Over the past 12 months or more, we have been soundly tested as
a profession. Just bring to mind some of the problems that have
manifested over that timeframe:
- The judiciary, so starved of financial support, closed some
courts, suspended normal operating hours in other courts such that
ordinary citizens could not get their business done when they
rightly expected to find the courts open (e.g., the lunch hour),
and lost some of our most experience trial judges to early
retirement as they chose to avoid the indignities of continued
service to the commonwealth without adequate financial
support.
- Predator businesses like "Notarios," holding themselves out as
experts in law, fed off the ignorance of unsophisticated clients in
Gateway Cities like Lawrence, New Bedford, Brockton and
Springfield, causing great damage to them.
- The nine in-state and seven area law schools, like a ruptured
gushing watermain converting an otherwise valuable resource into a
costly problem, kept spilling more than 1,500 unemployed and
unemployable newly minted graduates into the commonwealth's law
economy with little regard to the impact of their actions on those
new graduates or on our citizens and practicing lawyers.
- Hapless and hopeless, many newly admitted lawyers "hung a
shingle" without any practical experience or skills, thereby
choosing to experiment on unsuspecting clients, opposing counsel,
and the courts.
Why does your state bar association count? The answer is really
self-evident. The Massachusetts Bar Association is the singular
organization in the commonwealth that speaks for all lawyers
regardless of the city or county where they practice; the race,
ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation or religious tradition that
define them; or the idiosyncrasies of their individual practices.
Large metropolitan bars, county bars and affinity bars are
incredibly meaningful to their members. But, when the Legislature
wants to hear from "the bar," it turns to the Massachusetts Bar
Association. When the governor needs support in solving problems in
Gateway Cities, he looks to the Massachusetts Bar Association. And,
when the judiciary has "someone at their back," the image in the
mirror is the Massachusetts Bar Association.
This year the Massachusetts Bar Association chose to tackle
major problems head-on. For the first time ever, the Massachusetts
Bar Association pursued a broad based outreach program involving
highway billboards and website videos to inform and instruct
ordinary citizens about the adverse impact that an underfunded
judiciary had on the rule of law and with it the quality of their
lives That initiative, trumpeted and acclaimed by the American Bar
Association, is now being copied across the nation.
For the first time ever by a state or federal bar association,
the Massachusetts Bar Association publicly called into question the
endless expansion of graduating law schools students saddled with
enormous debts. In the face of biting criticism from some law
schools, the association formed a task force to study and report on
the law economy and the law school paradigm. Following publication
of the task force's report, the American Bar Association organized
its own task force on the "future of legal education." And, most
prominently, Boston College Law School's Dean Vincent Rougeau
called for reform of the law school education model by
incorporating a residency-like program comparable in substance to
the one advocated by the Massachusetts Bar Association's task
force.
In the face of abundant numbers of newly admitted lawyers
opening law offices shortly after passing the bar, the
Massachusetts Bar Association opened debate on the necessity of
minimum, mandatory continuing legal education. And now, recognizing
that dramatic shifts in the legal market place leave new lawyers
without mentors, the Supreme Judicial Court, has since proposed the
first ever mandatory CLE program in Massachusetts history. In my
opinion, it is just a matter of time before the SJC chooses to add
Massachusetts to the list of 46 states that already mandate
continuing legal education for all licensed lawyers.
The importance of the Massachusetts Bar Association to the
Executive Office of the Governor, the Legislature, the judiciary
and our profession was front and center at our annual dinner at
Westin Seaport Hotel on May 31. Gov. Deval Patrick was represented
at the event by his Chief of Staff Mo Cowan and his counsel Mark
Reilly; the Legislature was represented by Speaker Robert DeLeo and
at least a dozen members, including the chairmen of the Judiciary
and Ways and Means Committees; and the judiciary was represented by
Chief Justice Roderick Ireland and five of his colleagues on the
SJC, Chief Justice for Administration and Management Robert
Mulligan and the new Court Administrator Harry Spence, five of the
Trial Court Chief Justices, and numerous judges from across the
commonwealth. Most importantly to me, however, the annual dinner
was completely sold out, because my fellow members of the bar
recognized the importance of our gathering and took time from their
busy lives to be present and to register their approval of the
association's efforts.
We just completed our 101st year of
dedicated service to the citizens of the commonwealth, the
advancement of an independent and properly supported judiciary, and
the education and assistance of the Executive and Legislative
branches on matters related to the law. Our work never ends,
however, because our basic rights depend on an active, engaged,
committed, and financially viable bar. In year 102, the
Massachusetts Bar Association will carry on as the Knights Templar
for freedom and the rule of law.