There is for me an extra special aspect to this occasion. Just as a baby will imprint on its parents as the first and principal figures in its life, so a lawyer’s understanding of justice is developed by the first courts in which he or she primarily practices. For me that court was the Circuit Court of Monongalia County, before Judge, now Chief Justice Starcher. I always believed, no matter how else I may have felt about what happened in court, that Judge Starcher would do what he thought was the just thing. I have tried to follow his example. To have him administer the Oath of Office to me this evening completes, in a sense, a journey of more than twenty years. I now come to a position from which, I hope, I can help others to understand that, as a sign on the Judge’s office wall said — "justice is what we’re all about."

I truly believe that. Justice is what we are all about. I sometimes wonder if the citizens of our state know it. I sometimes wonder if we ourselves understand it. It is my goal this year to convey that message to the people, and to remind our own members that our system is a just system.

But our system is under attack on virtually every front - low income and poverty law programs are being reduced to the point of elimination; civil law defense firms are being hamstrung in their ability to make the decisions essential to the proper representation of their clients; groups who make little, if any effort to learn the facts of cases are accusing plaintiff’s lawyers of manipulating the system and bringing "frivolous" lawsuits — which judges and juries frequently find to be not so frivolous. Judges are being criticized, maligned and driven from office for making legally sound, but unpopular decisions. And it sometimes seems that no one wants criminal law defense attorneys to do their job.

In the book Wyatt Earp by Matt Braun, I found this passage: "you and your brothers are strong men. In any society, when there's a war or rebellion or a type of transition, people look to strong men like you. The weak people who just want to live their lives look to strong men to protect them, to be their knights, and the lawless ones look to men like you and your brothers and plot how to eliminate them."

That is, I think, the essence of what lawyering is about: we smooth transitions, we protect the weak, and we pursue the lawless. But we do much more. Even if everyone tries to do the right thing, "right" is a matter of personal opinion and perception — and in the name of "right" we have seen, even in recent times, and continuing to today, the enslavement of nations, the execution of entire populations because of race, religion or ethnicity, and the imprisonment of individuals because of "wrong" or unpopular ideas.

As a sole practitioner I frequently represent rather ordinary people, with rather ordinary problems. What they seek is justice. Not a particular result, but a process that they feel gives them a fair chance at a fair result. I believe that if we, you and I, as attorneys, can help them understand what we do, and how and why we do it, they will understand that our system is just.

As the mandatory organization for all lawyers in West Virginia, the State Bar is a very diverse group. Since our members select our leaders, our leaders are also a diverse group, coming from all parts of the state and all types of legal practices. As an example, I am a sole practitioner in Morgantown. My predecessor and friend, Elliot Hicks, is a member of a larger defense oriented law firm from Charleston. My worthy successor, Jim Stealey, is a member of a small plaintiff oriented law firm in Parkersburg. We have different perspectives and philosophies, but we work together with open minds, to improve the administration of justice and assist our citizens with their legal problems.

As lawyers, we are members of a profession. Others may have jobs or careers, but we are professionals. No one comes to us except when they have a problem. They seek our guidance, advice and assistance. With our rules of professional conduct and strongly worded decisions of our Supreme Court, we are bound to a higher level of ethical conduct than other members of our society. Ours is important work whether our clients are beloved, tolerated, or despised individuals, groups, corporations or governmental entities.

So, what does all of this mean? What am I going to focus on during the next 365 days or so? These are good questions. Here are my answers.

As I have already mentioned, and as my first priority, I firmly believe that we must do a better job of educating our citizens about the legal system, its benefits, and the legal profession. As you may know, I have a passion for the public television network in our state. I believe we can use that medium to give our citizens a better understanding of laws and lawyers.

In that regard, we are planning television programs, perhaps as a series to begin this fall that will cover the entire state on public television. With the cooperation of West Virginia Public Broadcasting we can have access to virtually every home in our state simultaneously. We have been working on this activity with our voluntary bar organizations — the Mountain State Bar Association, the West Virginia Trial Lawyers Association, the Defense Trial Counsel of West Virginia and the West Virginia Bar Association — as well as with interested law offices, the College of Law and other entities interested in the justice system. These programs will be very topical, with very short lead times, and will include lawyers, judges, legislators and prominent citizens talking about and debating legal issues and cases taken from the headlines. I am looking forward to this endeavor with great anticipation. We must do a better job of providing legal learning opportunities for the residents of our state.

We have already started our work with public television. On May 1, in prime time, all three West Virginia public television stations carried a special law day program which featured Chief Justice Starcher, Past President Elliot Hicks and others in an hour-long discussion of the proposed restructuring of the court system and the family law bill passed during the recent legislative session. Everything went smoothly, and the response to the program has been uniformly very positive. We are looking forward to continuing our relationship with public television and have started discussions with public radio.

Along those same lines, the Supreme Court has moved to the forefront in educational efforts with its successful "Legal Advancements for West Virginia Students" (LAWS) Program that was initiated in March in Beckley. Additionally, the court sits in various parts of the state to hear cases, giving access and, therefore, an opportunity for understanding to citizens in every part of West Virginia.

Many of our members are already active in their own educational efforts - lawyers throughout West Virginia have radio and television programs where they discuss various facets of the law. Others regularly write articles which appear in our daily and weekly newspapers.

Our own State Bar Citizenship and Law-Related Education Committee has been involved for many years in Teacher Training Sessions and Youth Summits. Comments from the participants in these activities have been uniformly very positive. These programs are beneficial, essential, and will continue.

A year from now, all of us will be very interested and involved in the primary election process. All of the Circuit Court Judge positions and two seats on our Supreme Court will be up for election. This will definitely be a prime time to educate our citizens about our court system.

Therefore, the State Bar will again make available its Judicial Evaluation Poll. This intensive activity gives our membership the opportunity to share their perceptions of the candidates. We will publicize the results so that the voters will have the benefit of our insight and experience when they go to the polls.

Interestingly, in the past all judicial candidates have used the results of the Poll to benefit their campaigns. If a candidate gets a favorable evaluation, they talk about how smart and perceptive we lawyers are. On the other hand, if they do not do well in the Evaluation Poll, they say that they are "independent thinkers" and are "not beholden to the lawyers!" In any event, the Judicial Evaluation Poll is a tool helpful in the enlightenment of the public.

Along these same lines, I feel that we need to educate ourselves about ourselves and our situation. Therefore, we will be conducting a Membership Survey this coming fall. Usually our Membership Survey is done every ten years - in 1974, 1984 and 1994. But, with the new millennium coming and the desire to document who and what we are, and the desire for us to have a better understanding of the needs of our members, we will do the Membership Survey in 1999.

The results of the Survey are of immense benefit to the State Bar and to your leaders. The answers to the more than 200 questions on the Survey provide information concerning all facets of lawyering and the legal system. In 1994, more than 40% of our members took the time and effort to complete the questionnaire - this is an exceedingly high response rate. I sincerely hope that even more State Bar members will participate in the Survey this fall.

I would be remiss if I did not give a special recognition and accolade to the Lawyer Information Service, the longest running education program operated by the State Bar. Every Tuesday evening for more than 20 years, State Bar members have committed 2 hours of their time to answering questions from citizens who call in on the Lawyer Information Service toll-free telephone line. The phones ring continually. The callers ask questions, receive immediate answers and, when appropriate, referral to attorneys in their area through the State Bar’s Lawyer Referral Program. The success of this Program is a tribute to the hundreds of lawyers who have participated over the years. The State Bar is exceedingly appreciative of their work.

The second area on which I plan to focus during the coming year is general assistance to our citizens and to our state Bar members. For the past several months, a group of lawyers, judges and laypersons has been working diligently on improving the provision of free civil legal services for our low income citizens. Using the framework of the State Bar’s "Legal Services for the Poor Symposium," which was initiated in 1995, the group has a goal of setting up a new statewide plan for legal services for the poor by October 1, 1999.

The Symposium actually consists of six sub groups that are working under the leadership of Kanawha County Circuit Court Judge Irene Berger. The final product of this activity will be a formal state plan that will coordinate and improve the provision of free civil legal services for our low income citizens. You will be hearing much more about this work in the coming months.

In addition, to specifically assist our citizens and our membership, we will be strengthening an area of great interest to me — law office technology. Our State Bar has been a national leader in enabling our lawyers to use computer technology in their offices to the greatest extent possible. Earlier in this decade, we implemented Technet, a trend setting project which gave our lawyers the opportunity to have a wide variety of on-line legal information available to them on their own computers. We were well ahead of our time with Technet. But during the past couple of years, the availability of legal research tools on the Internet has exploded. Large amounts of information is now available free of charge. It is possible to do significant research on federal issues and substantial research concerning recent State Supreme Court and administrative cases on-line for free . We must change with times, and we must continue to lead on technological issues. Therefore, effective as of Law Day, May 1, 1999, the entire content of the Technet System was made available to our members free of charge, through the Internet, on the State Bar’s Home Page. Just log on to www.wvbar.org and follow the links.

We will, of course, continue upgrading and expanding the information that was a part of the Technet System. But, we will also be dramatically improving the State Bar’s Home Page offerings. Our Home Page has become, and will continue to be, the main communication mechanism for State Bar members and the starting point for legal research.

My third area of emphasis during the upcoming year will be to make sure that we honor and give recognition to deserving lawyers in this state. Everyone in our state needs to know of the good works that are being done by lawyers in our courts , in our communities, and throughout our society generally.

The West Virginia Bar Foundation has stepped forward in this regard with its Citizen of the Year and Lawyer of the Year Awards as well as the initiation of its Foundation Fellows Program. The West Virginia University College of Law has had remarkable achievements with its partners program, its justinian award and similar activities. The State Bar has been involved through our Certificate of Merit Program. Nevertheless, I believe that there is more that we can do.

Consequently, you will see additional actions in the coming months. I want our lawyers and the general public to be well aware of who we are, what we do, how we help and what we accomplish for the benefit of our state and its citizens. Lawyers must become visible and be recognized. Our lawyers have always been active in every aspect of our society. Lawyers are on nearly every non-profit board in existence. We are leaders in public school activities. We coach sports teams, and serve as scout leaders. Our leadership is sought in every church.

Just as lawyers founded our nation and our state, we now serve as our society’s conscience. If we are as a group disliked, it is because what we do is not understood. It is my intention in this next year to let people know of our presence, our activities, and to let our citizens know how truly accessible we are. I cannot make anyone love, or even like lawyers. All of us together cannot do that. But I propose that we take advantage of every opportunity to educate and inform about who we are and what we do. But more than just take advantage of opportunities, I propose we make our own opportunities.

I know that the next year will go by very quickly. I know that I will get a chance to see old friends and make new ones as I travel around the state. I know that in those travels I will eat chicken prepared in every conceivable manner — and perhaps in an inconceivable manner or two. I know that I will have the continuing support of my wife, Rebecca and my sons, Ben and Darren, who add so much to my life, and of my mother, whose faith and belief in me as a child made it possible for me to be here today. I know that my law practice will not completely fade away, because everyone knows that my assistant of nearly twenty years, Janet Bowser, runs the office anyway.

I am extremely proud to be a member of the legal profession here in West Virginia. I believe in what we do, and most importantly in how we do it. I will ask for help from some of you in the coming year — if I ask you I hope that you will recognize and realize an opportunity to work with the Bar to improve the delivery of legal services to the citizens of West Virginia, everyday in every case.