Vol. 32, No. 1, 1. Executive Director's Report.

• Author: By Sleeter C. Dover, Esq.

Wyoming Bar Journal

2009.

Vol. 32, No. 1, 1.

Executive Director's Report

Wyoming LawyerIssue: February, 2009EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR'S REPORTBy Sleeter C. Dover, Esq.New Year, New Rules

The generational demographics of the Wyoming State Bar indicate that 69% (2,065) of our members were born between 1922 and 1964. Of this group, 80% (1,646) are male and 20% (419) are female. Now I do not profess to be an actuary, but from anecdotal evidence, I am fairly confident that the 80% male population of our Bar born between l922 and 1964 is rapidly approaching, actuarially, a rather precarious stage of our lives. You may be interested to know that nationally, the ABA demographics are fairly representative of our own. For the record, the remaining contingents in the Wyoming State Bar, Generation X'ers, born between 1965 and 1980, come in at a total of 897 and they are followed by the Generation Y group (born between 1981 and 2000) totaling 39 members. (See the accompanying Wyoming State Bar Generational Demographics chart to delve further into the characteristics of each group).

Having set the "demographic table," so to speak, I now direct your attention to the newly approved and published (effective January 1, 2009) Wyoming Supreme Court Rules, and will attempt to outline some of the reasons and rationales that went into the deliberations of the Officers and Commissioners as they considered these rules changes.

Wyoming State Bar Bylaws - Membership

Article I, Section 3 (status of membership) of the Wyoming State Bar Bylaws have been completely rewritten. These changes were needed for clarification and consistency. The new bylaws make it clear as to each category of membership: the criteria, the license fee, the CLE requirements, how long a member can remain in a particular status, and what one must do to transfer back to active status from each class. In addition, the newly created status of "honorary retired" and "incapacitated" have been added. "Honorary retired" was added because retired members of the judiciary previously did not fit into any other category. The new status of "incapacitated" replaces the prior disciplinary category of "disability inactive" status. (Disciplinary Code, Section 15 is repealed). The intent here is to provide a mechanism for removing from active practice attorneys who, for whatever reason, should not...