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Gov. Gavin Newsom recently signed into law legislation raising the fees attorneys must pay the State Bar of California next year by 27 percent, clearing the way for the first such increase in two decades.
It was an event that would have seemed unthinkable just a few years ago for the then-embattled bar.
In 2016, I revealed in reports for the Los Angeles Daily Journal that the bar had let hundreds of complaints about the unauthorized practice of law sit uninvestigated for months. I also documented how the agency had pledged lawyers’ dues as collateral for building loans without input from key lawmakers.
These were among the scandals that drew the ire of the Legislature, and one assemblyman compared the bar to the Titanic at a committee hearing in the spring of 2016.
Some current and former members of the bar’s board at that time suggested it would be best to split off the agency’s trade association-like functions from its regulatory duties to get the bar back on track.
Members of the Assembly Judiciary Committee warmed to the idea, but members of the state Senate were resistant.
The debate about what reform measures to include in the bar’s funding bill for 2017 continued until the last hours of the 2016 legislative session. Ultimately, the Legislature did not enact a bar bill for the governor to sign.
As a result, the state Supreme Court had to step in and order attorneys to pay to fund the bar’s discipline system so the agency did not have to drastically curtail its operations.
The following year, the state Senate and California Chief Justice Tani G. Cantil-Sakauye came around to the Assembly’s view that the bar needed to be de-unified to help it focus on attorney discipline and admissions.
The agreement led to the passage of historic legislation splitting up the agency effective at the beginning of 2018.
While bar leadership ultimately embraced the separation, it was a step taken because lawmakers had lost confidence in the agency.
Both the bar and the newly formed California Lawyers Association that housed the bar’s former practice law sections said the split got off to a strong start.
However, the bar began to build a case that it needed the Legislature to authorize it to charge higher fees so it could strengthen its discipline system and undertake various technology and capital improvement projects.
There was no appetite for taking such a step in 2018. But the tide began to turn earlier this year when the state auditor agreed a fee increase was justified, though at a significantly lower amount than the bar proposed. The Legislative Analyst’s Office struck a similar tone.
Lawmakers eventually agreed to bump bar fees for 2020 from a combined $430 to $544, and the legislation was enacted by the Legislature with minimal opposition.
Gov. Newsom signed the bill, SB 176, into law on Oct. 9.
The bar board’s new chair called the legislation’s approval an “important milestone” and indicated the agency was already gearing up for its next ask.
“We are grateful to the Legislature and the Governor for this progress and look forward to working with our stakeholders in the coming legislative term to arrive at a multiyear fee bill and a more predictable process for seeking fee adjustments as needed over time,” said Board Chair Alan Steinbrecher.
Lyle Moran is a freelance writer in San Diego who handles both journalism and content writing projects. He previously reported for the Los Angeles Daily Journal, San Diego Daily Transcript, Associated Press, and Lowell Sun. He can be reached at lmoransun@gmail.com and found on Twitter @lylemoran.