Vol. 30, No. 5, #6. Inward, Outward, Upward! Woodhouse is at the Helm of the Wyoming State Bar.

Wyoming Bar Journal

2007.

Vol. 30, No. 5, #6.

Inward, Outward, Upward! Woodhouse is at the Helm of the Wyoming State Bar

Wyoming Bar JournalVol. 30, No. 5, #6Issue: October, 2007Inward, Outward, Upward! Woodhouse is at the Helm of the Wyoming State BarAuthor: Mary Angell

Gay Woodhouse has a theme for her term as president of the Wyoming State Bar: "Inward, outward and upward."

First, she intends to look inward to the Bar by increasing the level of services it offers its members.

"We have a lot of sections: government lawyer sections, administrative law sections; tax sections," she told the Wyoming Lawyer recently. "The people who formed those sections knew how helpful they could be for people in the same area of law to share information and network, but we have not been providing the Bar support it needs."

Woodhouse hopes to increase activity within the various sections and improve communication using tools like free conference calls through the Bar.

The "outward" piece of her objective is to improve the public image of lawyers.

"I want to encourage and assist members to interact with schools and let people understand and be part of a trial system, understand how a trial works," she said.

"I want to try to raise the public's level of awareness about what lawyers do in our communities," she added. "There are a lot of lawyers who serve on community boards ---maybe more than any other professionals - and I want to make sure that is recognized and encouraged."

Many Wyoming lawyers work with organizations such as the local animal shelter or Meals on Wheels, Woodhouse said. She herself has served on the board of directors of Southeast Wyoming Mental Health, Attention Home, Cheyenne Rotary, and Pathfinder, which provides drug and alcohol addiction counseling. She has supported Attention Home, a crisis shelter for youth, and Safe Harbor, an advocacy center for child abuse victims. She was an organizer of the Wyoming's Silent Witness-Zero Domestic Violence by 2010 initiative and has supported other organizations that address domestic violence. Currently, Woodhouse helps people in 12-step recovery programs.

The biggest challenge facing attorneys today continues to be their negative public image, the belief that lawyers are shysters or jerks, she said. The profession is still the butt of insulting jokes.

"The truth of the matter is that...