[WSBAPT] Fw: Update re Yesterday's Testimony re ESHB 1788 to repeal the Bar Act

Wed Mar 20 13:48:21 PDT 2019

-------Original Message-------

From: Paul S
Date: 3/20/2019 1:45:49 PM
To: undisclosed-recipients:,
Subject: Update re Yesterday's Testimony re ESHB 1788 to repeal the Bar Act

These are my own views.

Feel free to share this email. 
If you wish to get on my email list, let me know at pswegle at gmail.com.

Hello fellow WSBA Members,

I, two other WSBA Governors (Kyle Sciuchetti and Alec Stephens), and
President Elect Rajeev Majumdar testified yesterday before the Washington
Senate Law and Justice Committee. 

Here's a link to the video - Testimony Video  Our testimony begins at
1:22:19

The testimony of Rick Bartholomew (1:42:30) and Jean Cotton (1:49:50) is
also worth watching. Both favorably discussed the "reform" movement within
the WSBA in an attempt to win over legislators still angry over pre-reform
conduct by the WSBA. 

In summary, the current version of ESHB 1788 is strongly supported by Mr.
Pedersen, who is extremely influential within the Senate. 

As you can see from the video, he seemed unmoved by our testimony. 

I have sent Chair Pedersen and the Committee the attached follow-up
testimony to rebut two statements he made about the legislation - i.e., (i)
that ESHB 1788 doesn't create any more of a state agency than what is in
place now and (ii) that it doesn't terminate the legal existence of the WSBA

In meetings with individual senators yesterday, we learned that the success
of the legislation to date has largely been due to a strong dislike for the
WSBA by many legislators who feel the WSBA has been aloof, arrogant,
Seattle-centric, overly political, and dismissive of the rights of the
Members. We also heard numerous accusations that the WSBA is insensitive to
the impact of high dues on its Members. 

In short they sounded a lot like WSBA "reformers," except that they were
wholly unaware of our reform efforts. There was palpable anger and a strong
desire for revenge (one law maker used that term) because of the WSBA's
wrongful and anti-democratic interference with the dues rollback petition in
January of 2017. 

Even though we tried to tell legislators privately that reformers now hold a
majority on the Board of Governors, we were told it would be hard to reverse
the reputation damage that has been done by years of heavy-handed, aloof and
highly political conduct. 

Needless to say, we were somewhat disappointed. 

We did, however, receive some words of support and some suggestions for
continuing the legislative fight, which we intend to do. I won't mention
those suggestions here, because there are still some folks in power who
would like to see this legislation go through and we know they are working
against us to support it - perhaps for positions in the newly constituted
entity or for other political favors. And certainly to get rid of the Board
of Governors and any form of Member representation.... 

Please help us fill legislators' inboxes with polite, thoughtful statements
in opposition to ESHB 1788. 

A good, simple message would be:

"Repealing the Bar Act is premature, unwarranted and unhelpful. Let the
Structure Committee do its work to see what, if any, legislation would be
useful to address pending constitutional challenges and other concerns.
There are far too many unintended consequences and unknowns with ESHB 1788
that could be difficult or impossible to fix later."

Here is a link to ESHB 1788 with a handy "Comment on the bill" link. 

It is still helpful to send comments to members of the House, since they
will need to review and approve any amendments approved by the Senate. 

Here is a link to the Senate Law and Justice Committee, with contact info
for all the members. 

And for easy reference, below are the email addresses for the Senate Law and
Justice Committee members, whom you can address as: 

"Dear Chair Pedersen and Members of the Law and Justice Committee,"

jamie.pedersen at leg.wa.gov,
manka.dhingra at leg.wa.gov,
mike.padden at leg.wa.gov,
jeff.holy at leg.wa.gov,
Patty.Kuderer at leg.wa.gov,
jesse.salomon at leg.wa.gov,
Lynda.Wilson at leg.wa.gov

Here is a LINK where you can find contact info for your Senator and for all
of the other Senators (if in doubt, see the email address protocol used in
the above email addresses). 

Thank you for your support and assistance. Let's keep working together to
save and to improve the WSBA. 

Sincerely, 

Paul S. 
________________________

Paul Swegle
General Counsel
(206) 300-7165

Startup GC Blog

Contract Drafting & Bear Spray - FieldGuide Podcast

Contract Drafting and Negotiation 
"...Swegle provides a clear methodology 

to understand and analyze business contracts 
in this exceptionally useful book...."  - Kirkus Reviews

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