by Jim Carroll, Esq.
PRESIDENT’S COLUMN Where Do We Go From Here?
Have you heard about the buffalo on the plain And how at one time they’d stampede a thousand strong Now that buffalo’s at the zoo standing in the rain Just one more victim of fate Like California State
You sure do miss the silence When it’s gone
Robbie Robertson
On the way to work this morning, I was listening to an NPR discussion about how we are all made of carbon. It is thought that this carbon originated in exploding stars whose energy was sent hurling to far dis- tant corners of our universe sometime be- fore the first lawyer made her first opening statement.
Once the physics and chemistry were settled, the NPR discussion quickly de- volved into a timeless inquiry that sounded something like this: Is the content of a law- yer’s opening statement predetermined by cosmic forces beyond her puny human abil- ity to manipulate her words in the service of her client? Or is she, regardless of all that went before, free to spin her tale with- in the confines of the facts and law at hand, thereby forever changing the future course of her client’s, not to mention humankind’s, life experience? I confess to feeling slightly disoriented (more than usual) by the time my re-entry rockets fired and I landed in the office parking lot.
In my many years on the VBA Board of Managers, we have not tackled, much less agreed on, an answer to this most funda- mental of questions. With any luck, it will never be definitively answered by any com- bination of academicians, theologians, sci- entists, lawyers, cowboy poets, or even five sitting justices. Instead, the sixteen mate- rialized human carbon deposits who make up your Board move forward under the humble assumption that they can, and do, have a positive impact on the future of our chosen profession. More often than not, the Board is neces-
sarily focused on substantial issues of the moment such as judicial restructuring, elec- tronic filing, and yet to come, the looming possibility of a Vermont sales tax on ser- vices. Topics like these require a response that can crowd out some of the more fun- damental concerns facing the legal profes- sion in our rural but relatively sophisticated Green Mountain State. Even up on my hill in Jerusalem, where the tried and true still holds sway, the wind shift in our profession
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is unmistakable. Clients are now demanding and needing a higher degree of twenty-four hour value- added advice, legal and otherwise, to keep up with the demands of an increasingly global marketplace. We now live in a world where there is widespread access to legal
information
and many “routine” legal tasks have be- come dangerously homogenized. Yet, we are still the possessors of judgment with experience in problem solving as well as the possessors of acquired knowledge and skills. As advocates, we are in some dan- ger of pricing ourselves into oblivion with an archaic system of billing. Simultaneous- ly, young lawyers laden with school loans are largely unable to make a living wage in Vermont at the entry level. Yet, the sources of human confrontation only seem to multi- ply and lawyers are needed now more than ever. Before the small town practicing at- torney is relegated entirely to her fading picture on the courthouse wall of her coun- ty, we can continuously ask where do we go from here and how can the VBA be of service in getting us there? The VBA Board will be taking extra time over the next several months to redouble our focus on these very issues. We will be looking at our existing strategic plan in re- lation to the member services and benefits we now provide. We will also be looking at some trends with the hope of anticipat- ing what the VBA membership will need in the future. We need your help in this ongoing en-
deavor. In answering VBA survey requests, participating in the activities of VBA divi- sions and sections as well as the county bars, you are helping to keep your Associa- tion relevant now and tomorrow. We will continue to be informed by a few guiding principles which are always part of any decision making by the VBA. First, we have a mission statement set forth in our Strategic Plan, which reads as follows:
To foster respect for the rule of law THE VERMONT BAR JOURNAL • SUMMER 2012
by cultivating the science of jurispru- dence, promoting reform in the law, fa- cilitating the administration of justice, elevating the standards of the legal profession, cherishing a collegial spirit in the legal profession and perpetuat- ing the memory of its members.
Second, we are, after all, Vermonters ei- ther by birth or by choice. I have yet to meet a Vermont lawyer who feels compelled to stay in Vermont by the vast income poten- tial as opposed to a commitment to place and community. Whatever we do as a pro- fession, we can appreciate that we live in great beauty and that we still have a pre- dominantly collegial legal community that shares an ongoing commitment to provid- ing equal access to justice. Third, the scale of what we can accom- plish will follow the resources at hand con- sistent with our numbers and size. As a vol- untary bar of 2100 plus members, keeping our dues affordable is a must. We are not alone in our efforts to cope with a changing legal profession. For in- stance, the New York State Bar Associa- tion recently issued its Report of the Task Force on the Future of the Legal Profes- sion (2/11). Among the recommendations are: (1) offering CLEs that emphasize ways to deliver quality legal services that maxi- mize value to consumers; (2) exploring new law firm structures and proposing amend- ments to the professional conduct rules to govern those structures; (3) reviewing on- line legal services and recommending ways to affirm the need for legal advice to users; (4) participating in the national develop- ment of model competencies for lawyers; (5) proposing new skills and practice-based licensure requirements; and (6) integrating mentorship, CLE, and new lawyer training programs.1 Vermont, as usual, is likely to go its own way. We are small but we can also be quick
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