Over the last three years, together with NC House appointee @LawrenceShaheen , I’ve co-chaired the NC State Bar Review Committee, tasked with evaluating, among other things, the @NCStateBar ‘s enforcement practices. The NC Bar is a state agency that, for the most part, has operated since the 1930’s as relatively independent of any real public oversight, and charged with regulating NC lawyers. If we’re being honest, the way the Bar has gone about its business is not an optimal paradigm under which to operate, if due process, transparency and public accountability are foundational principles with which we prefer government agencies to follow. The Bar would, and does, argue that it is a “self regulating” system governed by dozens of bar councilors, elected by private members of the legal profession, and that everything under its control functions perfectly well, in an objective and even-handed manner, and any suggestion to the contrary, is unwarranted. And in some ways - re: licensing, corporate structure compliance, continuing education - perhaps this is true - that the Bar operates effectively and serves the public well, although as a 31 year member, I remain unconvinced. But in other ways - ways the public doesn’t see or fully grasp - in private matters, and situations where discretion is in play, where public lives and vocations are on the line, many lawyers our committee heard from, persuasively suggest the power the State Bar has deployed over the years has been heavy-handed, uneven, politically motivated, and that it has used tactics towards enforcing rules that support one way of thinking, against another. Which, if true, is anathema to all the core tenants of a free society we hold dear: ideas such as objectivity, fairness, equal protection under the law, and justice that underpin every other facet of American life. And which is another way of saying that, if it’s true that the state agency charged with overseeing the legal profession has been biased in how it goes about regulating the very industry that upholds these ideals more than any other industry in the western world, this is an issue worth addressing. Our committee wasn’t fully equipped to review and resolve all of these concerns, nor to canvas and conclude whether or not they were all warranted. But it was asked to review them, which is what we did, in public meetings, for everyone to see, and enough evidence emerged via the public record and the invitation to field complaints, to give us grave concern about the ‘state of the union’, so to speak, of the NC State Bar leadership and governing structure. So much so, that our committee adopted a comprehensive list of recommended reforms and adopted a report that we hope the legislature takes up in the short session. (You can find the report on our website at the nc general assembly). This is all to say, that Today’s revelations by @NCAuditorBoliek raise similar questions about the very nature of what, I surmise, the state legislature had when it created our oversight committee. Is the State Bar a truly unbiased and transparent institution that deploys its power, influence and money in an even handed and fair manner, without regard to any of its members’ political views? In its hiring practices and enforcement practices, does it ensure diversity of experience and thought so as to optimize the understood objectivity as a state agency? And if so, how do we know, for sure? Because the @NCStateBar says so? They’ve offered no empirical evidence to suggest they operate this way, although, as a member, I wish it were the case. But I doubt it is. And today’s report by the State Auditor is just one of many examples of how important it is to review the ways state agencies go about conducting their business and meeting their intended objectives. I look forward to continuing this work and thank legislative leaders for highlighting its importance. #ncpol
