American Bar Association COMMISSION ON LAWYER ASSISTANCE PROGRAMS

Transcription

1 American Bar Association COMMISSION ON LAWYER ASSISTANCE PROGRAMS Sheraton Boston Boston, MA August 10, 2014 Minutes of the Business Meeting In attendance: Commission Members Hon. Sarah L. Krauss, Chair Hon. Donald Allen Jr. Andrew Branham Hon. Richard Brown John Kudel Elsa Leyva Eileen O Brien Advisory Committee Members Hon. Robert Childers 1

2 Barbara Ezyk Cecie Hartigan Tracy Kepler Anne McDonald, via conference call Janet Piper Voss Committee Members Ann Chambers, via conference call Terry Harrell William Kane Mike Larson Richard Soden Nancy Stek Liaisons Jill Berkeley, TIPS John Clark, Solo, Small Firm, General Practice Division Richard Roisman, Health Law Section John Schulte, Board of Governors Scott Tolliver, Law Student Division Guests Mark Agrast Kathleen Scully-Hayes Sheevani Patel Kelly McAdams Francine Ward Staff Terry Brooks, Director, Division for Legal Services Will Hornsby, Staff Counsel Sara Smith, Policy and Research Analyst The meeting convened at 8:30 AM, Sunday, August 10, APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES The minutes of the April 27, 2014 meeting were approved as submitted. 2

3 REPORT OF THE CHAIR Judge Krauss welcomed all those attending and asked to go around the table for individual introductions. She then recognized the contributions of those Commission members who were ending their tenure at this meeting. Dean Jaffe provided unparalleled vitality to the Law Student Committee, up-dating the Toolkit, successfully guiding an application for Enterprise Project Funding and then overseeing the subsequent research on conduct and opinions of law students. Karen Kahle provided leadership to the Policy Committee, resulting in a draft policy on confidentiality, which the Commission plans to bring to the House of Delegates in the near future, and provided direction to the Education Committee. Eileen O Brien chaired the Education Committee, working with the TIPS Fellows to produce a free CLE webinar on cognitive impairment that was viewed by over 700 people. Judge Krauss welcomed the newly appointed Commission members, all of whom were in attendance. Ms. Hartigan, Mr. Kane and Ms. Ward are in-coming members and Ms. Harrell is the in-coming chair. Ms. Harrell took this opportunity to recognize the contributions and leadership provided by Judge Krauss during her three years as Commission chair. CoLAP has strengthened its relationships throughout the ABA and conducted activities that can only be done on a national level, including the Comprehensive Survey of Lawyer Assistance Programs; collaborative programming with the National Organization of Bar Counsel, the Association of Professional Responsibility Lawyers, and the Conference of Chief Justices; expansion of state programs into West Virginia and Wyoming; research into the conduct of law students and lawyers; and long-range planning designed to position CoLAP to best meet the interests of the LAPs and the ABA membership. Judge Krauss also recognized the contributions of those who are rotating off of the Advisory Committee, including Jeanne Brennan, Judge Childers, Cecie Hartigan, Stewart Hsieh, Emil Jalonen, and Janet Voss. Newly appointed Advisory Committee members include Charles Mauney, Karen Kahle, Eileen O Brien, Judge David Shaheed, Joan Bibelhausen, Judge Krauss, and Anthony Pacione. Judge Krauss then reported on contributions from lawyer assistance programs in support of CoLAP s non-dues revenue initiative. To date, the Commission has received contributions totaling $8,300. This is slightly less than the prior year, when a few states made contributions exceeding the amount they had been asked to make. These non-dues revenues are approximately four percent of the budget provided by the ABA for direct support of CoLAP s initiatives. Judge Krauss indicated that while she believed it was important for CoLAP to continue to explore nondues revenue opportunities, she did not believe the effort to obtain contributions from the LAPs was a productive one and suggested this not be continued in the next fiscal year. This may involve some reductions in activities in the near term, but Judge Krauss encouraged the Commission to explore other options, such as an initiative to increase sponsorship and exhibitors at the National Conference. She suggested this be part of the long-range planning process that will continue into the fall. Finally, Judge Krauss noted that the Informational Report to the ABA House of Delegates has been updated and posted at the CoLAP website, at The report is a good 3

4 two-page summary of the Commission s current work. REPORT OF THE STAFF COUNSEL Mr. Hornsby reported that as part of overall non-dues revenue, the ABA Publications Division is planning a book on cocktail recipes. The Division is willing to provide language in the book and in promotional materials to direct those in need of assistance to the CoLAP website so that they can contact their state or local LAP. Judge Allan and Ms. McDonald volunteered to assist Mr. Hornsby with the language of a statement to be provided to the Publications Division. Mr. Hornsby then posed a question of whether CoLAP should attempt to promote publications that would assist those in need of assistance. He indicated that CoLAP has an inventory of The Lawyer s Guide to Healing, that was donated by Don Carroll, which it has resold over the past few years. In addition, new ABA publications include The Lawyer s Light and Yoga for Lawyers. The question is whether LAPs would be pipelines to get out the message that these books are available. The Commission also discussed whether it should pursue the development of a book based on the stories of those who are in recovery. ADVISORY COMMITTEE MEMBERSHIP The CoLAP Advisory Committee has 15 members, each of whom is appointed by the ABA President for a one-year term, with reappointments available up to three years. The Committee has no voting authority, does not meet separately form the Commission and its members are not reimbursed for the costs of attending meetings. Many of the members go on to become members of CoLAP, with a detailed understanding of the issues as a result of Advisory membership and some members are able to be reimbursed by their employers because they have been presidentially appointed. Judge Krauss asked the Commission to consider whether the Committee should be continued on this basis or whether it should be open to all those interested. She asked that there be a resolution on this issue at the fall meeting, since CoLAP s decision would need to go the Board of Governors early enough for action prior to the committee nomination process, which begins in December. LONG-RANGE PLANNING/COMMITTEE STRUCTURE The report of the long-range planning meeting was included in the agenda materials, setting out a series of priorities. The Commission discussed how those priorities fit into the current Commission structure and its many committees. Judge Krauss and Ms. Harrell suggested a restructuring that would include committees dedicated to 1. Communications, 2. Education and Research, 3. Funding, 4. Partnerships and Collaborations, which would include special populations, and 5. Relations with State LAPs, including peer-to-peer evaluations and work-life 4

5 balance. Ms. Harrell will continue to work on a restructuring plan and further this discussion at the fall meeting. As part of the planning process, Judge Brown invited Mark Agrast to join the meeting. Mr. Agrast relied on his experience as a former member of the Board of Governors and current chair of the Commission on Disability Rights to share his perspective that working through the ABA is a powerful way of magnifying our voices and communicating our messages. Once the ABA has adopted a policy, we can advance that issue in Congress and through amicus curia briefs. One issue that is always valuable to explore is the way in which the Commission s issues related to those of the incoming leadership of the ABA. Based on this, the Commission thought it would be of value to invite the up-coming presidential leadership to the Commission s Midyear Meeting to explore mutual interests. NATIONAL CONFERENCE Mr. Larson reported that the conference agenda is set, registration is underway and that everyone is encouraged to reach out to both those planning to attend and those planning to exhibit to be certain they get their registrations in as soon as possible. Ms. Hartigan reported that the 2015 National Conference will be on October 20 22, at the Hotel Albuquerque at Old Town. The conference will have the run of the hotel. Ms. Hartigan asked that everyone be aware that dates are a little later than the typical conference date to avoid conflicts with the hot air balloon festival taking place earlier in the month. REPORTS OF THE LIAISONS Report from the liaison from the Board of Governors: Mr. Schulte discussed proposed Resolution 109, which addresses cyber-security standards. The report of the resolution refers to compliance with international standards, which may be costly and burdensome for solo and small firm practitioners. Based on this report, the Commission voted to take a stance against this type of burden and asked Mr. Kudel to track the matter when the House of Delegates meets the following day and to take appropriate action in collaboration with other ABA entities to oppose any policy to the extent it that would impose undue burdens on practitioners. Report of the liaison to the ABA Journal: Ms. Voss reported that she attended the meeting of the Journal and has done so frequently throughout her appointment to the Commission, on its behalf. She suggested that in the event the Commission maintains a liaison to the Journal that the liaison go to the meetings and otherwise approach the Journal with specific proposed projects for articles. Report of the liaison to the Commission on Disability Rights: Judge Brown reported that the Commission is working toward the implementation of policy adopted by the House of Delegates at the Midyear Meeting to grant accommodations to those with disabilities when taking law school entrance exams. 5

6 Report of the liaison from the Solo, Small Firm General Practice Division: Mr. Clark reported that as a member of the steering committee of the Enterprise Fund Project, the Division is looking forward to learning more about the law school research results. Mr. Tolliver added that he hopes the research results will lead to better utilization of the resources that are available to law students. Report of the liaison from the Health Law Section: Mr. Roisman reported that the Section has a panel on veterans health care, is developing a distance learning program on impaired health care providers, is developing a publication on lawyers in early recovery and is examining commitment laws. Report of the liaison from the National Organization of Bar Counsel: Ms. Kepler reported that Doug Ende, from Washington State, will become liaison from NOBC. She also reported on the work of the Committee on Aging and thanked CoLAP for its input. Plans are underway for programming at the Midyear Meeting in Houston in February, including a focus on mental health issues. Report of the liaison from the Tort, Trial and Insurance Practice Section: Ms. Berkeley, who sat in in the place of Leo Jordon and who will become liaison from TIPS for the up-coming year, reported that the TIPS Fellows are working with the Commission to fund a CLE webinar on compassion fatigue, to be held in the fall. She also discussed a resolution on professionalism that is being brought to the House of Delegates the next day. The resolution commends a roundtable of entities for their efforts to create a report in support of professionalism throughout the legal profession. Prior to this meeting, Judge Krauss, Ms. Berkeley and others had discussed the resolution, where Judge Krauss expressed her concern that the roundtable did not address issues of professionalism lapses resulting from the diseases of alcoholism, additions and mental illness. Ultimately, the resolution was amended in a way that did not call for support of the report, but merely gratitude for its preparation. It was agreed that this provided an opportunity for CoLAP to advance better outreach to those involved in the roundtable. REPORTS OF THE COMMITTEES Report of the Diversity Initiative: Ms. Leyva reported that the Committee had prepared letters to the LAPs and to minority bar associations in an effort to identify a baseline of outreach to minority lawyers. After discussion, the Commission concluded that it would be most appropriate to do two things. First, it will create an online survey of LAPs, seeking information about their interactions with minority bars. Second, it will send a letter to national minority bars, and not state minority bars, that will encourage better outreach and resources for their members. This letter, which will be cc ed to the LAP directors of the states of the national bar offices, will suggest that the bars link to CoLAP s website in order for their members to be able to better find the LAPs that serve them, that the bars include programming on issues served by the LAPs and that the bars include articles in their publications on the issues addressed by LAPs. The Committee will report on its progress at the fall meeting. 6

7 Judicial Assistance Initiative: Judge Brown reported that the Committee is advancing roundtables, which have evolved as pilots in Wisconsin, New York and Michigan, and is the subject of a program at the National Conference. Life Balance Committee: Ms. Ezyk reported that the Directors Day program is set for the Monday prior to the opening of the National Conference in October. In addition, the Committee has been conducting monthly conference calls for new directors and is planning quarterly conference calls for all directors. Policy Committee: Judge Childers reported that work is underway to secure input into the Commission s proposed resolution on confidentiality. The resolution has been circulated to ABA entities the Committee anticipates will have an interest in it. It has received feedback from one entity in the Center for Professional Responsibility and has been informed that at least one other entity will weigh in. The Committee has created an online page that will present the feedback and updated changes that may result. Depending on the feedback, the Committee hopes to move forward on the resolution at the Midyear Meeting in February. Senior Lawyers Committee: Ms. Harrell reported that Ms. Voss participated on the Joint Committee on Aging Lawyer Issues in collaboration with APRL and NOBC. The regional meeting, with assistance from the MA LAP, presented a program on senior lawyers and young lawyers partnering to meet their goals. Ms. Harrell participated in the Conference of Chief Justices in July and will participate with Ms. Kepler on a panel at the annual conference for the National Academy of Neuropsychology in November. The Working Paper on Cognitive Impairment and Cognitive Decline has now been posted. Education Committee: Ms. O Brien reported that, thanks to funding from the TIPS Fellows, an upcoming CLE webinar has been planned for the fall. Ms. Albert will be coordinating content on the topic of compassion fatigue. Efforts are underway to obtain ethics credit for the 90 minute program. REGIONAL MEETING Ms. Hartigan reported that the regional meeting centered on the bookends of solo practitioners, bringing together the needs of young lawyers and the resources of more mature lawyers. Arthur Greene led the program on succession planning and the rewards of retirement. FUTURE MEETINGS The 2014 fall business meeting will be held on Wednesday, October 8, in Nashville. The 2015 winter meeting will be held during the ABA Midyear Meeting. The regional meeting will be held on Friday, February 6. Committee meetings will be held on Saturday, February 7, and the business meeting will be held on the morning of Sunday, February 8. 7

8 A 2015 spring meeting will only be held if the Commission has sufficient funding. TBD The 2015 summer meeting will be at the ABA Annual Meeting in Chicago, with the business meeting on the morning of August 2. The 2015 fall meeting will be on the afternoon of Friday, October 23, in Albuquerque. There being no further business, upon motion duly made, seconded and unanimously approved, for the good of the order, the Commission adjourned at noon, August 10, Respectfully Submitted, William Hornsby Staff Counsel 8