by Edward B. Lowry
1997-98 VSB President
You need only glance at my photo to appreciate the fact that I bear little resemblance to Cinderella or Prince Charming, but I can say with conviction that I know how they felt as midnight approached at the ball. I could have sworn the dance just started an hour ago. This year has been like many things for me: a dream sequence (but certainly not a nightmare), a candle burning at both ends (and around the sides and up the back), an extended smorgasbord, a travelogue, a mad carriage ride through the forest with Boris Karloff as the driver - I could go on, but I'll spare you. For all of this marvelous experience and adventure I sincerely thank you.
I am grateful for many things: the opportunities you have provided me for life enrichment, for interpersonal bonding, and to attempt to make a contribution to a profession I am truly privileged to be a part of. Not the least of the things for which I am thankful is the opportunity to have worked with a group of volunteer lawyers on Bar Council and the Executive Committee who work hard to advance the best interests of the profession and the public, and the opportunity to have worked with a bar staff that is clearly exceptional in its dedication and efficiency. If I begin naming names, I won't know where to stop. Let me simply thank all of you.
Many of you have heard me say that it has been so nice to have a year where the Bar can work on its own internal needs and the needs of its membership, rather than being dominated by outside issues of urgency. We have been blessed with that kind of year.
One of our biggest concerns has been keeping faith with the pledge, made three years ago under Mike Smith's administration, to not only reduce the membership dues, but also to attempt to hold them at their current level until the end of the millennium. A dues reduction is unheard of in bar circles around the country. Reducing them and holding them down for an extended period of time seemed like a fantasy to many we talked to at regional and national meetings. I can tell you that it has been no small effort. At times we did not believe we could hold on that long. As with any organization or business, there are always growing financial pressures and new needs, many of which the institution has little or no control over. How many of your firms have been able to hold the budget line for three to five years? Thanks to a resourceful staff, a never-say-die Budget and Finance Committee, an Executive Committee that pushed the edges of the envelope and a supportive Bar Council, we have been able to hold the line thus far. It has involved belt tightening for sure, as well as postponement of gratification for some programs (like LOMAP) that have been waiting for funding or increases in funding. Nevertheless, we have been able to maintain healthy and vigorous programs and a plan for growth in important services. Besides, a little fasting now and then is good for the soul.
Of course, no one can promise what the next two years will bring in the way of additional pressures and, therefore, no one can predict just how long we can maintain dues at their present level. What can be promised, however, is that, if there is a way to do it, that way will be found. My successor, John Keith, and his successor, Scott Street have been there from the beginning of this effort and have been instrumental in keeping the faith. Rest assured that, when a dues increase finally comes, and sooner or later it must, it will only be because its time and need for the health of the Bar has surely come.
We have also completed the transition caused by CRESPA and the official sanctioning of lay settlement agencies in the area of residential real estate. This has occurred with a minimum of problems and disturbance. Once the legislation was passed, all parties concerned cooperated in making the system of registration and regulation of settlement agents work as well as possible. I very much appreciate that spirit of cooperation. There may be other blips on the real estate settlement radar screen, but we are well on the way to working them out.
I am not much of a prophet, but when I look into the murky glass of the future, I see that this is not the last area where the definition of what constitutes the practice of law will be challenged. This is already becoming apparent in such areas as mediation; personal injury settlements; debt collections; and wills, trusts and estates practice. You could add more. We need to begin now to study and plan for what comes next; not to artificially hold onto turf in a trade association struggle, but to understand and articulate the need of society for both the skilled, educated and committed professionalism lawyers bring to these areas of endeavor, and for efficient and affordable access to areas under the current tent of the law. Often the need and desire for cost efficiency can cloud people's understanding of the long term cost of dealing too cheaply with their transactions. Often too attorneys overwork transactions that can be dealt with less obsessively. Because of those two somewhat competing needs we need to achieve a dual thrust in our efforts. On the one hand, we need to identify the best ways to demonstrate the need people have for skilled professionals. We are already pretty good at this, but we can get better. On the other hand, we need to study, identify and implement ways to make the processes more affordable. This we have not done so well. Mediation is an emerging area that promises an efficient way to resolve disputes and provides a creative means for fashioning solutions the courts are unable to dictate; for example, allowing businesses to find ways to profit from cooperation rather than litigation. Much more is needed, however, if the legal process is not to become a rich person's sport.
I am happy to say we are coming down the home stretch in the consideration and adoption of the Model Rules of Ethics for Virginia. Over the past year we have published the proposed rules for your consideration and comment in three segments and then considered them at Bar Council. By the time you read this column, we will have considered and approved at our annual meeting those rules which were sent back to committee for reworking, and will have voted to send the entire set of rules to the Supreme Court for their consideration and, hopefully, adoption as rules of court. This effort will bring our format into alignment with that used in the overwhelming majority of jurisdictions - an important factor in this day of multi-state practice and mobility. At the same time we will have held on to Virginia's own ideas in many areas where there is not a uniform opinion as to what constitutes the best rules. Next year will begin the process of familiarizing everyone with the changes.
My heart this year has belonged to the concept of professionalism and improving the image of the bar and our legal and judicial systems, and enhancing pro bono services. I have become like a broken record on these subjects. I have, in Teddy Roosevelt terms, used the "bully pulpit" to urge a better understanding of how these concepts enhance the life of our society and have encouraged greater commitment on the part of every member of the profession to carry these flags wherever they go. When our society was formed, and the founders had the incredible insight to adopt the Bill of Rights for all citizens, a tension between democracy and liberty was implanted in our national life: a tension between the rights of the majority moving forward with dynamism and creativity, and the rights of the individual as the essential unit for which society works. That tension has provided the creative spark that has ignited us into being who we are as a people. Learning, creativity and development only come about as the product of stresses between want and need. History amply reflects that none of this could have happened and none of it can persist without people willing to become lawyers and to use those unique skills to serve their fellow citizens.
And now midnight approaches. The time for maudlin farewells. Let mine simply be a repeated thanks for the opportunities and the patience you have exercised on me over the past two years.