will cure other known usability issues.

Wisconsin Lawyer/Directory

The Wisconsin Lawyer and Wisconsin Lawyer Directory are recognized as professional, high-quality publications by the ABA and other bar associations. In FY03, Wisconsin Lawyer known for most of its life as Wisconsin Bar Bulletin celebrated its 75th anniversary by including "From the Archives," a monthly column of snippets from past issues, while continuing to provide substantive articles, how-to columns, notices of supreme court orders and rule changes, digests of supreme court and court of appeals decisions, and other timely content.

State Bar members receive a free copy of the Wisconsin Lawyer Directory that includes lists of members, law firms, courts, selected state offices, Bar information, an index to the previous year's Wisconsin Lawyer, the Lawyer-to-Lawyer Directory, and more.

Electronic Communications

Recent membership surveys indicate that lawyers are growing more comfortable with and often prefer to receive some types of information electronically. In response to member preferences in how they receive association information, the State Bar more often relies on electronic communication to deliver information in a timely and cost-effective way.

More than 9,000 members subscribe to 90 electronic mailing lists, and 5,100 members subscribe to WisBar's Caselaw Express, receiving free weekly case law updates by email. Sections, divisions, and committees also are exploring or beginning email delivery of their newsletters.

In April 2003 the State Bar began emailing monthly the 60-Second CLE Update, announcing upcoming CLE seminars and highlighting developments in CLE books.

Ethics Guidance

Ethics opinions of the Bar's Professional Ethics Committee apply the Rules of Professional Conduct for Attorneys to specific factual situations. Although not binding, these ethics opinions, as well as ethics articles published in Wisconsin Lawyer, are important sources of ethics guidance for Wisconsin lawyers. The Bar also offers an Ethics Hotline to immediately assist lawyers in interpreting and applying the rules to their practice situations. In FY03 the State Bar's Ethics Hotline attorney handled 1,551 calls.

Assistance for Troubled Professionals

The Wisconsin Lawyers Assistance Program (WisLAP) provides assistance to lawyers, judges, law students, and their families in coping with alcoholism and other chemical addiction, depression, anxiety, and problems related to the stress of practicing law. Calls to WisLAP remain completely confidential and are exempt from reporting professional misconduct to the Office of Lawyer Regulation.

Local Bar Support

The State Bar supports county, regional, and specialty bar associations in their efforts to improve the justice system and the practice of law by conducting strategic planning sessions, providing speakers for programs, maintaining resource files with successful program and project ideas, assisting in setting up local volunteer hotlines and Law Day activities, and sponsoring an annual Bar Leaders Conference and the Local Bar Grant Competition.

Wisconsin Bar Leaders Conference. More than 50 leaders representing 39 local and specialty bar associations shared their successes and challenges at the 2003 Wisconsin Bar Leaders Conference in April at the State Bar Center. Workshops and breakout sessions offered programs to help bar leaders develop skills and strategies to move their associations forward, especially in retaining and recruiting members.

Shaping the Law

In his speech at the Association's founding in 1878, Chief Justice Edward G. Ryan said, "The profession which is educated in the common law, and has mastered it as a service, ought to have an influential voice in all legislation which modifies or repeals its rules." The State Bar continues to work to ensure policymakers know how legislation affects the courts, the legal profession, and the public lawyers serve.

Government Relations

At its center, the State Bar's government relations program is a member and public service. The Board of Governors, section governing boards, and the government relations staff engage in a variety of legislative activities, from monitoring bills introduced in the Legislature, to coordinating research related to law reform, to working to protect individual rights. The government relations program was successful in FY03 on several important issues, including:

• fighting to remove provisions from the 2003-05 Budget bill that would have lowered the personal needs allowance, the spousal impoverishment asset limit, and the amount that can be put into an irrevocable burial trust;
• restoring positions in the State Public Defender's (SPD) office;
• working to keep funding for federal and state civil legal services;
• working to include provisions on fees for medical record photocopies in the 2002-03 Budget Reform bill;
• increasing funding for the private bar line of the SPD's budget in the 2002-03 Budget Reform bill; and
• promoting the enactment of follow-up implementation provisions for the Truth-in-Sentencing law, to allow for sentence modifications in certain cases.

The Lawyers Legislative Action Network (LLAN) is the State Bar's free legislative grassroots program that keeps State Bar members informed on developing legislation so members can keep lawmakers in touch with the legal profession and the public it serves. Volunteers in LLAN work diligently to ensure that the state Legislature and Congress are aware of the impact of legislation on the courts, the profession, and the public. LLAN's success is evident in many ways, including the regular requests it receives from legislators, lawyers, the public, and the media seeking information on important legal issues.

The Bar's government relations team produces Capitol Update on WisBar, an online service that informs members about federal and state legislation that affects the legal profession and justice system. From the Capitol Update page, visitors to the site can track bills, review the legislative session calendar, email legislators, participate in discussion groups, and review State Bar and section positions on legislative issues.

Recognizing Congressional Leadership. In July and August 2002, the State Bar recognized several key members of our Wisconsin congressional delegation for their efforts as members of the House and Senate Judiciary committees and for efforts to establish a new federal district court in Green Bay. The April 2003 Wisconsin Lawyer featured the lawyer members of our Wisconsin congressional delegation.

Court Relations

The State Bar plays an important role in advising the courts on issues affecting the practice of law in Wisconsin. In FY03 Bar leadership testified on several petitions, including:

• supporting a petition to amend the rules of appellate procedure;
• pposing a petition relating to voluntary dismissals by the court of appeals;
• opposing a petition that would forbid the stipulated reversal or vacatur of lower court decisions; and
• supporting a petition to allow for the citation of unpublished opinions.

Serving the Public

Pro Bono and Community Service. According to a May 2003 State Bar member survey, the estimated annual value of time donated to public service/pro bono activities by Wisconsin lawyers actively practicing law is more than $86 million. Lawyers help their communities in myriad ways providing free legal advice, participating on boards and committees, or assisting with Habitat for Humanity projects, for example. Research from the State Bar's branding initiative shows that the public values lawyers who give to their communities.

Wisconsin Pro Bono Initiative. Throughout much of FY03, the Legal Assistance Committee worked to develop a coordinated, statewide pro bono initiative with a focus on collaboration with the judiciary, grassroots efforts, and local control with pro bono efforts organized under the auspices of the judiciary in each of the 10 Wisconsin circuit court judicial administrative districts. This initiative offers the Bar the opportunity to lead the nation in providing meaningful public access to the justice system. The Board of Governors will receive the project business plan and funding request in fall 2003.

Continuing in its commitment to provide legal services to low-income citizens, the State Bar's Team Pro Bono volunteers provide free or reduced cost legal services to prescreened clients. Through a partnership with Lexis/Nexis, in FY03 the State Bar offered free computerized legal research to attorneys performing pro bono service.

Interest on Lawyers Trust Accounts (IOLTA). The State Bar closely monitored a U.S. Supreme Court case in March 2003 that resulted in a 5-4 ruling to uphold the use of Interest on Lawyers Trust Accounts (IOLTA). Since 1986, Wisconsin lawyers have deposited client funds into IOLTA accounts. The Wisconsin Trust Account Foundation (WisTAF) uses the interest earned in IOLTA accounts to fund legal services for the indigent, amounting to nearly $1.5 million annually.

Law-related Education

Mock Trial Tournament. The State Bar High School Mock Trial Tournament attracted 600-plus attorneys and judges statewide who volunteered their time and expertise to make the FY03 program a success. In addition to attorneys, judges, and justices, more than 160 teachers and 28 regional coordinators helped organize the tournament, made up of 167 teams. The mock trial program continues to be one of the Bar's most visible public education efforts.

Mock trial sponsors include the Legal Auxiliary of Wisconsin, the U.W. Extension, the Wisconsin Association of School Boards, the Wisconsin Law Foundation, and individual attorneys and citizens. Rhinelander High School won the state competition and then went on to place eleventh nationally at the National High School Mock Trial Championship held in New Orleans in May.

Justice Teaching Institute. In February, 28 high school teachers participated in the third annual Wisconsin Justice Teaching Institute. Assisted by supreme court justices, circuit court judges, attorneys, and university professors, the teachers took part in a sentencing exercise and analyzed actual supreme court petitions, culminating with a moot court activity held at the Wisconsin Supreme Court. The institute is a partnership between the State Bar's Law-related Education Committee, the Wisconsin Supreme Court, and the U.W. Department of Curriculum and Instruction.

Project Citizen. During FY03, the State Bar cosponsored the "We the People, Project Citizen" competition a hands-on civic education program for middle school students to promote competent and responsible participation in state and local government.

The competition attracted 12 public policy portfolios represented by one elementary school, six middle schools, and one 4-H club to the State Bar Center for two days of judging. Panels of judges state legislators, government leaders, and marketing professionals scored the portfolios and hearings. Madison's Crestwood Elementary School scored the highest and was invited in July to showcase its portfolio at the National Conference of State Legislatures in San Francisco. Project Citizen was sponsored by the Wisconsin Law Foundation, the State Bar of Wisconsin, the Center for Civic Education, the National Conference of State Legislatures, and the U.S. Department of Education.

We the People ... The Citizen and the Constitution. In addition to numerous Wisconsin schools using We the People materials, eight schools participated in a mock congressional hearing in January by testifying at the State Capitol before panels of teachers, lawyers, elected officials, and community leaders. Teams were asked questions to test their knowledge on the Constitution. The winning school, Wauwatosa East High School, went on to represent Wisconsin at the national tournament in Washington, D.C., in May.

In FY03 the State Bar's Law-related Education Committee hosted the We the People Summer Institute. The weeklong intensive program is based on We the People curriculum, designed to promote a deeper understanding of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. The goal is to promote civics competence and responsibility among elementary, middle, and secondary school students. Twenty-three teachers from across the state participated. In existence since 1987, We the People is a national program directed by the Center for Civic Education and funded by the U.S. Department of Education.

Media Relations

The State Bar maintains an ongoing program to create, develop, and exchange information with attorneys, the courts, the general public, the news media, and other organizations to enhance the public's understanding of the law and the role of lawyers in society. As part of that program, in FY03 the Media Law Relations Committee hosted the fourth annual Courts & The Media Seminar that engaged nearly 50 legal, judicial, and media professionals in a role-reversal exercise and facilitated discussion to foster better understanding of one another's roles in our justice system. The committee also helped produce the fourth edition of the News Reporters' Legal Handbook in cooperation with the Wisconsin Broadcasters and Wisconsin Newspaper associations. The handbook helps journalists understand the legal and judicial process.

In October 2002, the State Bar hosted at the State Capitol a moderated candidates' forum between the Republican and Democratic candidates for attorney general, attracting a good crowd that supplied an abundance of questions for the candidates. It was jointly sponsored by the State Bar, Madison radio station WTDY-AM 1670, and online news service Wispolitics.com.

In conjunction with the State Bar's annual Judicial-Teacher Education Training Institute in February 2003, the State Bar hosted a supreme court candidates' forum at the State Bar Center. The moderated forum was jointly sponsored by the State Bar and online news service Wispolitics.com.

Programs for Public Access

Local Bar Grants. The Local Bar Grant Competition Committee continued to award funds to local and specialty bar associations that develop public service projects having statewide application. In FY03, $8,000 was awarded for grant projects, including: producing an instructional videotape/DVD for assisting pro se litigants through the divorce process; developing a publicity program for the Free Legal Clinic in Eau Claire County; archiving historical information in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin; and producing an instructional DVD for pro se litigants requesting temporary restraining orders and injunctions relating to domestic abuse and harassment. Achievement awards were presented to 10 local and specialty bar associations that successfully completed projects between 2001 and 2003.

Clients' Security Fund. The Wisconsin Supreme Court established the Clients' Security Fund in 1981 to reimburse people who lost money due to dishonest acts of attorneys. All active Wisconsin-licensed attorneys subsidize the fund through an annual assessment of up to $25.

In FY03 the committee acted on 21 claims against 14 attorneys. Of these, 12 were approved for reimbursement (totaling $118,050),  eight  were denied, and  one was deferred to FY04. With the FY03 assessment at $20, this put the fund in a sound fiscal position enabling the FY04 rate to be set at $0, the lowest since 1997.

Lawyer Referral and Information Service. In FY03 the public continued to benefit from attorneys registered with the State Bar's Lawyer Referral and Information Service (LRIS). LRIS matches Wisconsin lawyers with clients who are in need of legal help. With a phone call to the State Bar or a visit to LegalExplorer.com, the Bar's consumer Web site, consumers are connected to experienced legal assistants who screen calls and refer eligible callers to an LRIS panel attorney; the remaining callers are given information or referred to a community agency or other legal resource. In FY03, LRIS referred cases worth more than $2 million in fees for attorneys.

In addition to LRIS, the State Bar also conducts Lawyer Hotline telephone sessions statewide so that callers can receive information or advice from hotline attorneys on a variety of legal problems. For more than 20 years, the hotline has fielded hundreds of calls annually through the volunteer efforts of State Bar members.

Executive's Message

Charting the Future

Building on the work begun in FY02, the State Bar has put intensive effort this year into creating an effective strategic plan. The Strategic Planning Committee has improved the rudder that guides our ship, steering the Bar toward being managed more like a business. The nine-goal plan will help guide Bar leaders in providing members with relevant and useful services while maximizing the use of resources.

A properly executed plan helps provide the tools to overcome challenges currently facing the Bar. As we learn to thrive in an environment with increasingly limited resources, rising costs, and strapped revenue streams, our decision-making needs to be visionary, focused, and balanced.

We will pursue excellence while also forging ahead with our goals and objectives. Our ultimate mission is to improve the administration of justice and the delivery of legal systems, and to promote the professional interests of Wisconsin lawyers. This is a dynamic process that will change over time.

George C. Brown, executive director

FY03 State Bar's Strategic Goals

1. Provide services that are relevant and useful to members.

2. Improve public access to the legal system.

3. Assist in the development of the law.

4. Advance the ethical values of the legal profession.

5. Increase public understanding of the rights and responsibilities of citizens under the law, and of the vital roles of courts, judges, jurors, and lawyers in the administration of justice.

6. Increase and diversify participation in the legal profession.

7. Foster a collaborative relationship among judges and attorneys.

8. Improve the operations of the Bar.

9. Improve financial stability.

Branding the Profession

Wisconsin Lawyers: Expert Advisers. Serving You.

Even as early as the Bar's founding in 1878, lawyers decried their poor public image. In May 2002, following much research, the State Bar debuted a long-term, concerted effort to brand the legal profession ... that is, consistently use a unified message to educate the public about the value lawyers bring to their clients and their communities.

The message mirrors three key qualities that the public values most about lawyers: expert advice, problem solving, and community service. To be effective, the supporting messages and tag line Wisconsin Lawyers: Expert advisers. Serving you. must be repeated and sustained over time. As part of the effort, the State Bar produced a tool kit to offer lawyers, law firms, and local bars assistance in incorporating the brand into their communications.

In FY03, the Bar focused on implementing the brand, including:

• incorporating the brand in the Bar's communications, including all communications with the public and media, consumer pamphlets, press releases, and law-related education efforts and materials;
• developing grass roots support and involvement of the legal community in integrating the brand in their communications, including distributing tool kits to Bar members and encouraging their use of free logos and public image ads in their marketing materials. As an example of such use, the Wisconsin Hispanic Lawyers Association has translated the tag line into Spanish;
• commencing paid media placements, including regular sponsorship announcements on Wisconsin Public Radio, producing more than 8 million impressions; and billboard ads in the Fox Valley and Green Bay area promoting Wisconsin lawyers as experts, driving the public to the State Bar's consumer Web site LegalExplorer.com, which averages 40,000 page views per month. The billboards produced more than 5.2 million gross impressions. In addition, a 30-second message ran on the Wisconsin Radio Network on May 1 Law Day, promoting a guide educating consumers about end-of-life issues. A total of 318 messages were broadcast six times reaching nearly one million prime-time listeners. The Bar has received additional media attention, earning TV, radio, and newspaper coverage based in large part on President Pat Ballman's media outreach efforts.

President-elect's Message

Moving Forward

As the State Bar begins its 126th year, it is important that we remember our founding principles why we exist as an organization and who we serve, and apply those principles in deciding all that we do to meet today's challenges. A partial list of our goals for the upcoming year includes:

• Training new lawyers in the art and folkways of law practice, because not every new lawyer has the benefit of mentoring. "Building for Success: The Ultimate 'How-to' Guide for New and Not-So-New Lawyers," in which prominent judges and lawyers will address topics of special interest to new lawyers, will be offered in January.
• Helping members to succeed by meeting their law practice management needs. The Bar will entertain a proposal from the Law Practice Management Assistance Program Working Group an advisory group representing diverse entities from inside and outside the Bar to establish a comprehensive law office management assistance program that will coordinate and provide related resources.
• Lawyers are good people who sometimes need help in coping with dysfunctional behaviors. The Bar will consider a proposal to expand the Wisconsin Lawyers' Assistance Program, which provides confidential assistance to lawyers coping with a broad range of behaviors before they come to the attention of the OLR.
• Because no system of justice can long survive that serves some but not all, the Bar will consider a proposal from the Legal Assistance Committee to implement a coordinated, statewide pro bono initiative with a focus on collaboration with the judiciary, grass root efforts, and local control.
• Our profession stands to defend the courts and our way of justice. Additional goals include analyzing the Bar's lobbying efforts to evaluate the best use of our resources; reviewing how to implement recommendations from the ABA study on the increasing politicization of judicial races; and studying issues of civility within our profession and justice system.

Finally, we must thoroughly study our dues structure and how the Bar can do better for its members. Our goal is to operate in a business-like fashion in helping our members succeed in their practice.

George Burnett, president-elect, State Bar of Wisconsin, July 1, 2002 June 30, 2003

Fiscal 2003 Financial Results at a Glance ...

Fiscal 2003 Revenues

Statement of Financial Position at June 30, 2003

Wisconsin Lawyer