[WSBAPT] Fw: Update and Call to Action re the "WSBA and Board of Governors Dismantling Act of 2019"

Wed Mar 27 11:08:16 PDT 2019

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

From: Paul S
Date: 3/27/2019 10:58:30 AM
To: undisclosed-recipients:,
Subject: Update and Call to Action re the "WSBA and Board of Governors
Dismantling Act of 2019"

These views are my own. 
Please share with fellow WSBA Members.
If you wish to get on my email list, contact me at pswegle at gmail.com

Hello fellow WSBA Members, 

This is an update on what could be fairly named the "WSBA and Board of
Governors Dismantling Act of 2019." Many of you wisely disregarded the WSBA
staff's false and misleading FAQs about the legislation last week, good job.

I will be in Olympia again today meeting at 1:00 p.m. with Senator Pedersen,
Chair of the Senate Law and Justice Committee. He is now the key driver of
ESHB 1788. 

Despite having virtually no perceptible support among Members, and despite
lots of negative written feedback from Members, I am told passage of the
legislation seems assured. 

But let's not give up. 

What can you do? Please help us fill legislators' inboxes with polite,
thoughtful statements in opposition to ESHB 1788. And please spread the word
to other WSBA Members to oppose the legislation!
A good, simple message would be:

"Repealing all or parts of the Bar Act is premature, unwarranted and
unhelpful. Do not disenfranchise the 40,000 Members of the WSBA by doing
away with the Board of Governors. Let the Structure Committee do its work to
see what, if any, legislation would be useful to address pending
constitutional challenges and other concerns. Do not prematurely strip the
Members of their elected voices in this important discussion."

Members - don't let the perfect be the death of the good. Sending something
immediately is key. 

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). 

Another key legislator championing this legislation and worthy of your
emails is Representative Laurie Jinkins - Laurie.Jinkins at leg.wa.gov
Additional Background

Motivations driving the bill seem to be two-fold: 

(i) anger on the Republican side at the dictatorial and anti-democratic
manner in which the WSBA has been run in recent years (e.g., arbitrary
interference with the dues rollback petition), and 
(ii) a hit job on the Democrat side as a political favor for one or more
members of the Court who seem to be anti-WSBA reform and anti-Board of
Governors.

The first of these, by itself, would be easy enough to address by noting
that "reformers" now hold the majority of the seats on the Board of
Governors and are dismantling and replacing the entrenched machinery that
has dominated the WSBA for years and which caused such outrages as the dues
rollback interference, the attempted theft of the Sections' financial
reserves, and other similar offenses. 

The second of these, the political favor, is more difficult to address, as
no amount of logic or reasoning seems to slow down the legislation, but only
to inspire further amendments, like those discussed below, to ensure its
passage. If it wasn't a hit job, legislators would be listening and
responding more constructively to the innumerable concerns expressed by
Members. That is not yet happening - their guidance is coming from elsewhere

Key motivations for the political favor would seem to be the Board of
Governors' attempts to reform the WSBA and, most specifically, the Board of
Governors' decision to remove the Executive Director. Recall that the Court
by non-unanimous vote shut down our reform efforts in January. Then, within
weeks of the Board's vote to terminate the Executive Director, the Court
seemed to be supporting, and certainly not opposing, this legislation to
take over the WSBA completely and get rid of the Board of Governors. All
because of constitutional concerns?...

In 2010, Saddam Hussein torched Kuwait's oil fields when he knew he had lost
his bid to raid that country's wealth and resources and disenfranchise its
people. This feels like that.... 

Update re Proposed Amendments

As of yesterday, a new proposed amendment to the bill appeared to be
proposed by the Senate Law and Justice Committee, Chaired by Senator
Pedersen. Interestingly, it seeks to address my concerns about not breaking
the continuity of the WSBA's legal existence, but it also seems to prove
that this legislation is being driven by elements on the Court, with this
language specifically:

"The legislature further recognizes that the Washington state supreme court
has commissioned a work group to undertake a review of the structure of the
Washington state bar association. Because the court may conclude that it is
necessary or desirable to make changes that may be inconsistent with the
provisions of the 1933 state bar act, the legislature intends to preserve
the existing state bar association but repeal provisions of the act that may
be interpreted as limiting the court's authority to make structural or
governance changes that the court determines to be necessary or desirable."

The legislators just came up with that perhaps? 

The proposed amendment also now has the following new "legislative intent"
language emphasizing the ability of the court to "make structural changes,"
again directly addressing concerns I raised regarding continuity of the WSBA
as a legal entity and how the new entity would be funded: 

"The legislature recognizes that the WA Supreme Court has created a
workgroup to review the structure of the state bar
association. The legislature intends to preserve the state bar association
but repeal provisions that may limit the court’s
authority to make structural changes. Provides the WA Supreme Court
authority to establish fees to make the state bar association self
sufficient."

The "provisions that may limit the court's authority" would seem to be those
simply giving the Members a voice through an elected Board of Governors,
which the legislation does away with.  

Fellow Members, let's not give up yet on stopping this legislation, but you
should all also begin thinking about your own efforts toward removing from
office in coming election cycles all political actors with any finger prints
anywhere near this effort to completely disenfranchise us from our WSBA. 

Sincerely, 

Paul Swegle
Governor, District 7N
Immediate Past Chair, Corporate Counsel Section 
Washington State Bar Association
__________________________

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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