Musings on a Year Gone By and on Those Who Served

By Joan Stone

The title “State of the Bar Address” seemed a little grand, hence the musings. However, since it is the last column of the year, I have expanded from half a page, which involves writing precisely 450 words - no mean feat I have to tell you - to a whole page for this final column.

The SCBA has had a magnificent year. I am proud and honored that you permitted me to have stewardship of the Association for 2004. Thanks to a wonderful team we have continued to make great progress.

How can I thank them? Let me count the ways. (With apologies to Elizabeth Barrett Browning.)

SCBA is in better financial shape than it has been for many years, largely thanks to the participation of all of you and the careful management of our Executive Director Carol Prosser. Carol will have been employed by SCBA for 25 years on January 15, 2005. She works with her heart as well as her head and I thank her for that.

This has been an especially important year for community relations. We celebrated the 50th Anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education in style. We were out in force at the Martin Luther King dinner in January, the Center for Youth Citizenship event at the Crest in April, and the Judicial Council event in Sacramento on May 17. Secretary-Treasurer Stacy Boulware Eurie chaired the Brown v. Board task force. Her hard work and gracious presence ensured that SCBA was well represented in activities involving many community organizations. Also we “lent” staff member Public Programs Coordinator Vince Miles to the project. His media and acting skills were praised up and down the state.

Bench-bar relations are as good as they have ever been. There is a mutual respect and cordial relationship that makes life better for everyone. We are grateful to Presiding Judge Michael Virga and Presiding Justice Arthur Scotland for keeping the lines of communication open and for all of their support. Our bench-bar reception in June, organized by Pat Hart Jorgensen and her Events Committee, was a great success. Also, we have been participating in the Bench-Bar Coalition (BBC), including the very successful Lobby Day in Sacramento. BBC was formed under the leadership of the California Association of Local Bars (CALB), the State Bar and the Judicial Council to enhance communication and coordinate the activities of the judicial community with the state, local, and specialty bars on issues of common interest - especially in the legislative arena.

As a state-certified MCLE provider, we continue to try to provide MCLE to members at a reasonable cost. There have been many MCLE opportunities for members through section activities and in conjunction with the Law Library. Deborah Patterson chairs the MCLE committee that makes sure that all the programs meet State Bar requirements. The County Law Library, under the direction of Shirley David until her retirement in October, and now headed by Coral Henning, offers discounts for county bar members.

We work continually to improve member services because you are our lifeblood - without you we are nothing. We learned from our membership survey that you are very happy with the Sacramento Lawyer. Thanks to the efforts of editor Chris Krueger and publisher Mary Burroughs the magazine has improved leaps and bounds while continuing the tradition of highlighting members’ achievements. Robin Ruddy provides excellent staff support for their efforts.

I am sure that you have all noticed that the Pictorial Directory is now published by the Daily Journal. What you may not know is that the relationship with the Daily Journal was achieved thanks to the efforts of second vice president Jack Laufenberg. Also, Jack makes sure that the directory is accurate and takes care of all the problems. For all of you members whose photos are not in the directory, don’t be shy! Send in that photo so that you will be included in the next one.

You may have noticed that our website has a new and different look. The new site is still a work in progress but thanks to the efforts of First Vice-President Stuart Home, we shall be up and running shortly with an interactive and member-friendly website that I hope you will all find useful.

At the start of this year we had grave doubts as to whether we would be able to keep the Attorney Referral Service running. I am glad to report that under the leadership of Chair Jim McFetridge, the renamed Lawyer Referral and Information Service has found a new lease on life with the support and help of the State Bar and the ABA. Ken Malovos has agreed to chair a Blue Ribbon Committee that will help to re-establish the LRIS as one of the best state bar certified referral services in the state. We are proud that our staff member, Daisy Guzman, was highly praised by the ABA reviewers on their visit for her professionalism and courtesy with callers.

SCBA continues to be responsible for providing the lawyers for the Indigent Defense Panel. This year, we have been reviewing the memorandum of understanding with the county for the provision of those services. This is also is a work in progress but under the leadership of IDP Committee Chair Dennis O’Reilly and Stuart Home, I am hopeful that we shall soon reach an agreement that will benefit both the indigent clients and the lawyers who serve them. Staff member Cheyenne Azevedo does an outstanding job of taking care of day-to-day operations.

Our charitable arm, the Sacramento Law Foundation has had an outstanding year with our Distinguished Attorney 2004, Thomas “Tac” Craven at the helm. Both the Wine Cellar auction and the Crab Feed were highly profitable, the latter thanks largely to the energetic efforts of Melinda Williams.

Last, but certainly not least, I decided at the beginning of the year that my legacy would be to have in place by the end of the year a set of bylaws and policies that made sense. This was no mean feat. But long-serving chair of the Bylaws and Long Range Planning Committee Borden Webb put together a committee that worked valiantly to achieve my goals. I firmly believe that by the end of the year we shall have a set of bylaws that will be perfect at least until January 1, 2005!

As I said at the start this is merely some musings on the year gone by. There is not space enough to tell you about all of the achievements of our many sections and committees or about all of the wonderful events that I have attended as your representative. I would, however be remiss if I did not thank Charity Kenyon and her Blue Ribbon Awards Nominations Committee and Barbara Yonemura and her Nominating Committee for providing us with outstanding selections for award recipients and Bar Council members respectively.

As I write, we still have a couple of occasions for us all to meet - the Annual Meeting on December 3 and the Holiday Cheer on December 9. I hope to see you all there.

As I said, it’s all about teamwork and we have quite a team.

It’s been fun. Thank you all.

November / December 2004