3 Appointments Committee—Alex Vakula,
Chair, presented the Appointments
Committee’s report and recommendations:
3DNA–People’s Legal Services, Inc. Board
of Directors:
3Reappoint incumbent Thomas L.
Murphy, Gila River Indian Community
3Select from the following to fill the
remaining two seats: Edward L. Welsh,
Jr., Business Consulting; Deborah M.
Fine, Federal Public Defender;
Guadalupe Gutierrez, Pascua Yaqui
Tribal Prosecutor’s Office
3 MO TION: Jim Smith moved, Patrick
Greene seconded and the motion carried
unanimously to reappoint Mr. Thomas
L. Murphy to a second but final four-year term on DNA’s board.
3 MO TION: Jim Smith moved, Patrick
Greene seconded and the motion carried
unanimously to appoint Mr. Edward L.
Welsh, Jr. and Ms. Deborah M. Fine to
the DNA board.
3 The committee requested that the board
seek qualified candidates for the four judicial nominating commissions that have
openings. The committee will reopen the
recruitment process as few applications
had been received. It has been the practice
of the board to forward multiple candidates to the Governor for her ultimate
appointment.
3Rule 38(h)( 13) Waiver Request—This
item deals with In-House Counsel Waiver
of requirement to attend an ABA-accredited
law school.
3 The board approved a similar waiver
request earlier this year.
3 The Scope and Operations Committee
voted 4 to 1 in favor of granting this
request.
3 The Petitioner attended Nashville School
of Law, which is not ABA-accredited.
3Kerry Hodges (Jennings Strouss &
Salmon), representing the Petitioner,
explained the circumstances surrounding
this request. After review and discussion,
a motion was made:
3 MO TION: Jimmie Dee Smith moved,
Alex Vakula seconded and the motion carried unanimously to approve granting the
waiver of the ABA-accredited Law School
requirement for In-House Counsel
Petitioner.
3 Legislative Report—Janna Day summarized
recent statewide elections:
3Senators John McComish and Adam
Driggs are no longer on the Senate
leadership team; replacing them are
Steve Yarborough and Gail Griffin.
3 The new Speaker of the House is David
Gowan, who, along with Steve
Montenegro as Majority Leader and
David Livingston as Majority Whip,
will be a markedly more conservative
leadership team.
3In the House of Representatives the
Rules Committee hears every bill. Speaker
of the House Gowan and Rules Chair
David Stevens will work closely.
3Representative Eddie Farnsworth
continues as Rules Chair in the House
of Representatives.
3Senator Adam Driggs will be the new
Chairman of the Senate Judiciary
Committee.
3Strategic Planning Committee Report—
Bryan Chambers, Chair:
3 The committee continues to work on the
next five-year plan.
3Michael Price, Fellow and Graduate
Student at the Thunderbird School of
Global Management, summarized his
report on the lawyer discipline process.
3Mr. Price was given the task by the committee of looking at efficiencies in and
effectiveness of the lawyer discipline
process. Fellows are unpaid but volunteer
to assist nonprofits and businesses in the
community.
3Mr. Price compared Arizona’s system
with those of Florida, Oregon and
Colorado using the ABA’s Survey on
Lawyer Discipline report. He also compared the State Bar’s process with those
of the State Board of Accountancy and
the Arizona Registrar of Contractors.
3Mr. Price’s gathered data that could be
used to quantify the system’s efficiency,
detect credible variables for financial
benchmarks, measure the reactivity of different metrics when the budget amount
changes, understand organizational structure’s impact, and compare the Bar with
other organizations. The report will be
used internally by the Lawyer Regulation
Office to continue to improve the system,
but the report concluded the Bar economically and successfully handles its reg-ulatory function in comparison to peers.
3 MO TION: Coming from the Strategic
Planning Committee to accept the report
as written.
3 AMENDED MO TION: And to send
a letter to the Dean of the Thunderbird
School of Global Management expressing
appreciation for Michael Price’s work.
3 FINAL MO TION as amended carried
unanimously.
3Client Protection Fund Report—Chas
Wirken, Board of Trustees Chair:
3 Treasurer James Penny reviewed the
Third Quarter Financial Reports.
BOARD OF GOVERNORS
www.azbar.org/AZAttorney ARIZONA ATTORNEY FEBRUARY 2015 60
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