Cal Bar News

Today's Recorder has No Bar Dues Hike Expected, but Here are Some Changes You'd See: Calling yourself a California bar "member" would be a thing of the past.

• Bar dues are unlikely to increase for California lawyers in 2019 despite a push by state bar leaders to raise them.
• Recently drafted annual bar dues legislation, scheduled for its first policy committee review on Tuesday, would keep the tab for active members at $390. Bar leaders had sought more revenue for disciplinary work and employee costs.
• Assemblyman Mark Stone, D-Scotts Valley, whose judiciary committee is carrying the dues legislation this year, told The Recorder in March that he was hoping to pass a largely status quo bill that would allow the substantial changes enacted by the Legislature last year to take effect.

The bill does propose some changes to bar operations:

·         It asks the bar to develop a rule that would allow lawyers to receive continuing legal education credit for certain pro bono work. The program would supplant pending legislation that would require attorneys to provide 25 hours of free legal services each year or pay a $500 in-lieu fee to the state’s legal aid program. The 2019 bar bill would also track the amount of pro bono work generated by the rule.
·         California lawyers would be called “licensees” instead of bar “members.” Dues would become fees. The changes are keeping in line with legislative efforts to recast the bar as a public oversight agency instead of a professional advocacy organization. [Note: For professional advocacy and Section activities serving lawyers, you now need to join as a "member" of the new California Lawyers Association!]
·         It requires the bar to develop a plan to increase diversity in the legal profession. The review may include analyzing the impact of California’s high bar exam pass score, the bill says.
·         It would make it easier for the bar to place a lawyer on inactive status for wrongdoing.