News Releases

State Bar report points to need for systemic change and outlines recommendations for reform

Contact: Laura Ernde

415-538-2283

barcomm@calbar.ca.gov

SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 2, 2016 – Today the State Bar of California released its 2016 Governance in the Public Interest Task Force Report identifying core systemic problems, potential solutions, and recommendations. 

The final majority report adopts the key theme of the draft report earlier shared with the full Board of Trustees. It begins with a strong statement regarding the need for reform: “It is universally acknowledged that significant changes are needed at the State Bar of California.” The full task force largely agreed on the problems facing the agency as well as on a number of recommendations. 

The majority report indicates that the agency’s current leadership has expressed an unprecedented commitment to reform. As a result, it urges that many important and ongoing reforms required by statute should be completed before assessing whether a structural overhaul is necessary. The minority report concludes that the bar’s challenges have existed for decades and can only be addressed through de-unification.

“Despite the challenges facing the State Bar, the agency is in the best hands possible to achieve important reforms,” said David Pasternak, President of the State Bar. “I will bring the task force’s recommendations to the September Board of Trustees meeting for a vote to take long-overdue action.”

The task force highlighted nine core challenges that impact the agency’s ability to fulfill its public protection mission, including:

• Problems with the discipline system, both perceived and actual
• Inadequate definition of public protection and the State Bar’s mission
• Mission creep and poor organizational coherence
• Conflicting hybrid governance structure
• Proliferation of committees and over-reliance on volunteers
• Impact of restricted funding sources

The recommendations for reform that were overwhelmingly favored by all members of the task force include the following (full list and details in the report):

• Increase the number of public, non-attorney members on the board
• Eliminate elections for members of the Board of Trustees
• Establish a three officer “ladder” for greater consistency and stability
• Appoint an enforcement monitor
• Clarify the scope of the State Bar’s public protection mission
• Review the framework and structure of the bar’s 56 committees
• Change the size of the board to a smaller number of trustees
• Address the impact of silo funding by uniting fiscal policies into one system

“As I prepare to take office I plan to continue the excellent work that began this year to make the State Bar more effective in its public protection mission. I look forward to working with the board, staff, and stakeholders to implement the Task Force recommendations and to establish long overdue reform,” said James P. Fox, incoming president of the State Bar of California. “Mending relations with our legislative oversight bodies will be an important first step in this effort.” Fox was elected in July and will take office in October. 

The task force also unanimously agreed that the State Bar’s public protection mission must include, but not be limited exclusively to regulation and discipline of attorneys; it should also proactively address discipline problems.

There was consensus on the task force around the problems facing the bar, and agreement on a number of recommendations. The task force’s largest difference of opinion was on the topic of whether a decision to decouple the bar’s regulatory and trade association functions should be made now. The majority was not in favor of this option, believing that ongoing reform work was needed to inform whether such a decision should be made. 

The minority report recommends a process for de-unification that would take place over a period of two years, led by the State Bar, to be implemented in 2019. It concludes that the conversations on reform at the bar have gone on for far too many years, that more swift change is needed, and that the bar is a complex agency that has grown too large to focus on its core mission. The minority report included concerns about ongoing resistance to reform, and concludes that de-unification is the best option for reforming a complex agency that has grown too large to focus on the regulation and discipline of attorneys.

The task force majority report also notes that, as an arm of the judicial branch, the State Bar is unique among regulatory agencies, with ultimate oversight by the Supreme Court. 

The State Bar will submit the Governance in the Public Interest Task Force report to the Supreme Court of California, Gov. Jerry Brown, and the Senate and Assembly Judiciary Committees, as required by statute. 

The Governance in the Public Interest Task Force is comprised of a subset of State Bar Trustees, selected according to a method designated by statue: Miriam Krinsky, Jason Lee, Dennis Mangers, Joanna Mendoza, Danette Meyers, Gwen Moore and Chair David Pasternak. The minority report is authored by Dennis Mangers and Joanna Mendoza.