Bar News - June 4, 2004
NHBA Board of Governors Approves NHBA Budget
THE NHBA BOARD of Governors, at its May 20th meeting, approved the 2004-5 budget, which calls for no increase in annual dues. (See page 11 for information on the NHBA dues mailing.)
The budget for the year beginning June 1, 2004, totals $2.7 million, and represents a 1.2 percent increase in expenditures from the current year. NHBA Executive Director Jeannine McCoy noted that of that total, only 42 percent is derived from dues, with the remainder coming from products and services (38 percent), grants and fundraising (18 percent) and miscellaneous sources such as reserve transfers and interest (2 percent).
McCoy said that in fact, the Bar’s main public service activities supported through the Bar’s infrastructure — Pro Bono, Lawyer Referral and Reduced-Fee Referral, and the Law-Related Education programs—are significantly self-supporting through revenue, receiving grants from the Bar Foundation’s IOLTA program, federal entities, United Ways (Pro Bono only), and the Pro Bono Golf Tournament. The new budget also contains a modest projection for advertising revenue from a planned " Lawyers’ E-Mall" of support service listings on www.nhbar.org. A complete budget spreadsheet will be published in an upcoming issue, along with the scheduled date for a budget information session.
The Board also approved:
- A "service package" for in-house counsel who are not admitted to the NH Bar. For $150 per year, these attorneys may obtain access to the Casemaker legal research service, subscriptions to the Bar’s publications, and enrollment in one NHBA section. (Under a recent order by the court, corporate counsel located in NH who do not practice in NH courts or solicit other clients do not have to be admitted to the NHBA.)
- Casemaker subscriptions. NH Bar members may obtain subscription access for one non-lawyer support staff member (legal assistant, paralegal, law librarian) to Casemaker legal research for an annual fee of $60 per year. The subscription will allow qualifying staff to utilize their own passwords to access Casemaker but not other members-only areas of the Web site.
(Both of the above service options will be offered after the password administration system is changed on the Web site.)
On the Board’s consent agenda were the appointment of attorney Kenneth Nielson as the Bar’s designee on the Board of Manufactured Housing, and approval of monthly financial statements and member status changes.
The following items were discussed but no action was taken:
- CACR 5, a constitutional amendment calling for statutes regarding certain court practices to prevail over court rules, has passed both chambers of the legislature. The Board was asked to consider what position the Bar should take on this issue when it is likely put before the voters next November. Members of the current board deferred consideration until June to enable newly elected board members to participate in the discussion. (Gretchen L. Witt and Marilyn McNamara did not participate.)
- IOLTA grant awards to Bar programs were reviewed. The Bar’s legal services and LRE programs will be allocated $193,877 in IOLTA funding in this fiscal year. The Bar requested $235,695 for Pro Bono, DOVE, Reduced Fee and LRE, but, anticipating level funding, budgeted for $207,195. The Bar staff will make the necessary adjustments to actual funding levels.
- The Bar is continuing to investigate alternative office space to the Bar Center on Pleasant Street, a facility that is no longer economical or adequate for the Bar’s meeting space and office needs. The Bar remains interested in more efficient and lower-per-square foot space (with ample meeting space and parking on-site) in an office building rehabilitation project in Concord and is monitoring the market for other suitable prospects in the Concord area.
- The New Lawyers Committee has obtained two grants ($250 and $200, respectively) from the ABA Young Lawyers Division to support outreach efforts at the swearing-n ceremony and at an annual reception for new lawyers.
- The Board was updated on the work of the Public Protection Fund Committee. Recently, decisions on two claims considered by the PPF Committee were overturned by a panel of three retired judges, convened under the PPF’s rules for appeals. The judicial panel said the PPF Committee should reconsider both claims, from the same claimant against two different attorneys, that had been rejected on technical and jurisdictional grounds. One claim had been filed a week late, and a second claim was rejected by the committee on the basis of jurisdiction; e committee found the complaint was more in the nature of a fee dispute rather than a theft of client funds because some work had been performed for the client. An update on the PPF will appear in a future issue of Bar News.
- A letter was reviewed from the ABA’s Standing Committee on Client Protection seeking the Bar’s support in the adoption of the proposed ABA Model Court Rule on Insurance Disclosure. The rule calls for mandatory disclosure by attorneys regarding professional liability insurance. No action was taken.
- A three-judge panel of the US First Circuit Court of Appeals rejected an appeal of a US District Court ruling dismissing litigation by Theodore Kamasinski against the Bar Association, the NH Attorney General, Superior Court Judge Edward Fitzgerald and Merrimack County Attorney Dan St. Hilaire. The appeals court said that under the Rooker-Feldman doctrine, the issues—centering on rulings by Fitzgerald on the unauthorized practice of law statute as it related to Kamasinski ‘s activities— belonged n state court.
- A dozen attorneys provided Pro Bono estate planning services to more than 40 military reservists being processed on the weekend of May 15-16. The Pro Bono Program organized the volunteers—including paralegals and Bar staff —on extremely short notice.
- The State Bar of Georgia has expressed interest in using the Bar’s operating motto, " Supporting Members of the Legal Profession & Their Service to the Public and Justice System. "
Upcoming dates:
- NHBA Annual Meeting - June 24-26, Wentworth by the Sea Hotel, New Castle; Orientation for new board members — July 15; New Lawyers Committee event at the Fisher Cats minor league game— Aug. 12; NHBA Leadership Development retreat - Oct. 22-23.
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