A task force appointed by the Michigan Supreme Court has scheduled a public hearing in Lansing next month on the role of the State Bar of Michigan and whether the SBM should continue as a mandatory organization.
The daylong hearing will be held on Friday, May 2 in the Supreme Court Courtroom, 6th Floor, at the Michigan Hall of Justice, 925 W. Ottawa.
In February, the Supreme Court announced creation of the task force examine the role of the State Bar. The court cited Article 6, Section 5 of the Michigan Constitution, which states that the court has the constitutional responsibility for setting legal “practice and procedure” in Michigan courts.
The action followed introduction by Senate Majority Floor Leader Arlan Meekhof of a bill that would allow attorneys to practice law in Michigan without joining the State Bar.
The court’s order creating the task force cited its decision in Falk v State Bar of Michigan, 411 Mich 63 (1981) and the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Keller v State Bar of California, 496 US 1 (1990).
Keller upheld mandatory bar membership in the interests of regulating the practice of law and protecting the public, but added that mandatory bars may not use members’ dues to fund ideological activities that fall outside those interests.
In Falk, the ruling stated that, to comply with the First Amendment, the State Bar would have to show that mandatory membership and dues served a “paramount” interest to the state, and that there was no less restrictive means to advance that compelling state interest.
The task force’s assignment is to determine whether the State Bar’s duties and functions can “be accomplished by means less intrusive upon the First Amendment rights of objecting individual attorneys,” consistent with Keller and Falk, the Supreme Court’s order instructed.
“At the same time,” the order said, “the task force should keep in mind the importance of protecting the public through regulating the legal profession, and how this goal can be balanced with attorneys’ First Amendment rights.”
State law requires attorneys actively practicing law to pay the State Bar $305 a year.
The task force is chaired by former SBM president and retired Berrien County Chief Judge Alfred Butzbaugh. Justice Bridget McCormack serves as the court's liaison to the task force and Supreme Court Commissioner Nelson Leavitt serves as its reporter.
Other task force members include SBM Commissioner Danielle Brown, SBM Past President Thomas Cranmer, Michigan State Bar Foundation Board Trustee Peter Ellsworth, SBM Past Commissioner John McSorley, SBM Commissioner Colleen Pero, SBM Commissioner and Michigan Court of Appeals Judge Michael Riordan.
Other members are SBM President-Elect Thomas Rombach, University of Michigan Law School Professor and former dean John Reed, Michigan State Representative and Speaker
Pro Tempore John Walsh, SBM Executive Director Janet Welch, and SBM Representative Assembly Vice Chair Vanessa Williams.
A new release issued Thursday said the hearing will begin at 9:30 a.m. and adjourn no later than 4:30 p.m., with a break from noon to 1 p.m.
Each speaker on the agenda will be allotted five minutes, after which task force members may ask questions.
Requests to speak shall be received no later than Monday, April 28 and either e-mailed to taskforceresbm@courts.mi.gov or mailed to: The Task Force on the Role of the State Bar of Michigan, Nelson S. Leavitt, Reporter, Michigan Supreme Court, PO Box 30052, Lansing, MI 48090.
For those who cannot attend the hearing, comments will also be accepted in writing at the email and postal addresses above.
Deadline for written comments is also April 28, 2014.
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