Vermont Bar Association
Board of Managers Meeting
May 14, 2015
Basin Harbor Club, Vergennes, VT

Present: Gavin Boyles, Jennifer Emens-Butler, DavidFenster, Michael Kennedy, Daniel Maguire, Andrew Mikell, Grace Pazdan, Daniel P. Richardson, Edward J. Tyler, Matthew Valerio

Staff: Lisa Maxfield, Bob Paolini, and Kevin Ryan

Guest: Amber Barber

  1. Call to Order: President Dan Richardson called the meeting to order at 10:08 AM.
  2. Acceptance of Consent Agenda
  1. Minutes – There were no changes to the minutes of the meeting of April 10, 2015, and they were adopted unanimously.
  2. Treasurer’s Report – Lisa Maxfield presented the Treasurer’s Report.Lisa noted that there are 119 registrants for the Solo and Small Firm Conference and spoke of sponsorship by ALPS for Bridge the Gap and the entire solo conference. She reported that the VBF board had given $10,000 in emergency funding for the low bono programs. Finally, she indicated that the difference between current CLE income and CLE income at this time last year seems to be associated, not with live programs, but with video rentals and the shift to the new Digital Library. After minimal discussion, the report was accepted.
  3. Board Committee Reports

No board committee reports were presented.

  1. President’s Report – President Dan Richardson did not make a report.
  2. President Elect’s Report – Jennifer Emens-Butler did not make a report.
  3. Executive Director’s Report – Bob Paolini did not make a report.
  4. Staff Reports – No staff reports were presented.
  5. VBF Report – No VBF report was presented.
  6. Access to Justice Coalition Report – No report was made.
  1. Commission on the Future of Legal Services – Amber Barber reported on the work of the sub-committee on legal services. She outlined briefly the issues the committee has considered, and she reported that the committee has had lengthy discussions and is in the midst of drafting its report.

The first recommendation to be made by the committee is a complete overhaul of the courts website, vtjudiciary.org, making it interactive, educational, and user-friendly for litigants and attorneys. In addition, the site should provide for easy mobile access and include a robust set of forms.

Next, the committee will recommend onsite legal triage in courthouses around the state with the creation of legal service centers. While the committee generally did not dig deeply into funding sources for their recommendations, they did look at potential funding mechanisms for the legal service centers. They also explored ways of advertising the existence of these centers. Finally, they discussed it working with VLS in hops of using clerkships or the student practice rules as mechanisms to get students to work at these service centers.

Third, the committee will recommend that efforts be made to make more lawyers available on a limited basis at affordable rates to those who need legal help. They will suggest using unbundling and the clerkship as ways to do this. They will also suggest developing a program of CLEs to cover the areas of need from basics up to more advanced issues.

There was some discussion of these ideas by the Board. Some spoke about the need to strike a balance between helping pro se litigants and encouraging people to have legal representation. Matt Valerio commented on an ACLU report from 2012 that indicated that Vermonters are more likely to access courts than people in surrounding states. Nevertheless, Matt noted, civil filings have stayed the same or gone down a bit, though some of these cases may have grown in complexity; criminal case filings are down a little. The Board discussed these statistics and the possible explanations. Finally, Board members indicated that something more should be done to help lawyers with student loan debt, including granting some debt relief to those who commit to public service but do not serve a full 10 years (as required by current debt relief programs).

  1. Action
  2. Enrollments - A motion was made to accept the following persons as members of the Vermont Bar Association: Attorney Members: Ellen LaPlante, Allison B. Wannop; Associate Members: Christopher L. Boldt, Esq., Robin Ann Chadwick, Esq., Anne R. Copps, Esq., Kathleen DiPaola, Esq., Lisa Drake, Fiona Farrell, Esq., Charles J. Manley, Esq., Robert O’Brien, Esq. The motion passed unanimously.
  3. Server Upgrade – Lisa Maxfield the process of due diligence investigation conducted in regard to the server upgrade project. Lisa, Bob, and Kevin looke at 3 vendors and ultimately narrowed the field down to two: Symquest, our current supplier, and TCi, a regular exhibitor/sponsor at VBA events. Those two companies were asked to consider, and price out, three options: (1) moving everything (exchange and SQL servers) to the “cloud”; (2) keeping everything in a server hosted at the VBA; and (3) hosting the SQL on a server at the VBA and moving exchange functions to the cloud. After receiving recommendations and pricing from the two vendors, the “split” option (#3 above) was chosen: email (exchange) and office applications (Office 365) will be moved to the cloud, with SQL and database functions (along with a print server) will be hosted on a local server. The server will be backed up both locally and in the cloud. The shift to Office 365 will ensure that everyone in the office will have the same version of all software as well as access to additional communications tools (such as Sharepoint and Skype). Office 365 also permits up to five devices to be connected for each “work station,” so applications will be available on smartphones and tablets as well as on desktop computers or laptops, allowing for business continuity in case of disaster. Remote access will also be available. Symquest’s bid for this work was roughly $34,000; TCi’s bid was slightly over $26,000. The TCi bid includes the new local server, cloud backup, and a new firewall. The ongoing tech support contract with TCi will cost an additional $880 per month, also markedly lower than the cost quoted by Symquest.

Bob recommended that the new equipment and upfront costs be paid for out of reserve funds. It was moved and seconded to use reserve funds to buy the equipment and pay the startup costs quoted by TCi. After some discussion of the comparative merits of financing versus buying with reserve funds, the motion passed unanimously.

  1. Discussion
  2. Award Proposals – Dan Richardson, making reference to the materials included in the Board packet, explained that he believed the VBA should give awards more precisely defined than the nebulous president’s award. He suggested four specific awards:
  3. The 14th Star Award, given each year to a student. He read a possible description of such an award offered by Joe Benning.
  4. A public service award, given each year to an attorney who has engaged in significant public service activities.
  5. An access to justice award, given each year to a member of the general public who has increased access to justice.
  6. Two special awards, not given annually: one given to an attorney for lifetime achievement/contributions to the legal community or the state; and a judicial award.

Dan said that these awards should be more than something to be set on a shelf; they should also involve a monetary award that could be a contribution to the Vermont Bar Foundation and for which the VBA could do fundraising.

There was considerable discussion of these ideas. The heart of the discussion centered around the question of whether we should formalize such awards or leave it to the discretion of each individual president to give whatever awards she/he wants.

Bob Paolini proposed that the specific awards spelled out by Dan Richardson should be suggestions that the president and the Board should consider, but that no specific awards should be established. It was moved and seconded to do just this. After further discussion, the motion passed unanimously.

  1. Retreat Planning – Dan Richardson reported that he has found a speaker from Dartmouth College to talk to the Board at its annual retreat on June 12.Also on the retreat agenda will be reports from sub-committees of the Commission on the Future of Legal Services in Vermontand a SWOT analysis, in small groups, of the bar association.
  1. Executive Session – After a short lunch break, the Board went into executive session at12:30. The executive session ended at 1:45.
  2. New Business – There was no new business.

There being no further Old or New Business, it was moved, seconded, and passed that the meeting adjourn. The meeting adjourned at 1:45PM.

Respectfully submitted,

Kevin F. Ryan

Vermont Bar Association