Page | 4
EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE MEETING MINUTES
May 15, 2014
12:00 – 1:30pm
1. Roll Call – Meeting called to order at 12:08pm
a. In-Person: Craig Beles, Paul McVicker, Julianne Unite, Helen Ling, Alan Alhadeff
b. Via Phone: Joanna Roth, Courtland Shafer, Lish Whitson, Sasha Philip
2. Meeting Minutes:
a. Sasha’s last name is misspelled in the meeting minutes for April. Amend the minutes to reflect such. April meeting minutes passed.
3. WSBA Correspondence (Julianne Unite):
a. There was an April 29th conference call on CLE changes. Administrative fee for CLEs will be 45% (increase from 35% this year). An email from Kiley was sent about the discussion. Helen will forward the email to the committee. The BOG is looking for input about how CLEs are currently working. Each section operates differently, so please contact Anthony Gipe, Megan McNally, Kiley Thornton, or BOG liaison – Ann Danieli. First reading will be at June meeting in Wenatchee. No decisions will be made. Most likely the decision will be made in September.
i. Craig asks for clarification about the 45%. Julianne explains this is off the gross income. Currently it is 35%. It will be for the next bar year and will be temporary until the BOG decides what to do for 2017 and beyond. The reasons for these discussions are precipitated by the BOG not understanding how the current CLE model works.
ii. Joanna asks for clarification on what the bar is covering. Julianne explains that it is the same administrative support that the bar provides now – promotion, registration, print outs, and one site help (including food and venue).
b. Another issue concerned listing section membership on the WSBA lawyer directory. Julianne sent an email to Craig and Alan. Currently, the section membership is public information by default, so now WSBA is gathering information from other section leadership on whether they would like this option.
i. Paul moves that we endorse the idea of listing section membership on the WSBA lawyer directory. Sasha seconds. Motion passes unanimously.
4. Financial Report (Treasurer – Courtland Shafer):
a. Financially we are ok, but the budget is coming up. We don’t have any specific requests to alter the budget over last year’s numbers. If anyone has special projects put into the budget from where there were this year, keep in mind budget is due before the July meeting. We should have budget approved at June meeting if at all possible. WSBA will send the treasurers packet soon, so now is the time to make any changes. Financially we are looking better than expected this year. We are slightly up from last year, so not down as much as we budgeted.
i. Craig negotiated with Sally Fox to facilitate our retreat for the same amount as Roger last year - $4000. Craig moves that we approve $4000. Courtland says we can put it in the retreat expenses. The extra expenses in the retreat will be put in the explanation. The expenses will be a little less than last year as well. Down the line, we will have two retreats in the same fiscal year.
ii. Alan moves that we give Craig discretion to employ Sally Fox for our retreat at $4000. Paul seconds. Motion passes unanimously.
iii. Please get all changes to budget to Courtland in the next two weeks.
5. Chair Updates (Alan Alhadeff, Craig Beles, Courtney Kaylor):
a. Alan updates on the colloquium yesterday. The ECCL will be submitting their report to the BOG for approval this bar year. 2 topics have emerged from the colloquia – 1. Early mediation, and 2. Helping people create connections with each other.
i. For early mediation, we need to connect with other sections. We should get information from lawyers on success stories – as an endorsement/buy-in from lawyers and not just mediators.
1. Paul asks what the BOG does with the task force report. Alan explains it will be sent out to the sections. The ABA conference showed that there are people all over the country who are interested in this.
2. We are forming connections with many individuals: Rhonda Laumann in Torts, Dee Knapp in Employment, Kathleen Royer and Joanna Roth, Paul McVicker, and Adrienne Ketih Wills in Family Law, and Fearon Brown in Patent Law. Fearon has spoken with a former chief judge of the Federal Patent Bar whose recommendation is that 90% is done within the first 20% of litigation and cases need to settle earlier.
3. WA state has the opportunity to be a major voice in mediation. The ABA conference showed that others are thinking about early settlement such as John Landy at the University of Michigan. We will send all these individuals the ECCL report.
b. We have also made connections with the law schools. Our connection with Seattle University is through Dee Knapp while with UW is more informal. Sasha will attend Julia Golds’ class on Monday – a negotiation and mediation class for students. Occasionally we get request to participate as mediators and judges at the law schools and it is helpful for us to see what is happening at the law student level.
6. Committee Reports:
a. Legislative Committee (Paul McVicker):
i. There is a committee meeting next Wednesday. The Governor did not sign the ICCA yet. It is unknown why and it is expected he will sign it by the end of this month. There is an issue regarding rules to allow attorneys who are not licensed in WA to appear at international arbitrations representing parties. Craig mentions that this issue is an issue that is around the world. If you want your jurisdiction to be the seat of international arbitration, then you make it easier for foreign attorneys to appear. Craig is supportive of that concept, with the appropriate safeguards. Paul mentions Michigan may have also have done something similar. Paul has brought up the question of how we engage the supreme court. That is why Paul is interested in BOG’s ECCL report to see if there is a way to engage the supreme court.
ii. The committee is continuing the idea of presenting a bill, submitting it to the WSBA for sponsorship on early mediation in family law, similar to 1353 that the section endorsed 2 years ago.
iii. Another topic concerns the rule for mediators writing settlement agreement, Advisory Opinion 2223.
1. Alan asks where we are in analyzing that rule. There haven’t been any more meetings on it. Paul was thinking about setting up a type of forum to ask to revisit the opinion. Alan thinks a good place to start is what are other states are doing. Independent research is not needed since UW Law Review has published on article on the topic that has great information. Alan and Paul will follow up and bring the information to the Executive Committee. The article is on the website and it’s important that we all read about it.
b. Education Committee (Joanna Roth):
i. Joanna met with a few folks concerning child inclusive mediation. These were people who trained with Jen McIntosh. We are looking at a two part effort: 1. Local sourced CLE to introduce child inclusive mediation taught by local folks, and 2. Jen comes out from Australia that would be a longer training for ongoing training and practical clinical effort to make it a commonly used model in the area. Joanna is connecting with Paris and Paul to get a budget together for our next meeting.
1. Paul has other ideas about that CLE so Paul asks to be reminded.
c. Media & Communications Committee (Adrienne Keith Wills via email):
i. The update from the Media & Communications committee is good: We’re rolling again on the website. Kiley is working with Jen (the designer). There are some design parameters coming from the bar, such that the design agreement has been changed to say that the designer will use the logo provided by the bar and adhere to the WSBA color palette throughout the website. Adrienne has not seen the logo or palette, so cannot share those at this time.
ii. In terms of other M & C business, Adrienne asks the Executive Committee please advise as to whether it’s still interested in the comparison/cross-referencing of Ning site members and Section members?
1. Alan says that we should confirm that we want to go on with that. Paul says that it’s useful information. We should make sure to thank Adrienne for her work as well.
d. Land Use and Environmental Mediation Committee(Alan Alhadeff):
i. Alan wants to add that everything that we’re doing with early mediation, we’ve actually already done this through Courtney’s committee. How do we replicate that with other practice areas? We might not have the same enthusiasm as with land use, but we may find it, for example, in family law. Paul says that we already find it in family law.
ii. Alan says land use did it in a pure way. They started from scratch. They did stories and test cases. We should look to that and identify those steps to replicate in other fields. Craig mentions that it may take on an entirely different form depending on the subjects. We should also connect with the Low Bono Section. We had connections through Open Section Night and meetings.
e. Membership Committee (Helen Ling):
i. May 21st is the next event on client counseling. Promotion is always a challenge. Craig and Kathleen Royer will be the panelists.
ii. Alan talks about editing the videos. Alan and Lish want to get together to review and talk about it.
f. Law School Partnership and ECCL Taskforce (Alan Alhadeff):
i. See chair updates above.
g. Northwest Dispute Resolution Conference Planning Committee:
i. Kathleen Wareham is the liaison. Lish and Jeff Bean are involved and the conference planning committee has not been set yet. Nancy Highness is the contact person if you want to get involved.
h. Listserv Discussion (Helen Ling):
i. Kiley needs a few more details from our committee before setting up the moderated listserv. Alan says that we are not worried about over saturation of promotion.
ii. Helen moves that chairs of each committees including chair of the executive committee have authorization to send messages through the listserv. Paul seconds. Motion passes unanimously.
i. Adjourn – 1:13pm
Promoting Informed Use and Best Practices of ADR
www.wsba-adr.org