Virginia Lawyers Weekly

MILLWOOD—The Virginia State Bar’s Executive Committee wants to hike the administrative fee assessed against lawyers who are disciplined by the bar.

Meeting at the Carter Hall Conference Center Sept. 18-19, the committee voted to recommend that the VSB Council increase the administrative fee for those found to have engaged in ethical misconduct.

For district subcommittee proceedings, the fee would be raised from $500 to $750. It would go from $750 to $1,000 for proceedings before a three-judge panel. In cases in which an attorney seeks reinstatement after suspension or revocation of his or her license, the fee would be $1,500.

Disciplined attorneys also are responsible for reasonable costs paid by the VSB for experts, travel and out-of-pocket expenses for witnesses, transcripts, copying and mailing.

VSB Counsel Edward L. Davis said bar dues will continue to pay most of the cost of the disciplinary system, but the increase in the administrative fee will shift some of the burden to those lawyers whose conduct creates the need for the system.

Membership directory

The executive committee also is recommending that the bar’s online membership be moved to an opt-out basis. All active members of the bar would be included unless they say they want to be excluded.

That’s a major change from the current online directory, which includes only those attorneys who have agreed to be on it after logging into the VSB site and clicking boxes that authorize their inclusion.

The opt-in directory has been available since April 2007, but had only 3,674 of the 27,156 active members of the bar in it last month. “Despite extensive advertising regarding the Public Directory, most members apparently do not know of its availability,” according to a report by VSB staff.

VSB Executive Director Karen A. Gould said that she gets complaints from attorneys that the directory is incomplete. With the low response rate, “The membership directory is not really doing what it was meant to do,” VSB President Manuel A. Capsalis said.

Donna Bausch, executive director of the Norfolk and Portsmouth Bar Association and librarian for the Norfolk Law Library, surveyed the policies of other states and found that 29 of them have comprehensive contact information for attorneys available to the public at no charge.

The executive committee voted unanimously to recommend to the VSB Council that Virginia do the same. The council will consider the issue at its Oct. 17 meeting in Staunton.

The VSB staff report said the change would become effective only after all members receive a personal communication advising them that they must opt out of the directory if they do not want to be listed.

When the issue was last before council, the VSB’s publications/public information committee recommended the opt-in directory because of the address of record for a substantial number of attorneys is their home. Attorneys involved in law enforcement or national security were especially concerned that the information would become public.

Information available in the directory would include name, firm name, mailing address, phone number, class of bar membership and whether or not the member is in good standing. It would not include an e-mail address.

Substance abuse

The executive committee also endorsed an online survey about substance abuse and mental health issues among lawyers. The survey would be used to help the VSB and the Lawyers Helping Lawyers program assess service needs for the legal community.
Plans call for Capsalis to send an e-mail to all active members of the bar telling them that they can expect to receive an e-mail with a link to the survey. The e-mail will explain the purpose and nature of the survey and encourage attorneys to participate. “By responding openly and honestly to the questions, you will help strengthen the legal profession in the Commonwealth,” Capsalis says in a draft of the e-mail.

The e-mail identifies College of William and Mary law professor Susan Grover; Charles F. “Rick” Gressard, an associate professor in the college’s counseling program; and Susan Bosworth, associate provost for strategic planning and analysis at W&M as those who will conduct the survey.

It emphasizes that the answers will be anonymous and that no individual responses will go to the VSB, Lawyers Helping Lawyers or any other entity.

A draft of the cover e-mail for the survey says that “participation is voluntary, but critical to the usefulness of the study.”
The survey includes detailed questions about the alcohol use of respondents and their impression of the drinking habits of their legal colleagues. It also asks whether mental health issues have affected their work as a lawyer and asks for their perception of other lawyers who appear to be affected by anxiety or depression.

David B. Bobzien, Fairfax County attorney, a former VSB president and a member of the LHL board, said last week that much of the data that the program has about mental health and substance abuse issues that relate to lawyers is outdated and from other states. “We want data from lawyers in Virginia as to what the need is,” he said.

“We’ve enlisted the full support of [Chief Justice Leroy Rountree Hassell Sr.] and the Virginia State Bar,” Bobzien said.

The finishing touches are being put on the survey with an eye toward a questionnaire that an attorney can complete in 20 minutes or so, he added. Hassell will have the final say on the survey questions, Bobzien said, adding that “confidentiality will be there in abundance.”

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