1437 MAR 26 1936 The Idaho State Bar is organized in conformity to and functions under, statutes of the State of Idaho, found as Chapter 211, Session Laws of 1923, Chapter 89 and 90, Session Laws of 1925, and Chapters 63 and 98, Session Laws of 1929. Rules for Admission of Attorneys, Conduct of Attorneys, Disciplinary Proceedings, and General Rules, as adopted by the Board of Commissioners and approved by the Supreme Court of Idaho, are published in pamphlet form and may be had upon application to the secretary. COMMISSIONERS OF THE IDAHO STATE BAR .1923-25 1923-25 1923-26 1925-27 .1925-28 .1926-29 .1927-30 .1928-31 .1929-32 Alfred Budge, Justice, Supreme Court, Boise, President Wm. E. Lee, Justice, Supreme Court, Moscow James R. Bothwell, Twin Falls James Harris, Weiser A. L. Merrill, Pocatello OFFICES OF THE COMMISSION ANNOUNCEMENTS Attorney's License Fees-$5.00, payable annually prior to July 1, to the State Treasurer, Boise, Idaho. Meetings of the Bar-The Eastern and Northern Divisions will hold Division meetings in 1930 at times and places to be fixed, respectively, by Commissioners Owen and Truitt. Annual meeting of the Idaho State Bar will be held in the Western Division in 1930, at a time to be announced later. An election of a commissioner for the Western Division will be held in 1930. Proceedings of Idaho State Bar Meeting, Held at Idaho Falls, Idaho, August 9th and 10th, 1929 Friday, August 9th, 1929, 10:00 o'clock a. m. The meeting of the Idaho State Bar was called to order at 10:00 o'clock A. M., in the Court room of the District Court, at the Court House, in Idaho Falls, Bonneville County, Idaho, on the 9th day of August, 1929, by the Hon. Jess Hawley, of Boise, vice-president. Hon. B. W. Clark then welcomed the Bar to Idaho Falls, followed by vocal numbers by the male quartet. Thereupon the following proceedings were had: VICE-PRESIDENT: I think it would be a good idea, as the Secretary has suggested, that each attorney arise and introduce himself. The introduction speech, let us have it understood, will be limited to the name and address. Thereupon each attorney present in the court room arose and gave his name and address. VICE-PRESIDENT: The President of the Association was to have been here today, and was scheduled to deliver an address on Probate Procedure. He wired to Mr. Owens yesterday that it was impossible for him to be here. I am very, very sorry, indeed, as Mr. Potts is a very learned member of the profession; and, personally, I have a great store of curiosity to know something about the proper procedure, as anxious clients are constantly inquiring just what the legislators meant when they wrote certain things, and the legislaters who wrote the certain things seem to be in doubt as to what they meant. I understand that the Pocatello members will be here later. It falls to my lot, therefore, to make some suggestions at the opening of this meeting. I hope that I will not bore you by riding a hobby. That hobby has been for a number of years the organization of the members of the bar. We found out that it was not possible in our small state to organize voluntarily, so the compulsory bar act was born, and after the Supreme Court had operated on it several times it assumed something of shape and form. The fundamental thought backing those of us who were interested in the bar was the bringing of the bar itself to the summit or standard of idealism, which, as young men in the bar, we are taught to adopt as the standard in our profession. I doubt sometimes that the bar is fitted now to carry on its great purpose, that of assisting in administration of the law, and the improvement of the art, and also probably the science of administration. I doubt sometimes very seriously that the profession can compete against the powerful, wide current of materialism and of commercialism in which we are all placed today. The law profession, as that of medicine, engineering and in fact all of the learned professions, must be considered in two lights: First of all, the special learning, the special training that is required. And on that point I think that the legal profession has not progressed as other professions. We have been too prone to bring into our ranks men who are illy equipped, from the standpoint of general education, and from the standpoint of special training in the law. It has been too easy to become a lawyer. Whenever standards are attempted to be raised we are met with the cry, the stock phrase: "Lincoln never would have been a lawyer had education been a condition precedent." Of course, the reply to that is that a Lincoln would have procured the necessary education in some way. That lack of general education, or sometimes of special training, probably accounts for the lack of proper conception in the minds of many of our men of the dignity, and of the usefullness, and of the purpose of our profession. The standards for Idaho, I think, are being raised, but it is a slow, slow process, and the men who constitute the Bar Commission are quite loath to move in a different way than the bar wants to move. Yet, it is apparent that the commission must direct the steps necessary to raise the standards, pre-legal and legal, required for membership in our profession. And the Supreme Court is also of the same rather general, idea of the rest of us- it hesitates to bring about great changes. Therefore, we all are fighting, inch by inch, to change the requirements to make them more rigid to the end that those who follow us in this profession may generally be better educated, and also specially better educated. I know that a number of us, if it required very special education, would not be practicing law today. But, that is not the point. The point is that we as members of the profession must have more care and more thought of our profession. The medical profession is far above ours, in so far as training of its members is concerned. Our change has been rather limited, and you could hardly see it from year to year, but when you look back ten years then you may see that we have increased the requirements, and we propose presently, so soon as the Supreme Court has passed upon rules which we have submitted, and which they have been very carefully considering, to further increase the educational requirements. I might state that this will meet with the approval of the bar as a whole. The fact that practically twenty-five to thirty-three and one-third percent of the young men who assay admittance fail in the examination, is an indication that our standards have been raised. I doubt that that percentage I know that that percentage did not prevail five years ago and prior to that time. It does not increase the respect of the people for the bar, to know that anybody can be admitted. The older men here know of instances where men have been admitted because they were good fellows, and they have been allowed to practice in the District Courts, and finally in some way, in the Supreme Court, without really any qualifications. At this time I might tell you of an incident that happened in the Challis country many years ago, but you no doubt have had experiences of your own which indicate that if the gentleman answered two thirds of the questions correctly that he should be admitted. For instance, if he answered one question incorrectly, and the other two by saying "I don't know," the committee would say that he answered two-thirds of them correctly, and would admit him to the bar. That special learning, I think, will be taken care of, and the standards increased, and the young man will know that he has to know something before he gets into the bar. It is not necessary, probably that he know much after that, either to be a lawyer or to be a judge, but to get in he must know something. There is another fact which is probably more important in distinguishing a profession from a business, and that is the idea of rendering some sort of assistance and service to the public that cannot be rendered by any other class or type of men. Our particular type of service, as I suggested in the beginning, is the administration of justice. I don't know that we can bring about much along that line. I know that ten years ago so soon as we suggested to the state legislature anything which was an improvement the legislature was against it. I know, however, today that when we suggest something to the state legislature in the way of improvement in the administration of justice the mere fact that we have an organized bar adds weight, and the legislature of the State of Idaho has come to look upon the bar as somewhat worthy to render service, and there is a decided improvement in that. Those of us who have attempted to secure the passage of laws have found a very, very marked increase in respect and in trust. The study That really brings me to a development of 1929. that we had begun of a change in our procedure, or rather in a rediversion of power, sending the power to control procedure back to the place where it belongs, the courts-a study which was begun a couple of years ago--has taken the attention of laymen, and some ot the men high in officialdom were very anxious to see it put into law the power in the courts to make rules of procedure. And I may state that had the bar itself arisen from the lethargy that bound it, and had it expressed its desire as it should have, the legislature would have passed just such a law. One of the features of the program here will be a discussion of the report on rule making and the judicial council. The passage of an act which shows that the laymen have confidence in the bar, and which shows they desire to have our advice and assistance, and will respect it, mark to my mind an important station on the road of the bar of Idaho to public esteem and confidence. This is the new section to which I refer: "The Governor, Supreme Court, or the Legislature of the State of Idaho, may request of the Board an investigation and study of and recommendations upon any matter relating to the Courts of this State, practice and procedure therein, practice of the law, and the administration of justice in Idaho, and thereupon it shall be the duty of said Board to cause such investigation and study to be made, reported to an annual meeting of the Idaho State Bar, and after the action of said meeting thereon, to report the same to the officer or body making the request. The board may, without such request, cause an investigation and study upon the same subject matters, and after a report thereon to an annual meeting of the Idaho State Bar, report the same and the action of said meeting thereon to the Governor, Supreme Court, or Legislature of the State of Idaho. (Laws 1929, Chap. 98, Sec. 4.) "The Idaho State Bar and its Board of Commissioners shall have the power and authority to aid in the advancement of the science of jurisprudence and in the improvement of the administration of justice." (1929 Laws, Chap. 98, Sec. 5.) Gentlemen, it is, as you know and realize from your own feelings and experience, an up-hill job to get the bar of the State of Idaho together on any point-to get them physically together is impossible, to get them mentally together is possible, but most difficult. The lawyers have not yet awakened to a sense of their individual importance as members of the profession, or to a sense of their duty to serve that profession. I have in mind the Corporation Code Commission which asked advice from the lawyers of the state-asked them repeatedly and got half a dozen-just half a dozen-suggestions, until after the law was passed, and then, of course, there were many criticisms. It is a pleasure to know that in the matter of discipline there seems to have come to the lawyers of this state a realization that the bar is not going to tolerate blacklegs or unethical practitioners of the profession; and as a result of that knowledge the complaints made against members of the profession have very greatly increased. I believe that there were, at one time, over fifty complaints pending against lawyers. Now, when you realize that there are only between six hundred and seven hundred lawyers in the state, and they are not all active, you can realize to what a pass we had come when practically ten percent of the active membership were accused by clients or by others of unprofessional conduct or misappropriation of funds, or carelessness and indifference to clients' interests. Now that condition is changed, and I doubt that we have at the present time ten per cent of that number of complaints. So, it shows that within the bar there is beginning to germinate some notion of the importance of the bar, and some examination by the members themselves of their conduct in this respect. The progress of the bar reminds me of the progress that I made in a machine a couple of years ago, while on a hunting trip. We came to the top of the mountain, or close to the summit, and the snow was very, very deep. The driver of the car was a wonderful driver, bucking his way a few inches at a time, then backing up and bucking the snow again to gain another six inches, and so on, in that manner, never killing his engine, always going forward a little. To me that is a source of consolation and inspiration when I get discouraged, because while we are going so slowly, gentlemen, we are going ahead. There will be no doubt many suggestions that will come as a result of this meeting, and I hope that the members here will participate in the discussions of the various papers that will be given. There is a set schedule which requires the appointment of committees on resolutions, and canvassing, and I am appointing now on the committee on resolutions: James R. Bothwell, J. M. Lampert, O. A. Johan- and on the canvassing committee: Laurel E. Elam, F. A. Wilbur, G. W. Soule. The next order of business is the report of the Secretary, Mr. Griffin, |