President's Corner

by Charles S. McDowell, Esquire

Let me open my first official communication to the membership by expressing the appreciation of the Association to Pat Hannigan for her excellent leadership during this past year. Pat ran our Executive Committee meetings very efficiently, while making sure all viewpoints were properly aired and always searching for consensus. Apart from the monthly meetings, the job requirements (which I am quickly learning are quite demanding) forced her to devote a significant amount of personal time and for that we are all very much indebted to her. Thanks, Pat and I look forward to calling on you for advice during the coming year.

Let me also start the new year by acknowledging the excellent services performed for the Bar Association by our staff led by Executive Director, Rina Marks. They are a very talented and versatile group of people and we will be using IN RE: this year to tell you some more about them and whatthey do for us.

During the last several months, as I prepared to become President of the Bar Association, I realized I need advice from many members of the Bar. So I have been meeting with representatives of the Bar’s major constituencies – including big firms, small firms, solo practitioners, judges, inhouse counsel, government lawyers, nonprofit lawyers, and Bar Committees and Sections. This has been a very rewarding exercise. I plan to continue this activity to learn of your interests and concerns. If I haven’t gotten around to calling you and you want to talk over a cup of coffee, please call me or send me an email.

My first task as President has been to make certain appointments to the Executive Committee to complement the experience and skills of those members who were nominated by the Nominating Committee and elected by the members at the annual meeting in June. (See masthead on page 24.) I am pleased to report that my President’s appointments have been accepted by Vice Chancellor Leo Strine (Judicial Member); Don Brown, Betsy McGeever and Allen Terrell (Members-at-Large); and Heather Jefferson (Assistant to the President). I am looking forward to working with all of the talented members of the Executive Committee.

Now having the benefit of ideas and suggestions from many of you as well as the incoming members of the Executive Committee, I have identified several projects that I think will be worthwhile devoting some time and energy to during the coming year. During this process I have also consulted particularly with my successors, Rob Young as President-Elect, and Helen Winslow as Vice President-At-Large. While Rob and Helen no doubt will have their own ideas about where to focus their energies during their terms as President, our intent is that the projects discussed below will continue to be supported during their terms.

With that as background let me discuss the major issues that we will face and projects we expect to undertake during this coming year.

Funding Legal Services for the Poor. This may be our most important project for the coming year. A major part of the funding for the civil legal services provided for the poor by Community Legal Aid Society, Legal Services Corporation of Delaware and Delaware Volunteer Legal Services comes from the Interest on Lawyers Trust Accounts program. Because of the recent record low interest rates, IOLTA funding is expected to leave a $1 million shortfall in 2004-2005. Providing appropriate criminal legal defense services for the indigent is also a major challenge. More about this in an upcoming issue.

Member Services and Benefits. If I have an overall program for the coming year it is to focus on member services and benefits. This covers virtually the whole range of things that the Bar Association does including supporting the activities of its many sections and committees; representing the Bar in interacting with the Courts, the State Legislature and the public; providing CLE and other member benefits; and organizing Bench and Bar ceremonial and social activities. Our members have very diverse needs and interests so all of our activities will not be of interest to everyone. Our job is to understand the varying needs of big firms/small firms/solo practitioners, judges/private practitioners/government lawyers/inhouse counsel, downstate/upstate lawyers, traditional Delaware firms/branch offices of national and regional firms, local/national practitioners and the various other categories in which our members fall and then ensure that our efforts address those varying needs and interests. With that in mind we will be reviewing all of our programs and activities. To make sure we get this right we need to receive your comments and suggestions so please give us a call.

Diversity in the Bar. For the public to have confidence in and to support our legal system, I believe it is critical for the Bar and the Judiciary to be reflective of our community. Despite significant progress in recent years, some of our racial and ethnic communities are still substantially underrepresented in the Bench and Bar. Because of the still relatively small number of these minority group members who are in the Bar and in law schools, it will take considerable time to completely rectify this situation. The Diversity Committee, headed by Dick Kirk, will be continuing its efforts, working in concert with the Multicultural Judges and Lawyers Section headed by Chip Flowers, to promote outreach and recruiting efforts such as the Minority Job Fairs and the Supplemental Bar Review Course and the Louis Redding Junior Scholars Program organized by Professor Leland Ware of the University of Delaware. This coming year, being the 50th anniversary of the decision in Brown v. Board of Education, offers us a special opportunity to make some progress in this area. I have asked Chip Connolly and Don Brown to Co-Chair a special committee to coordinate the Bar’s efforts to commemorate this very significant event in the legal and cultural history of our state and nation. These activities will include co-sponsorship of next spring’s Redding Symposium at the University of Delaware, using the Brown decision as the subject matter for an expanded Law Day program in the local schools, and possibly co-sponsoring some special television programming.

Bench and Bar Events. Many of you have lamented that our several gatherings of lawyers and judges do not seem to have the same appeal as in past years and in general that Bench and Bar relations are not as close as they were in the past. I will address this later in more detail except to mention now that I will appoint a special committee to work on the programming for the annual Bench and Bar Conference and we are planning an event for this September that will combine some of the elements of the former Barristers Barbeque and the annual September golf outing and dinner dance in Rehoboth Beach.

Other issues to be addressed this year with special projects include the public image of lawyers; consulting services on law practice management concentrating on technology issues and compliance with financial record keeping requirements; financial/Bar Center physical plant issues; services to and increasing participation by inhouse counsel; and enhancing and expanding our cooperative arrangements with Widener University School.of Law.

The projects mentioned above might strike you as ambitious and I will concede that they are. However, most of them already have energetic lawyers assigned to pursue them. It has been very encouraging to me during the last several months as I have met with members of the Bar to discuss DSBA matters, to note how willing you are to offer your assistance. Literally, no one says “No”. For those of you who are interested in getting involved with the professional activities of the Bar Association, particularly you younger members of the Bar, I encourage you to contact me and I will see that you are assigned to a project that will make your life as a lawyer more rewarding. With a lot of help from many of you, I am confident we can make a positive contribution to the Bar and our community during the coming year.

Finally, let me close by repeating my request that you contact me when you have any DSBA matters to discuss. I am very interested in hearing your ideas and suggestions.

Charlie is a partner with Potter Anderson & Corroon LLP and he can be reached at (302) 984-6012 or cmcdowell@potteranderson.com

---

 

Return to July/August 2003 Table of Contents.