May 1, 2008

Wisconsin State Bar History is Repeating Itself

By Deb Jordahl

It is a little known fact that Wisconsin lawyers, unlike any other group of professionals except public school teachers, are compelled by state law to pay dues to an association. 

The Wisconsin bar became mandatory in 1956 and was briefly abolished in 1988 as the result of a lawsuit brought by Attorney Steven Levine of the Public Service Commission.  Federal Judge Barbara Crabb entered a declaratory judgment abolishing the mandatory bar.  Crabb’s ruling was then reversed on appeal and bar leadership successfully petitioned the Supreme Court to reinstate the mandatory bar in 1992.  

Levine returned to the spotlight again in 2005 when he became the first self-nominating candidate in Bar history to be elected President.  Levine’s campaign promised to explore a return to the voluntary bar, but the Board of Governors refused to even place discussion of the mandatory bar on the Board’s agenda. 

Last week, history repeated itself when Attorney Douglas Kammer became the second self nominating candidate to be elected Bar President.  Like Steven Levine, Kammer was not selected to run for President by the Bar’s nominating committee, but rather qualified for the ballot by collecting 100 signatures from current bar members.  Also like Levine, Kammer campaigned on a platform to make membership in the State Bar voluntary.

Kammer believes a return to the voluntary bar will force the organization be more responsive to its members.  He cites the fact that the voluntary Bar in Illinois has a 70% participation rate and provides a variety of impressive member services to support his theory.  In a statement to fellow Bar members in March Kammer wrote: 

“The bar has lost sight of its mission. In a cloud of vague gabble about the ‘public interest’ the Bar has become an embarrassment to its members.”

 “Decent, honest lawyers are guilty by association. Is the Bar going to solve this problem? Not in a pig’s eye! The Bar doesn’t have the will or the tools to even address the issue. Rather they sit in their inverted shot-glass in Madison and aggrandize the other insiders in the club while discussing how to protect the public from – you guessed it – lawyers!”

Kammer’s remarks came on  the heels of a contentious Board of Governors meeting during which Bar President Thomas Basting was roundly criticized for creating the Wisconsin Judicial Integrity Committee (WJCIC), allegedly to monitor the activity of candidates and other organizations during the April 2008 State Supreme Court election.

Without the requisite advice and consent of the Board set forth in the Bar’s bylaws, Basting created the WJCIC and unilaterally made all appointments to the committee. The Bar’s bylaws state, “Creation or abolition of a special committee by the President is subject to review and approval by the Board of Governors.”

Not only did Basting ignore the Bar’s guidelines and procedures for creation of Special Committees, he appointed several people to the WJCIC who are not members of the Bar while using membership dues and bar employees to develop and maintain a website, support all committee activities, and issue public statements for the committee.  In addition, Basting, two non Bar members of the WJCIC and a Bar employee traveled to a seminar in Dallas to learn about similar committees in other states.  A full accounting of expenses related to the WJCIC has yet to be disclosed.

At the Bar Board of Governors meeting in late February, Governor Michael Morse was clearly concerned about the potential fallout of a bar sponsored committee seeking to regulate speech in campaigns.  “I think this sets us on a dangerous path if we are to be creating committees of this type with non-members who are approving or regulating or influencing speech,” Morse said.  Other board members joined Morse in expressing concerns, but action was tabled so as not to undermine Basting before the April election.

Bar member Thomas Jones articulated this view in a letter to the Wisconsin Lawyer magazine writing, “My bar dues help finance this political gambit. This bad idea is a restriction of campaign free speech and an attempt to ensure that Justice Butler keeps his job and keeps on delivering goods to the leftist trial bar, the guys who now own our state bar and are buying the judges they like.”

For the second time in three years, Wisconsin Bar Association members have spoken, expressing their support for a voluntary bar by voting for change.  If leadership chooses to ignore them again, another lawsuit may not be far behind.