Message from Dick Casey, President
July 2010
First, let me thank you for the opportunity to serve you, our members, this coming year as State Bar President. It is a humbling honor to follow in the footsteps of not only Bob Morris' leadership, but that of his many predecessors. I will do all I can in the coming year to continue a legacy of strong leadership, in order to make our Bar better for having served as your president.
Next, as I've done privately, I want to publicly thank Bob Morris for his tireless service to our Bar for the past year as our President. Bob demonstrated throughout his presidency that he cares deeply about our profession, our Bar, and each of our members. Bob has been especially dedicated to engaging the newer members of the Young Lawyers Section of our Bar, to foster their mentoring, and to make them feel as integral to our Bar as they, in fact, are. I fully intend to continue that spirit of inclusiveness, and with the essential help of the Young Lawyers Section, to carry on the mentor coin project. I had the honor of succeeding Bob as President of SDTLA some years ago, and the joke between us this past year is that I cleaned up the "mess" he made with SDTLA, and I can clean up the "mess" he makes with the leadership of the State Bar. All kidding aside, there is certainly no mess to clean up! I only hope that I can demonstrate at least as much leadership as Bob has during the coming year.
Third, what a bar convention we had in Rapid City! Thanks to the leadership of President Morris and the Bar Commission last year, including Susan Sabers' subcommittee that studied possible changes to the convention, the format changes generated great enthusiasm and outstanding attendance! Over 750 people attended Wednesday's opening night event, which featured not only great food, but the talented and highly energetic Sioux Falls band, "PowerPlay." And thanks to the bold leadership of Julie Dvorak and the CLE Committee, we had another great lineup of CLE programs. I especially heard rave reviews of Brian Garner's legal writing seminar, which should be of great value to all those who attended.
President Morris and I have received many positive comments on these changes. Bar staff and the Bar Commissioners will be reviewing the convention at the next commissioners' meeting in Pierre on July 15 with an eye toward next year's convention. Please share any comments or suggestions you have on the new format to Tom Barnett at the bar headquarters, myself or any of the commissioners before July 15.
I want to publicly thank Tom Barnett and his great staff for their tireless work to make this convention one of the best ever. Tom, DeeAnn, Larry and Anita, along with our newest staff person, Nicole Ogan, put in countless hours to implement the changes directed by the Bar Commission. And they did so while grieving the tragic death of our beloved and their long-time colleague, Kelly Krell. Our hats go off to the great work our staff did under very difficult circumstances!
Striving for Balance
Nearly every Bar President has a "theme" or a project they want to pursue during their presidency. After visiting with many of our members, from all practice areas of our profession and all age groups, and my own observations, it is quite obvious to me that a common denominator among almost every one of us is that we are continually feeling spread too thin, with the professional and personal demands on us. Many of our members, and especially women, are trying to manage the stress of their responsibilities as parents while meeting their responsibilities at work. Many middle-aged attorneys have built successful practices, and now find that they don't have enough time for their families, friends or hobbies as they once did. Some long-time attorneys admit to having trouble getting out of bed in the morning to face another day of the stress that is the practice of law.
No matter what demographic group we are in, we are all striving for balance in our lives. It is for this reason that I have chosen this theme of "Striving for Balance" for my presidency. Striving for balance in our lives is a huge ongoing challenge, yet it is essential to our professional and personal well-being. John Wooden, the UCLA men's basketball coach who won more NCAA national championships than any other coach in the sport's history recently died. Coach Wooden once said that "next to love, balance is the most important thing."
This theme encompasses efforts of recent bar presidents who have worked to address issues of mental health, drug and alcohol dependency of our members, our need to devote more effort to providing pro bono legal services and, most recently, encouraging a vibrant mentorship program for our newest attorneys. In fact, I submit that those with more balance in their lives are much less apt to suffer from mental and physical illness, substance abuse and fractured relationships. The flip side of that coin, of course, is that if our lives are chronically out of balance, we are at much greater risk of suffering one or more of these maladies.
My approach to this project will be to elicit the help of our members through an anonymous on-line survey to identify the scope of the problem, and then to formulate practical ways in which our members can achieve better balance in their lives, and find a greater sense of professional and personal fulfillment as a result. Additionally, through my monthly messages in the Newsletter and my dialogue with our members around the state, I hope to also raise the awareness of the need to keep our lives in balance and encourage a meaningful dialogue among our members on this important issue.
To begin this dialogue, I was proud to bring in as the keynote speaker for our Annual Meeting my long-time friend and college roommate, Tom Collins. A native of Winner, Tom has practiced mostly criminal defense and family law in Hillsboro, Oregon for over 30 years. I invited Tom to speak to us because of his unique volunteerism: Tom is a certified hospice volunteer. His experiences as a hospice volunteer should inspire us to volunteerism as a way of finding more fulfillment in our lives, and to make us better lawyers in the process. Also, I believe that if we look at our work and our personal lives from the perspective of someone in hospice, we should have a better appreciation for what is-- and what is not--important as we try to keep all the "balls in the air" in our lives.
I also want you to let me know of lawyers who you believe have successfully found balance in their lives, and how they've done it. I will follow up on that information, in hopes that they—or at least the ways they've maintained balance--can be mentors and models for the rest of us. I have asked the CLE Committee to consider sponsoring a CLE at next year's annual meeting on practical ways in which we can achieve balance.
Thank you all in advance for your help in participating in this project to make our professional and personal lives better. We are all in this together. We need to help ourselves, and each other. We cannot ignore this vitally important issue. Please join with me in making us healthier as individuals and as a profession by striving for balance.
