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California Bar Foundtion
 
You Need to Know

Register for the Solo and Small Firm Summit

The State Bar of California will hold its annual Solo and Small Firm Summit June 16 to 18 in Newport Beach.

Billed as “not your ordinary weekend CLE program!” the summit offers solo and small firm practitioners and office staff an opportunity to network and develop workable strategies to manage their offices, build a client referral network and stay on top of key developments in various areas of law. For more information or to register, visit the event web page at www.calbar.org/solosummit.

Watch the Board of Trustees via webcast

The State Bar Board of Trustees has begun live webcasting of its meetings.

“This technology will provide State Bar members and the public with greater access to our board meetings,” Executive Director Elizabeth Rindskopf Parker said.

Webcasts are used by the California Legislature, the Judicial Council and most recently by the California Supreme Court. “We’re delighted to be adopting the best practices already identified by our oversight bodies in the judicial and legislative branches,” Parker said.

The webcasts can be accessed through links posted on the Board of Trustees meeting page

Apply for a legal aid grant

The State Bar’s Legal Services Trust Fund Program has opened grant applications to nonprofit organizations that provide free civil legal services to low-income Californians. Applications for IOLTA/EAF funding for 2017 are now available online. The deadline to file is July 1, 2016.

Organizations that are not currently recipients should review application guidelines and the California Business and Professions Code 6210-6228 before filing an application. For questions, contact the Legal Services Trust Fund Program at 415-538-2252 or  trustfundprogram@calbar.ca.gov.

Register for California Women Lawyers event

California Women Lawyers is hosting a reception in Los Angeles on June 10 for the Hon. Holly J. Fujie, recipient of the 2016 Joan Dempsey Klein Distinguished Jurist Award. Those who want to attend the reception have until Friday June 3 to register. You can register online on the group’s website. For questions contact the group at 916-930-9020 or info@cwl.org.

Have your voice heard in evaluating judges

The State Bar commission that evaluates the governor’s candidates for judgeships is seeking the help of attorneys to solicit information electronically.

For more than 30 years, the Commission on Judicial Nominees Evaluation, commonly known as the JNE (“Jenny”) Commission, has gathered information about candidates by mailing paper comment forms to attorneys. During the past few years, the commission has been using email to gather comments, but continues to encounter one barrier: the spam filter. Most of JNE’s emails reach their intended recipients. However, some are blocked.

Attorneys can solve this problem by authorizing the spam filters serving their email address listed with the State Bar to accept the following email address: jneccf@calbar.ca.gov. Those who work in legal offices, public agencies and the court system can help by asking their IT specialists to authorize the JNE email address for all spam filters serving office computers.

The electronic comment forms are identical to the written forms. A hyperlink in the email takes the commenter to a website where a form identical to the written comment form can be completed electronically. The electronic comments are maintained confidentially, with access only by investigating commissioners and staff. The use of email appears to result in response rates at least as high as the use of written forms. It has proven to be a cost-effective and efficient method of transmitting time-sensitive, confidential data.

Questions and comments about the process can be directed to jneccf@calbar.ca.gov.

Updated 2015 bar rules book available for e-reader

To make it easier for lawyers to readily identify and address legal ethics issues, the State Bar has published an e-reader version of the Rules of Professional Conduct and the State Bar Act. The e-reader version of the rule book is compatible with the Kindle Reader App, a free e-reader application available for iPads, iPhones, Blackberry phones, Android phones, MacBooks and PC laptops. The book also works on all versions of Amazon.com’s Kindle.

The 2015 edition of the e-Reader version of the rule book is now available on Amazon.com for $6.99, a significant discount from the price of the print version. It offers several useful features including a search function, bookmarking, highlighting and annotating. In addition, once downloaded to a tablet, smart phone or other compatible device, the book can be accessed at any time, even without the Internet or a cellular data signal.

The bar’s rule book has been published for more than 65 years. The 30-page edition published in 1949 has grown to more than 400 hard copy pages. In addition to the rules and State Bar Act, the book includes other related authorities such as selected Rules of Court, code sections, the Federal Mortgage Assistance Relief Services Rule, the State Bar Pro Bono Resolution, the Lawyer Referral Service rules, MCLE rules and more.

Leverage the law through a State Bar section membership

Join other leading attorneys and legal professionals who are passionate about their practices. Each State Bar section provides its members with valuable tools including e-newsletters, publications and more. Highly regarded as a premier provider of legal education, the 16 sections deliver specialized training and practical programs including symposiums, one-day seminars and multi-day conferences, online seminars, self-study curricula as well as updates on trends and changes in the law. Visit our online catalog, which contains more than 1,000 individual seminars.

Sections can also figure heavily when initiating or advocating legislation and regulations. Plus, most of the sections participate in major public education efforts and community service activities, such as consumer radio shows and booklets that explain legal rights. Your minimal annual membership helps to fund all these essential programs and services. What’s more, your membership is a tax-deductible investment.

Membership benefits from CalBar Connect

State Bar members can save up to 25 percent every time they rent with Hertz, a participant in CalBar Connect, the State Bar’s member services and benefits initiative. Visit the Hertz page for details.

CalBar Connect, which provides discounts to all State Bar members, also offers a variety of insurance plans including professional liability insurance, workers’ compensation insurance, group and individual disability plans, life insurance, accidental death and dismemberment (AD&D), auto, home and business office plans.

Subscribe to the Daily News Digest

In between monthly issues of the Bar Journal, you can keep up with the major legal news of the day by visiting the new Daily News Digest on the Bar Journal’s home page. The State Bar’s Office of Communications scours the day’s news and culls top headlines of interest to legal professionals. You may also subscribe by visiting the Daily News Digest web page.

Follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn

Stay informed by following @StateBarCA on Twitter and the State Bar of California page on LinkedIn. We’ll give you a heads up about important regulatory information and let you know about other happenings at the State Bar or within the legal community. If you’re seeking information relevant to your particular practice area, the State Bar’s voluntary sections and the California Young Lawyers Association also have a presence on social media through Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube.

Opt out of sharing certain information

As of Jan. 1, 2016, the State Bar of California is subject to the California Public Records Act (CPRA). For more information regarding the impact of CPRA on the bar’s obligation to release member information, please log on to My State Bar Profile. Go to “account information” and select “update my mailing preferences (opt out).”