Evolutionary, Not Revolutionary
By Michael J. Ford

At the onset of my year as president of the MSBA, I had planned to devote my first President’s Page to themes much like those that follow.  However, as the old saying goes, life is what happens while you are waiting for your plans to develop.  Upon reflection, I think these are things that still need saying, and so here goes. 

All great organizations have some things that they are passionate about.  Things that they can accomplish better than any other organization in the world, and which are consistent with the forces that formed and sustain the organization.

According to the mission statement of the MSBA, in our case those are to aid the courts, work for the public good, maintain high standards in the profession, organize into the MSBA the entire bench and bar of Minnesota, and provide a forum for discussion of subjects relating to law practice, jurisprudence and law reform, among other goals.

As strong as the MSBA is, there is little that a new president can do to improve upon it; conversely—and thankfully—there’s little we can do to harm it.  However, at the margins of what we already are doing well, there are areas that can be improved through evolutionary rather than revolutionary change
During this year I had planned, and still plan, to help work on the following.

Delivery of Legal Services

Attorneys, from both a professional and a business standpoint, need to get better at delivering legal services.

Whether we are delivering those legal services in private practice, through legal services organizations, or as attorneys in government service, we need to deliver legal services more quickly, more competently and more efficiently. 

We need to do so by embracing technology and integrating it into the processes that lie behind the delivery of our legal services. 

We also need to examine those very processes and determine whether or not they are both necessary and effective in the delivery of legal services.

Bench–Bar Relations

This year I had hoped to see the Association improve upon its relationship with the bench.
There is a reason that legal professionals are referred to in one breath as the “bench and bar”; judges and the lawyers who practice before them need each other to fulfill our respective roles in society.

Over the years, the role of trial court judge in Minnesota has become almost impossible to perform due to growing caseloads, time pressures, and broadening of the fields of general knowledge in which judges must develop expertise.

Both for the sake of our colleagues in the judiciary and to improve the administration of justice, the bar needs to address the stressors that affect the judiciary and promote solutions that preserve the efficacy and integrity of the system.  Most immediately, the Bar needs to help come up with a better way to fund the court system than the one we have right now as funding has become the number one stressor for the legal system.

Renewing the Profession

For many years the Association has recognized the importance of integrating new attorneys into the profession and into the Association.

I had hoped, and still hope to continue the focus of the Association this year on the important role that new attorneys can, and must, play in Association affairs and in the profession. Many are willing—and all are able—to make significant contributions to our common purposes but, to a degree not often seen before, financial constraints now deter many new attorneys from working in areas where their services are sorely needed. 

The organized bar simply has to address the crushing tuition debt burden that most law school graduates are facing.  That burden hinders the migration of attorneys to public interest and government law and to working in Greater Minnesota law firms. 

We need to continue to address the tuition debt burden issue with tuition repayment assistance programs and the bar has to find a way to expand those programs. 

As I reflect back on the Bar year thus far, these were pretty good notions at the time I first developed them, and they are still relevant as I write them today. 

MICHAEL J. FORD is president of the Minnesota State Bar Association. A shareholder in the law firm of Quinlivan & Hughes, PA, St. Cloud, Minnesota, he is a graduate of St. John’s University and received his JD from the William Mitchell College of Law. He concentrates his practice in the areas of civil litigation, insurance coverage, employment and government liability, and land use and general casualty law.