BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SB 387
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Date of Hearing: August 19, 2015
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Jimmy Gomez, Chair
SB 387
(Jackson) - As Amended July 15, 2015
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Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program: NoReimbursable: No
SUMMARY:
This bill maintains attorney license fees at the current level
for one year and requires the California State Auditor (CSA) to
conduct a financial audit of the State Bar. Specifically, this
bill:
SB 387
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1)Reauthorizes the State Bar to collect up to $390 for active
membership dues for the year 2016.
2)Requires the State Bar to contract with the CSA for a
financial audit, including an audit of the Bar's financial
statement, internal controls, and relevant management
practices. All costs to the CSA are to be reimbursed by the
State Bar.
3)Requires that the audit be submitted to the Chief Justice and
to the Assembly and Senate Judiciary Committees by May 15,
2016.
4)Requires the State Bar to develop and implement a workplace
plan for its discipline system and conduct a public sector
compensation and benefits study, including a recommendation
for an appropriate backlog goal and an assessment of staffing
needed to achieve that goal.
FISCAL EFFECT:
The CSA will incur one-time costs of around $275,000 for the
audit, to be reimbursed by the Bar.
COMMENTS:
1)Background. Attorneys who wish to practice law in California
generally must be admitted and licensed in this state and must
be a member of the State Bar. As of July 2015, the State Bar
had 185,510 active members and 55,074 inactive members. By
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statute, the Bar's highest priority is protection of the
public.
California, like 30 other states, has a unified bar, which
means that the State Bar is both the regulatory arm of the
state, as well as an attorney trade association. Attorneys
who wish to practice law in this state must join the Bar and
their dues cover both the regulatory arm and the trade
association. This bill authorizes the State Bar to collect
active membership dues of up to $390 for the year 2016-the
same as for 2015. The Bar's programs are financed almost
exclusively by annual membership dues paid by attorneys, as
well as other fees paid by applicants seeking to practice law.
2)Recent State Audit. As required by statute, the State Auditor
completes a performance audit of the Bar every two years.
This year, the State Auditor chose to review the Bar's
discipline process, in particular its backlog of discipline
cases, and the Bar's recent $75 million purchase and
renovation of a building in Los Angeles.
With regard to discipline cases, the Auditor found that the
Bar has continued to underreport its backlog of such cases and
case processing times, and as the Bar reduced its excessive
backlog, the severity of discipline imposed on attorneys
decreased. With regard to the building, the Auditor found that
the Bar spent $76.6 million to purchase the building, even
though four months prior to the purchase, the Bar informed the
Legislature that the building would cost only $26 million. The
audit indicates that the Bar, in part, covered this funding
shortfall through an inappropriate use of other fund sources.
The Auditor made a number of recommendations to the Bar and
the Legislature, and this bill, as recently amended,
implements those recommendations requiring legislative action.
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3)Opposition. The Center of Public Interest Law (CPIL) argues
that the bill should also be amended to reorganize the State
Bar's Board of Trustees to have a public member supermajority
or to create a state entity to review, revise, amend or reject
any of the Bar's or the Board's decisions that have a
anticompetitive impact; and to require the Bar to fully comply
with both the Bagley-Keene Act and the Public Records Act.
Analysis Prepared by:Chuck Nicol / APPR. / (916)
319-2081