BOARD OF GOVERNORS MEETING HIGHLIGHTS

State Bar Board of Governors member Elizabeth Pyles of Parkersburg provides the lawyers in her district with a synopsis of the actions which occurred at the Board of Governors Meeting. We are sharing with you her report for the October 29-30, 1999 Board Meeting which was held in Shepherdstown in the Eastern Panhandle.

1 The Bar, through its "Defense of the Judiciary Committee" will issue a press release on the independence of the judiciary in response to the recent public attacks perceived to be of a personal nature againstjudge Hayden relative to the mountain top removal issue.

2. The public television program funded in part by the Bar is up and running and airing Sunday evenings at 7:30 P.M. Upcoming topics will include bankruptcy, who can sue and why should we?, and divorce or family law. If you have any other suggested ideas, contact Dan Ringer, 68 Donnely Street, Morgantown, WV 26501. FAX # 304-292-3372.

3. Reports were heard from Jim Stealey relative to the Southern Conference of Bar President's meeting recently in Memphis and John Tinney, Chair of the State Bar Task Force, relative to the multi-disciplinary practice issue. The matter will probably not be presented to the ABA for a vote during it's next meeting (February), but is anticipated to be presented at the following meeting. If you have any thoughts or in-put, the same should be forwarded to Mr. Tinney, P. 0. Box 273, Charleston, WV 25321.

4. Proposed rules governing and allowing lawyers specialization were submitted some time ago to the Supreme Court, who thus far has taken no further action on the rules. The matter was raised at a recent meeting with Chief Justice Starcher.

5. You should have recently received a survey from the State Bar. Please take the time to respond to this survey. As a side note, I have found the statistics helpful in my practice relative particularly to incomes for lawyers , which I was able to use successfully in attributing income to a party in a divorce action who was a lawyer, but not working as such.

6. President Joe Long of the West Virginia Trial Lawyers Association reported on their efforts to improve the image of trial lawyers; and in keeping with their theme "Keeping Our Family Safe" for the year, discussed the bicycle helmet program wherein the trial lawyers will be distributing roughly 1,000 helmets around the state for free, which is underwritten by donations from individual members. If you are a Trial Lawyers member, the suggested donation is $1 5.00.

7. Interesting Statistics: 140 people were admitted to WVU College of Law this year. Of those, 89 are men and 51 are women; 9 are minorities, 4 of which are African American. The average age is 26. Relative to the issue of multidisciplinary practice, the ABA claims that 50% of the graduating lawyers in the class of 1998 in the United States are employed in one of the Big 5 accounting firms, but Dean Fisher reported that he did not believe that those statistics were accurate per national placement percentages that he receives. Germany and South Africa allow for multi-disciplinary practice; the Barristers of Great Britain are violently opposed to the same.

8. Legal Symposium for the Poor: Legal Aid of Charleston and Apple Red will merge effective January 1, 2000. There is discussion pending as to whether to transfer the Pro-Bono Referral Pro'ect from the offices of Legal Services to the State Bar.

9. Chief Lawyer Disciplinary Counsel Kayuha, met for the first time with the Board of Governors. In reviewing statistics, 22.7% of the pending case load is more than 18 months old. In reviewing the status of the office, Mr. Kayuha reported that he discovered 306 complaints filed between the periods of June 1998 through September 1 6, 1999 on which no action beyond sending the complaint to the respondent has been taken. DisciplinaryCounselOfficeremainsshortone lawyer in light of the recent resignation of Mr. Knopp. Mr. Kayuha will be reporting to the Bar via the Board of Governors(as he already does)on a monthly basis regarding, among other things, his efforts to get this back log under control. It is suggested that if you are the subject of one of these complaints (most of which it appears at first blush are frivolous) to please be patient and allow new bar counsel get a handle on the matter.

10. More Interesting statistics: From the ABA Meeting of the Commission on Opportunities for Minorities in the Profession, it was reported that 12% of kindergarten through 12 th grade students in America are African American, 7% of America's law students are African American, but only 2% of associate lawyers in America are African American.