April 2009 THE MONTANA Volume 34, No. 6 awyerTHE STATE BAR OF MONTANA CourtL OKs The the Bar’s dues hike seesaw of justice UM picks 5 finalists New realities for dean of begin working Law School against lower-income Montanans, but for unauthorized law practitioners Bar member BOOK REVIEW makes some So America’s liberated political history from law. What now? Law-Related Education Center seeks sponsors THE MONTANA LAWYER APRIL INDEX Published every month except January and July by the State Bar of Montana, 7 W. Sixth Ave., Suite 2B, P.O. Box 577, Helena MT 59624. Phone (406) 442-7660; Fax (406) 442-7763. Cover Story E-mail: [email protected] The seesaw of justice 5 STATE BAR OFFICERS Realities for unauthorized practice 5 President Chris Tweeten, Helena President-Elect Legal aid falling on hard times 5 Cynthia K. Smith, Missoula Secretary-Treasurer Joseph Sullivan, Great Falls Immediate Past President Features John C. “Jock” Schulte, Missoula Chair of the Board Montana attorneys: Denise Juneau makes history 10 Shane Vannatta, Missoula Five law dean finalists chosen 7 Board of Trustees Pam Bailey, Billings Book Review: Life without lawyers 24 Darcy Crum, Great Falls Vicki W. Dunaway, Billings Eddleman: from prosecutor to prisoner 26 Peter L. Helland, Glasgow Jason Holden, Great Falls Thomas Keegan, Helena Jane Mersen, Bozeman Commentary Mark D. Parker, Billings Ryan Rusche, Wolf Point President’s Message: helping Montana Legal Services 4 Ann Shea, Butte Randall Snyder, Bigfork Bruce Spencer, Helena K. Paul Stahl, Helena State Bar News Matthew Thiel, Missoula Shane Vannatta, Missoula Lynda White, Bozeman Legislative bills followed by Bar 9 Tammy Wyatt-Shaw, Missoula Court approves Bar’s dues request 11 ABA Delegate Damon L. Gannett, Billings Dues & CLE statements in the mail 11 2009 Deskbook errata sheet 12 THE MONTANA LAWYER Law Education Center needs donors 13 Publisher Christopher L. Manos, Executive Director State Bar Calendar 14 Editor Charles Wood (406) 447-2200; fax: 442-7763 e-mail: [email protected] Courts McGrath’s 1st State of Judiciary address 7 SUBSCRIPTIONS are a benefit of State Bar mem- bership; others purchase a year’s subscription for $25, Debate over access to attorney records 21 pre-paid. Third Class postage paid at Helena MT 59601. Discipline: Helena lawyer suspended 21 ADVERTISING RATES are available upon request. Statements and expressions of opinion appearing here- in are those of the advertisers or authors and do not Regular Features necessarily reflect the views of the State Bar of Montana. Upcoming CLEs 14 State Bar Bookstore 16 POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Montana Lawyer, P.O.Box 577, Helena MT 59624. News About Members 27 Copyright 2009 State Bar of Montana Deaths 28 Printed in Billings at Artcraft Printers Classifieds 29 PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE Legal Services needs your help Take a case,give money, call your legislator Chris Tweeten imes are tough. Millions of Americans have lost layoff elimination of 10 staff positions, lawyers and non- their jobs, home foreclosures are at an all-time high, lawyer staff, spread across all four Legal Services offices. Tand the value of retirement funds across the country When the layoffs take effect, a classic whipsaw will occur: has disappeared. All of us have felt the pinch in some The economic downturn will inevitably increase the way. number of Montanans who qualify for Legal Services For lawyers in Montana, things could be much worse. assistance. In major cities, old tall-building law firms have closed, The effect of this increase will be multiplied by the merged, or downsized in response to the economic crash. fact that the recession will cause this enlarged population Thousands of talented and experienced attorneys are on the to suffer an assortment of recession-related legal problems. street looking for work. While the job market for lawyers Consumer credit issues, bankruptcies, landlord-tenant dis- in Montana may be tightening, stories of widespread putes, even divorce and family violence, become more fre- lawyer layoffs have not shown up in the news here. quent problems for people affected by economic hard Montana usually lags behind the nation economically. times. Our highs are not as high and our lows are not as low. MLSA will see its resources dramatically reduced at One part of our economy, however, remains distressingly precisely the time it needs the resources the most. constant. Consider these facts: And in case you think government is the answer, the Roughly one in five Montanans – 190,000 of us – Legislature’s budget spending bill, as it currently reads, qualifies for services from the Montana Legal Services has eliminated the pro bono and the self-help law clerk Association (MLSA). This means their annual income is positions from the Supreme Court’s budget. no more than $13,538 for an individual or $27,563 for a family of four. AS LAWYERS, WE HAVE always served as the safe- Legal needs for this population already go unmet at ty net for access to justice in Montana. We contribute to an unacceptable rate. According to the 2005 Legal Needs the MJF, and through our pro bono obligations we take the Study, more than 80 percent of the legal needs of poor cases MLSA cannot. We need to step up again. people do not receive the attention of a lawyer. When your local pro bono program calls with a referral Montana Legal Services currently has 14 attorneys of a MLSA case, take it if you possibly can. Reducing to serve this population – 13,400 potential clients per attor- MLSA’s caseload is one of the fastest ways we can make ney. MLSA’s resources go farther. Montana Legal Services’ second-largest source of Contact your legislators now. Tell them that they can- funding is the Montana Justice Foundation (MJF), which not afford to eliminate the only small contribution state gains most of its revenues from IOLTA. taxpayers make to access to justice and the legal needs of In 2008, the Federal Reserve reduced its benchmark their low-income neighbors. The Legislature will add and interest rate to zero. Rates of interest on deposit accounts subtract things from the budget bill until the last day of the have fallen to historic lows. session. They need to hear from people in their own com- Since IOLTA funds come from interest on deposits, munities about how important these issues are. the dramatic decrease in interest rates is projected to result In addition, consider making an additional contribution in a 65 percent drop in IOLTA revenues by the end of this to the Montana Justice Foundation. I know many of us year. include the MJF in our year-end charitable giving. Now is the time to do more. I plan to make an additional dona- THE RESULT OF THIS revenue shortfall has landed tion of 1 percent of my 2008 adjusted gross income. I squarely on the shoulders of Montana Legal Services and challenge you to do the same. It’s a small pinch for us, but other MJF grantees that provide essential services to the if all of us would do it, MLSA could provide services to a justice system. The MLSA Board recently announced the lot more of the folks for whom the times are hardest. PAGE 4 THE MONTANA LAWYER APRIL 2009 COVER STORY Fewer props for proper justice Unauthorized practice and access to justice are opposite they’re receiving assistance, so long as it’s affordable. sides of a see-saw. Financially stressed clients who believe Access to justice and court support programs are at great they can't afford to hire an attorney resort to calling the "afford- risk of losing funding at the Legislature this session. At the able legal services" ad they found at the laundromat or sand- time this is written, one program, noted in the story below, has wich shoppe. Invariably, the provider is someone who has been zero funded within the main judiciary budget. Another worked within a lawyer's office and believes he learned enough program barely saved with some frantic grant searching. (without the hassle of law school and the bar exam) to counsel Montana Legal Services has cut direct services and positions. others. For a fee. Sometimes the fee they propose to charge The Justice Foundation's money to support MLSA and access rivals what an attorney would ask. Sometimes the unautho- to justice has decreased due to the economic downturn. rized practitioner is selling forms and information that are avail- The see-saw effect between access programs and unautho- able for free via the State Bar's website (see www.montan- rized practitioners may tip in the unauthorized practitioners’ abar.org "for the public”). Clients willingly don’t disclose where favor. When controls needed most, Programs providing competent unauthorized practice fight legal help to Montanans hits the wall of reality are falling prey to hard times By Betsy Brandborg By Charles Wood State Bar legal counsel The Montana Lawyer he Commission on Unauthorized Practice has peti- n February, three statewide legal-assistance programs fell tioned the Montana Supreme Court to adopt revisions on hard economic times, threatening to cut off Montanans Tto the Rules on the Unauthorized Practice of Law. I who also are suffering financially and who will be left The goal of the proposed revisions is to simplify procedural more vulnerable to unauthorized legal practitioners. mandates and restrict the Commission’s obligations to those As of this writing, one program– the state Pro Bono that can be accomplished within its limited budget. The Program – has been saved for a while, at least. And the fund- Supreme Court will accept written public comments through ing for another program– the Self-Help Law Program – is April 20, 2009.