State Bar dues may spike more than 15 percent next year, but assessments imposed by the Wisconsin Supreme Court will drop, albeit slightly.
The State Bar of Wisconsin taxes its members and then refuses to completely reveal how that money is spent.
To practice in Wisconsin, lawyers are required to pay $224 a year in State Bar dues, but that doesn’t buy them a meaningful look into how bar leaders spend the money.
At the end of Henrik Ibsen’s play, “The Pillars of Society,” after the so-called pillars of society have been shown to be a bunch of scoundrels, the boy Olaf declares, “I don’t want to be a pillar of society.”
Though Wisconsin has closed the book on investigating a controversial pay-per-lead website and other states have done the same, ethics professionals advise lawyers to use caution with similar advertising models.
The Wisconsin State Public Defender’s Office’s difficulty finding capable lawyers hit home for John Birdsall in 2005 when he was the sixth attorney to defend a child pornography case.
The State Bar is operating in a gray area, a past leader of the group alleges, until it defines its role more clearly.
Laws are passing at a rapid clip under the new state Legislature, forcing the slow-moving State Bar to pick up its pace, or risk being left behind.
Attorneys who want to keep up with Board of Governors’ meetings have no choice currently but to attend in person.
