State Bar is squandering dues again

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I’m so excited. The Wisconsin State Bar is updating its logo and slogan.

It seems like just yesterday that they came up with the slogan, “Expert Advisers. Serving You.” For whatever reason, what was good enough a few years ago isn’t good enough anymore. So they are spending time and resources developing a new slogan and logo.

I decided to conduct a little experiment. I e-mailed the Board of Directors at the corporation that publishes the Wisconsin Law Journal, and I proposed that they pay me to develop a new logo and slogan for the Law Journal. For some reason, they didn’t agree. Instead, they sent me an e-mail back, saying that there obviously wasn’t enough productive work for me to do at the Law Journal, and so I was fired.

I asked a friend who works at a law firm to help me with my experiment. She went to the managing partner at the firm, and made the same request I did. Unfortunately, she got the same response. Now we’re both unemployed.

And it’s not just the for-profit sector that expects employees to actually do work that contributes to some bottom line. I contacted the Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies, and suggested that they contract with me to design a new logo and slogan for them.

But they told me that “Restoring the Rule of Legal Culture” was still a fine slogan, and the James Madison silhouette designed back in 1982 was good enough for them. I was flabbergasted. How could such an old logo and slogan still be any good?

But then I reread their response, and it hit me. They noted that they would lose members if they squandered attorneys’ dues on such nonsense, rather than using it for publications and seminars and the like.

I wondered how the State Bar could spend dues money in this fashion and not lose any members, when any other non-profit legal organization would. Then I remembered — the Wisconsin State Bar is a mandatory organization. They could burn our money in the middle of the street if they wanted to, and they still wouldn’t have to fear losing any of us as members.

But let’s look at the Bar’s explanation for what they are doing to see if perhaps it is not a total waste.

The Bar sent out surveys to randomly selected attorneys to get feedback about one of the five logos being considered. Recipients were told, “Updating the logo and slogan are the first step toward better defining, communicating, and supporting our focus and mission. In turn, we believe that our members will gain a better understanding of our purpose, a better experience when contacting the Bar, and an easier time accessing and utilizing the products and services needed to be successful.”

As if a new logo is really going to make the Bar’s Web site much more user-friendly.

So let’s look at the Bar’s mission statement, as set forth in SCR 10.02(2).

The first purpose is, “to aid the courts in carrying on and improving the administration of justice.”

No, a new logo won’t really help with that one.

What about “to foster and maintain on the part of those engaged in the practice of law high ideals of integrity, learning, competence and public service and high standards of conduct”?

It doesn’t really do anything to further that, either. Nor does it “safeguard the proper professional interests of the members of the bar.”

At this point, I’m tired of trying to figure out how a new logo and slogan will enable the Bar to provide better service to Wisconsin attorneys, so I’m going to forget about it and give no more thought to this or anything else the State Bar does.

The problem is, I suspect that’s exactly what they want me to do.

Sure, they’re seeking feedback from members now on what logo to use; but did they seek any feedback on whether members would consider the whole project a waste of time? No. At that point in the process, they just wanted us to shut up and pay our dues like the good little cash cows they know we are.

I think that’s what they still want.