For immediate release June 2008
Inside Business publishes article recognizing Howard W. Martin and Donald C. Schultz.
Issue Date: Week of June 9 2008, Posted On: 6/6/2008Raising the bar: Don Schultz and Howard Martin
Two bar presidents reflect on their terms
PHILIP NEWSWANGER
They both practice law at the same law firm, Crenshaw, Ware & Martin. They both attended the University of Virginia and Washington and Lee University. They both served as president of the Norfolk-Portsmouth Bar Association.
And in the past year, while one served as president of the Virginia State Bar, the other was president of the Norfolk-Portsmouth Bar Association.
Neither one believes that two lawyers from the same law firm have ever served as president of the Norfolk-Portsmouth Bar Association and the Virginia State Bar at the same time.
Howard Martin, a partner with Crenshaw, Ware & Martin, will finish his term as president of the Virginia State Bar in June.
The VSB is an arm of the Virginia Supreme Court. It regulates the legal profession in Virginia by disciplining attorneys, improves the legal and judicial system in the state, and tries to improve the availability of legal services to those who can’t afford it.
As president, Martin managed the transition of the leadership of the state bar, from one executive director, who retired after 18 years, to another executive director, a Richmond lawyer and a past president of the bar. Martin spends about 20 to 25 hours a week on bar issues, most of that traveling across the state and to other states.
While the appointment of a new director was paramount for Martin, two issues still are pending. Martin wanted to make malpractice insurance mandatory for attorneys in Virginia and he wanted to see random audits of client trust accounts, which are the accounts that attorneys keep for clients.
Don Schultz, a partner with Crenshaw, Ware & Martin, just finished his 12-month stint as president of the Norfolk-Portsmouth Bar Association in April.
Schultz was an activist president and wasted no time in adopting issues of concern to his association. He championed a new court complex for Norfolk and pushed hard for Norfolk City Council to accept the bar’s concerns about safety for the judges and for the public.
In response, the city pledged $108 million over the next three budgets for the court complex, which will combine General, Circuit, and Juvenile and Domestic courts.
Schultz also stumped for judicial independence. Schultz believes that the selection of judges should be free of politics, or as much as possible.
The issue was raised after local Democratic lawmakers decided not to reappoint Judge Charles Griffith, a Republican, to another term as Norfolk Circuit Court after eight years on the bench.
Howard Martin
Partner,
Crenshaw, Ware & Martin
President of Virginia State Bar, 2007-2008
Born: 1942, Norfolk.
Education: Washington and Lee University, BS in business administration, 1964; University of Virginia, LLB, 1967.
Career: U.S. Navy, 1967 to 1972; Crenshaw, Ware & Martin, 1972 to present.
What were your duties and responsibilities as president of the state bar?
Essentially, we have a number of executive committee meetings and bar council meetings. The bar council is the governing body of the bar. It is composed of about 75 lawyers across the state and those bar council members are elected by attorneys in the state. On three occasions throughout the year, we get together and resolve policy issues relating to the activities of the state bar.
Meanwhile, we have executive committee meetings – maybe half a dozen of those a year – and it’s my responsibility to chair the bar council meetings and the executive committee meetings.
In addition, if issues related to the bar come to public attention, I am often the person called on to work with the news media and would respond on behalf of the bar.
How many members belong to the state bar?
27,500 active members.
What is the mission of the Virginia State Bar?
Basically, the bar has three missions. The most important is regulation of the legal profession in Virginia – in other words, the disciplinary system for dealing with attorneys who have problems with the rules of conduct. A second mission is to improve the legal system and the judicial system in the commonwealth of Virginia. The third is to try to improve the availability of legal services to those in the commonwealth who cannot afford legal services.
How many hours do you spend working on bar issues?
I would say I spend 20 to 25 hours a week dealing with bar activities. Some of that involves travel within the state as well as out of the state. But I would say my service as president of the bar has had a dramatic impact on my ability to do legal work for my clients. I continue to do that but not in the same volume as I did in prior years.
Name some initiatives the bar undertook while you were president.
We had an executive director who had been with us for 18 years, Tom Edmonds. And Tom was acknowledged in the nation as the best executive director of any state bar.
He retired, so we knew we had to replace him and we ended up carrying out a very successful search and hired a Virginia lawyer, in fact, a lawyer who had been the immediate past president, in other words someone who had my role at the state bar. That’s Karen Gould. She’s a Richmond attorney. In December she took over as executive director. She’s an excellent executive director.
We also put into effect this year an increase in the contributions to the client protection fund. We have a fund that a year or so ago consisted of $3 million that we use when people have assets taken by lawyers in a dishonest way. The CPF is able to step in and sometimes give them compensation for their losses.
We had an actuarial study done some years ago that said that fund should be closer to $9 million. So we went through the legislature and had an assessment imposed by statute. So now lawyers pay $25 per year. That enhances the Client Protection Fund by about $700,000 a year. So in another six to eight years we will be at that actuarial target, close to $9 million. But it’s got over $4 million in it now.
We had some lingering issues that we are still dealing with. One of them is mandatory malpractice insurance, whether to practice law in Virginia you must have malpractice insurance. It’s not the case today. It’s not the case in most states. In fact in Virginia, 90 percent of the lawyers do have malpractice insurance. But we’re looking at the question of whether we ought to require that in the state.
Another thing that has gotten some attention this year and that we’re trying to deal with is the question of whether attorney trust accounts should be audited on a random basis. We have had several instances in the last two to three years where attorneys have violated rules of conduct, they have ended up misappropriating millions of dollars of client money.
Do you have any final comments about the bar, your career or the profession?
The bar is an arm of the Supreme Court of Virginia. In the United Sates I think it is deemed to be one of the leading bar groups. Often I hear that when another state is considering a particular program, they will want to hear what Virginia is doing on that topic. These 27,500 lawyers who are in active practice in Virginia I think are a wonderful group of people. One of the great benefits in being president is meeting with and working with these attorneys.
They render so much valuable volunteer time for the good of the bar, for the good of the communities that they live in, for the good of the public in terms of pro bono work and ensuring access to legal services to the underrepresented. It is really heartwarming to see the volunteer effort.
Don Schultz
Partner,
Crenshaw, Ware & Martin
President of Norfolk-Portsmouth
Bar Association, 2007-2008
Born: 1964, Alexandria.
Education: University of Virginia, BA, history, 1986; Washington and Lee University School of Law, JD, 1989.
Career: Law clerk to Blackwell N. Shelley, bankruptcy judge for the Eastern District of Virginia; Kaufman & Canoles, September 1990; Crenshaw, Ware & Martin, November 1993 to present.
What were your duties and responsibilities as president of the Norfolk-Portsmouth Bar Association?
To promote the interests of the profession according to our charter. According to the charter, the Norfolk-Portsmouth Bar Association was formed “for the purpose of cultivating and advancing the science of jurisprudence, promoting reform in the law and in judicial procedure, facilitating the administration of justice, and upholding and elevating the standard of honor, integrity and courtesy in the legal profession.”
That description has stood the test of time well. I couldn’t improve on it.
We promote a variety of programs, such as the Mock Trial Program for local youth. We host seminars such as the annual Bench-Bar Conference and the Law School for Journalists. We offer continuing legal education courses to our members.
We foster collegiality through monthly lunch meetings, committee work and special events such as our annual golf tournament. The interaction of lawyers and judges is good for the public that utilizes our services. When attorneys and judges know each other well and respect each other, unnecessary conflict can be minimized. This is a great benefit to the public that relies upon a well-functioning system.
The association also evaluates candidates for judicial vacancies and provides these evaluations to the General Assembly.
I also wrote a column for our newsletter every two months and tried to give our members something interesting to think about. There’s a fair degree of pressure involved when your audience is a bunch of lawyers.
How many members in the Norfolk Portsmouth Bar Association?
900. Our all-time high was over 1,000 members.
Name some initiatives the association undertook while you were president.
The association has taken, and will continue to take, an active role in supporting the new Norfolk courthouse project. The association is the appropriate vehicle to articulate the concerns of the judges and lawyers to City Council and the public at large. We have written letters to Norfolk City Council members. We have attended budget meetings. We have invited the mayor to speak to the association about the courthouse project. This project is the largest ever undertaken by the city and we believe that input from the association is vital to the success of the project.
Additionally, the association has promoted the idea of merit as the chief criteria for the selection of judges. As president, I wrote a letter to members of the General Assembly supporting a fair process, based on merit, for the re-appointment of Judge [Charles] Griffith. I believe that the process for appointing and re-appointing judges in Virginia should focus more on the merit of the candidate and less upon political considerations. The General Assembly has yet to fill three judgeships in Norfolk. I do not believe the current system is serving us well.
I believe that the association must have a strong voice in the selection of judges. In my view, the input of the association needs to be integral to the process of selecting judges. The association’s recommendations and endorsements should be given more weight. The association must work closely with legislators to be a valuable resource.
The association’s biggest success this past year was in involving our membership in these issues. My mantra was that we need to be much more than a lunch club. For the association to be relevant, this must continue.
How does the Norfolk-Portsmouth Bar Association work with other bar associations and are associations waning or increasing?
There are more bar associations functioning than ever, which is a good sign. The Virginia Beach Bar Association has over 600 members. We don’t work together as much as I would like.
Is there any thought to merging the two bars?
No. Each one has its individual character and is worthy of preserving. I do envision, however, co-sponsoring more events and projects in the future.
Do you have any other comments about the bar association, your career or the profession?
I am very fortunate to practice law in a firm, Crenshaw, Ware & Martin, that places such a great weight on service to the bar and the community. I am the fourth member of my firm to hold the office of president of the Norfolk-Portsmouth Bar Association. Unfortunately, more and more law firms are de-emphasizing participation in bar and civic activities because these activities don’t contribute to the bottom line. This is a disturbing trend because lawyers have traditionally been looked to as leaders in society.
Society would be worse off if lawyers stopped contributing their time and talents to civic affairs and bar associations.
