President's Corner

by Charles S. McDowell, Esquire

I regret starting this month’s column on a sad note but I must note the incredible and untimely passing in August of Judge Haile L. Alford and James H. Gilliam, Jr. We have lost two of our great pioneers and leaders. Please see the moving tribute to Judge Alford written by Judge Toliver and Josh Martin. A tribute to Jim Gilliam will appear in next month’s issue.

Last month I wrote about some of the important issues the Bar Association will face and the significant projects we will pursue this year – funding legal services for the poor, diversity initiatives, and Bench/Bar relations and events. With respect to Bench/Bar events, be sure to sign up for the 2003 Bench and BarBQ and Golf and Tennis Outing on September 15 at Fieldstone Golf Club and Vicmead Hunt Club. This should be a terrific event at a modest price put together by Program Chair Heather Jefferson.

Now let me discuss some of the other issues and projects we will deal with this year.

Public Image of the Bar. Many lawyers I talk to express concern about the public image of lawyers. Over time I have concluded that lawyer bashing will always be with us because it is a natural byproduct of our adversary system. Litigants who end up on the losing side of a dispute may very well not think highly of the winning lawyer’s tactics and arguments even though that lawyer was simply doing the good lawyer’s job of zealously representing the client’s interest. Even many people who are highly critical of lawyers don’t have bad things to say about their own lawyer.

I also think our system of private enforcement of legal rights causes some lawyers to put personal financial gain ahead of what some might perceive to be the public interest. Nevertheless I firmly believe that lawyers make positive contributions to our community that far outweigh those made by any other profession or interest group. And I do believe that there are steps that can be taken to do a better job of getting out that good word.

So during the coming year we will be working on programs like creating a speakers’ bureau and expanding our Law Day activities to get lawyers and judges in front of community groups and into our schools more often to promote an understanding of our legal system, public education programs that focus on consumers rights and similar issues that touch the lives of many, the Pro Se Assistance Program (Committee chaired by Bill Johnston) that helps citizens faced with small but vexing legal problems, and creating a communications function in the Association’s office that will work on publicizing the activities of our Community Service Committee as well as the extensive pro bono and community activities of our members. Specifically, I have established a new Communications Committee to be headed by Helen Winslow which will oversee much of this effort.

Law Practice Assistance. Many of our colleagues have expressed concern about the hassled quality of their work life. Practicing law has become more and more like any other business with the need to adopt more traditional market place tactics to compete in the legal marketplace, the pressures to stay abreast of constantly developing new technology, and the pressure for higher billable hours. I will use my office to continue to exhort lawyers to value and pursue the law as a profession and not a business. But we will also be looking for ways to help you in your day-to-day practice so that you will have more time to pursue the rewarding professional aspects of your legal career.

I have formed a new Technology Committee, headed by Richard Herrmann, with members from all of the Sections, which will focus on determining the technology needs of persons practicing in different legal areas and different legal practice settings. President-Elect Rob Young and Allen Terrell will Co-Chair a new Practice Management Committee that will investigate techniques for providing consultation to lawyers on law practice management, including particularly ways to ease the burdens of complying with record keeping and other Court requirements. We will work to ensure that members are aware that, through the Professional Guidance Committee (Co-Chaired by Don Parsons and Barry Guerke), the Lawyers Assistance Committee (Chaired by Larry Fifer), the Small Firms and Solo Practictioners Section (Chaired by Lee Goldstein) or otherwise, personal consultation and mentoring is available when law practice or personal problems cause difficulties. Finally I will establish a Pro Bono Committee, whose job will be not only to encourage pro bono service by lawyers but also to develop programs that will make it as easy as possible for lawyers to get involved in pro bono activities by, for example, creating model pro bono programs for law firms.

Financial/Physical Plant Issues. I am pleased to report that the Association’s finances are in good shape. After spending almost all of our reserves (which were accumulated by the foresight of previous Association leaders) on the acquisition and renovation of our Bar Center, we now have a terrific and historically significant permanent facility for our members. Since acquiring the new facility, we have gradually restored our working capital reserves to about $300,000, slightly in excess of our target of 3 months operating expenses. If you have done the math you have correctly determined that our operating budget for this year is just under $1 million, a significant milestone.

We do plan to continue adding to our reserves to have the ability to meet future capital needs such as fitting out the basement of the Bar Center for work carrels convenient to the New Castle County Courthouse and dealing with the dilapidated properties immediately north of the Bar Center until they can be properly developed as a part of the Ships Tavern revitalization project. (Don Parsons is heading the special committee focusing on the possible improvement and expansion of the Bar Center and Rob Krapf is the project leader on dealing with the next door properties owned by the Wilmington Renaissance Development Corporation.) We have adopted a modest dues increase in certain membership categories for this year as a part of a plan to do this in small doses every three years or so (if needed) to regularly fund depreciation on our new facility rather than having to impose significant increases in any one year to pay for some significant capital repair or improvement. Our dues are still below the national average and we plan to keep it that way. We are always on the lookout for non-dues source revenue and we are investigating two significant projects in that regard which I hope to have more to report on later this fall.

As you can see, we have a number of significant issues to deal with during this year. If you want to get involved with one of these projects, give me a call and we will give you an assignment that I think you will find very rewarding.

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

Return to September 2003 Table of Contents.