Separation of the Sections from the State Bar

• Jurisdiction: California,United States
• Author: By Betty J. Williams
• Citation: Vol. 26 No. 1
• Publication year: 2017

Separation of the Sections from the State Bar

By Betty J. Williams

As this edition was about to go to print, I asked the Editor in Chief for additional space to share an important update concerning the inevitable separation of the sections from the State Bar. I have been involved with the Council of Sections (comprised of the Chair and sometimes past-Chair of each of the 16 practice group Sections of the State Bar) and have participated in countless conference calls and in-person meetings concerning the future of the Sections. These meetings have included members of the State Bar's executive staff, Sections' support staff, the Board of Trustees, and the press.

The Taxation Section voted early on to join the vote of the Business Law Section to separate from the bar. It became clear to the Taxation Section Executive Committee that the State Bar's Executive Director, Elizabeth Parker, and Chief Operating Officer, Leah Wilson, were taking actions consistent with their intent to separate the Sections from the State Bar without our input. In addition to the Bagley-Keene Open Meeting Act compliance minutia and headache affecting our leadership of the various volunteer projects offered by the Taxation Section, we were suddenly prohibited from completing our contracts entered into with various vendors for our 2016 Annual Meeting of the California Tax Bar and California Tax Policy Conference, due to the...