North Dakota Law Review Volume 35 Number 4 Article 2 1959 Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the State Bar Association of North Dakota North Dakota State Bar Association Follow this and additional works at: https://commons.und.edu/ndlr Part of the Law Commons Recommended Citation North Dakota State Bar Association (1959) "Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the State Bar Association of North Dakota," North Dakota Law Review: Vol. 35 : No. 4 , Article 2. Available at: https://commons.und.edu/ndlr/vol35/iss4/2 This Bar Proceeding is brought to you for free and open access by the School of Law at UND Scholarly Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in North Dakota Law Review by an authorized editor of UND Scholarly Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. NORTH DAKOTA LAW REVIEW [VOL. 35 Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the State Bar Association of North Dakota MORNING SESSION, JUNE 25, 1959 PRESIDENT BJELLA: Gentlemen, the 59th annual meeting of the State Bar Association of North Dakota is now in session. I wish now to make some appointments relative to two commit- tees that will function during this annual meeting. The first com- mittee is the Committee on Resolutions, and I am going to appoint as chairman, John Stormon. Harold Shaft and Elver Pearson will serve with him on the Resolution Committee and will make their report tomorrow morning at the business session. On the Auditing Committee, I have appointed H. A. Mackoff as chairman and he will be assisted by Mack Traynor and Roy Ployhar. They will also make their report tomorrow morning. The next announcement that I have. is relative to committee reports. This year, because we are having a two-day convention for the first time in many years, out of necessity we are going to omit the reading of the committee reports by the chairmen, except in instances where affirmative action by the Association is required. Therefore, if any committee chairman desires to make an oral re- port for his committee, we will try to work it in this morning in the few minutes that we have at our disposal, or we will do it tomor- row morning, but please make that request to me so that I will know how many committee chairmen desire to make oral reports. The committee reports have been submitted to us and they will be printed with the report of this Annual Meeting. PRESIDENT'S ANNUAL REPORT PRESIDENT BJELLA: Ladies and gentlemen of the North Dakota Bar Association; once each year it is the privilege and I assume also the duty of the President to make an annual report. Each of you has received a copy of the Sectional Assemblies that have been passed out at the time of registration. In the interests of brevity my annual report is printed therein and I am not going to read it over again other than to skim through it very hurriedly. In making this, the President's Annual Report, I wish first to thank each of the lawyers of the State of North Dakota for making this a most enjoyable and satisfying year for me as your President. The duties of the office of President are so varied and complex that it will be impossible for me to report fully on the activities of your Association during the past year. However, I do want to acknowl- edge my heartfelt thanks to all of the lawyers and judges who help -' ed me at every turn of the road during the past year. Without the coopeartion of each of you, any achievements that we may have made would not have been possible. 19591 BENCH AND BAR The accomplishments of the Bar Association during the past year have been many and varied. Summarizing very briefly, I do believe we can all look with pride at the following achievements of our Association. First is the increase of judicial salaries. It was our No. 1 ob- jective and through the cooperation of the legislature, judges and lawyers this was accomplished. Secondly, six uniform acts were adopted in whole or in part. On July 1, 1961 Justices of the Peace as we now know them will be abolished. This is an important advance in the administration of justice and an improvement of the judicial system. Again the traffic safety program proceeded with excellent re- sults. There are also many other items worthy of mention, such as the work of the Title Standards Committee on the seven title standards adopted by the legislature. The American Citizenship Committee did a yeoman piece of work in presenting the Consti- tution Awards. As I understand it, some 200 or more lawyers travel- ed out to the communities and villages of North Dakota and made these presentations in person. Law Day U. S. A. always will be .a challenge to the lawyers of North Dakota and elsewhere to illus- trate the conhast between our freedom under law and the tyranny under fear of the Communist countries. Very recently the A.B.A. inaugurated Law Day U. S. A., which will be held for the third time on May 1, 1960. It is my hope that the Association will con- tinue this type of work. This year the Judicial Selection Committee had more work to do than it has had for many years. I think it is significant and im- portant that the administrative head of the State of North Dakota in each instance saw fit to appoint, if not the person that polled the highest number of votes for that position, at least one of those selected by the lawyers. It is apparent to me, as President of your Association, that the state bar is in reality just becoming of age in North Dakota. If there is one thing in being President that I now can look back upon, it is that this one year served, short though it was, gives an idea of the work ahead and what can be accomplished by a group of lawyers working together. In other words, to fully accomplish the objectives and the purposes of the Association, I think that the basic concepts must be kept alive. I think they can be summarized briefly as follows: They may not be all-inclusive, but the first thing that we must contend with is the improvement of the judicial system; the second, continuing legal education; the third, internal affairs and economics; and fourth, professional responsibilities. If our Association is to do what is required, all of its work must be done, in the main, within the framework of these objectives. As lawyers we must be continually aware of changes necessary to improve the efficient and prompt administration of justice. Many bills passed in this last legislatWe'will have this effect. The professional responsibilities of lawyers go beyond that of NORTH DAKOTA LAW REVIEW [VOL. 35 merely being a good lawyer. From time immemorial lawyers have been leaders, not only in the cause of the preservation of freedom, but in the advancement of the rights and privileges of mankind. Lawyers, because of their training and background, are especially fitted for this task and must not shirk the responsibility. Lawyers are natural leaders in any given community, and we as lawyers at all times should be willing to accept responsibilities in any work that will make the community, state and nation a better place in which to live for all. This year one of the items to be decided at our Annual Meeting will be the presentation of the new Constitution and By-Laws. This Constitution and By-Laws are also in your Assemblies booklet and I urge that each of you read it carefully before the business meeting tomorrow morning. This Constitution and'By-Laws will reduce the number of committees and will re-define and make more streamlined the work of your Association. The By-Laws are drawn up to provide for a possible assessment of lawyers each year to carry. on the work of the Association. This is in addition to the annual statutory fee. The new Constitution and By-Laws also pro- vides for staggered committee appointments and, if adopted, will facilitate the work of your Association. I do have the following specific recommendations to make as your President: First, it i3 my belief that the Executive Committee which will take over on Saturday morning should in the near future establish a permanent legal or bar center and employ a full-time Director. Much has been said about this during the past year and it is a decision that will soon confront the lawyers of North Dakota. Your Executive Committee has taken the position that the matter will be determined by plebiscite to each lawyer licensed to prac- tice in the State of North Dakota. Both sides have presented their case with fairness and that is available to all the lawyers of North Dakota. I am not attempting to tell President-Elect Ilvedson his timetable but my recommendation to him and his new Executive Committee is that this plebiscite determination be made as soon as the arrangements for the proper financing of it can be made. The reason that we did not put it in during the past year is because we did not feel, because of various factors, that the funds were available. The budget must be worked on and there are other factors to consider. I hope that 'each lawyer in the State of North Dakota will. carefully read the proposals on both sides. There is, as you know, a group thatis interested in having a legal center at Grand Forks.