Vol. 31, No. 5, #5. Leadership . . . Lavery Style.

• Author: Author: Mary L. Angell

Wyoming Bar Journal

2008.

Vol. 31, No. 5, #5.

Leadership . . . Lavery Style

Wyoming Bar Journal Issue: October, 2008 Author: Mary L. Angell Leadership . . . Lavery Style

The Wyoming State Bar's new president has an addiction. Evanston attorney Rick Lavery is hooked on power tools. He told the Wyoming Lawyer in a September interview that he didn't know shopping could be so much fun until he discovered Home Depot and Lowe's. His self-confessed love/hate relationship with home improvement projects has compelled him to re-do almost everything but the kitchen on the main floor of his home - from the molding and window trim to adding hard wood floors. "I'm very happy with how it turned out," he said. "Everything I did I had not done before."

Lavery has not served as Bar president before either, but he has a couple of fix-it projects in mind for his term. Like his home improvement projects, they may not include the kitchen sink, but he hopes to accomplish them with the same degree of success.

First and foremost, Lavery wants to establish a health insurance plan for Bar members.

"It's a gigantic thing for most members in small firms. The cost of continuing to insure themselves and their staffs is most often unbearable," he said. "We're working on that and hopefully we will achieve success."

He and the members of the Board are looking into establishing a Multiple Employer Welfare Arrangement (MEWA), which allows a group of employers in the same profession to collectively offer health insurance coverage to their employees. He's investigating whether the legal malpractice insurance company ALPS can create and administer the program.

"ALPS is a good organization that prides itself on maintaining low administrative costs," Lavery said.

He added the Idaho Bar just initiated a trust in July, so he's waiting to see how it works for its members; the Wyoming Bar may follow suit.

"The devil is in the details," he said. "First and foremost, we need to determine whether or not we have an actuarially sound group."

Another area of concern for Lavery is ensuring access to legal representation for Wyoming's low income citizens. He wants to coordinate all the areas that help provide legal services to the indigent: legal services, pro bono efforts and the Wyoming State Bar Foundation.

"I want an organized effort that will get lawyers to provide free and...