Keith Belzer - LaCrosse staff Public Defender for 8 years; private attorney for 3 years;
Anthony Delyea - Madison, private attorney for 2 years;
Mark Hersh - Milwaukee, private attorney for 7 years;
Craig Mastantuono - Waukesha staff Public Defender for 7 years; private attorney for 4 years;
Robert Henak - Milwaukee, private appellate attorney for 16 years; New York Public Defender for 6 years;
Geneva McKinley - Milwaukee, private attorney for 9 years;
Deborah Smith - new Assigned Counsel Director since September, 2002.

Materials:

Private Bar Focus Group - feedback from that August 22, 2002 meeting

Strategic Objectives/Action Plans

Chart showing Percentage of Online Billing - 43% of all private attorneys are signed up for the online billing system. Of the top 50 billers, 56% are signed up. All online bills will be paid within 10 working days of receipt in Madison. New online system is well received, after receiving feedback and testing from private bar users.

Private Bar Recruitment/Retention Efforts - Lost a number of attorneys since the private bar rate was cut in 1995. Parts of the state are very hard pressed. Trying to recruit attorneys to take cases. Efforts we have focused on: Brief Bank on the SPD website. Assigned Counsel Division is working on a searchable list of experts which will be put on the webpage in the next few months. Providing discounts on the registration fee at the Fall SPD conference to attorneys who take a large volume of SPD cases. The SPD Training Division has provided several TPR training sessions around the state over the past year. Provide improved customer services and communication with the private bar by email on the latest budget issues and online billing system, etc. We have redesigned the ACD webpage. One section, the ACD News, will recognize achievements of private bar members.

Chart showing the Net Gain of attorneys signing up to take SPD cases and the certification case types since March 2003. New grads are currently signing up and several attorneys from Milwaukee law firms are doing pro-bono work.

What the Committee Hopes to Accomplish:

Nicholas Chiarkas, the State Public Defender, joined the group thanking everyone for their time and echoed that the agency is behind the private bar and that he will be following up with Deb on the issues raised at today's meeting.

This committee should be pro-active and positive. Need to figure out how often to meet and what impact we can have with limited volunteer resources.

Everyone on the committee is committed to criminal defense. Why do we take cases? One reason is for the income and the other is an ethical and moral commitment. We need to encourage both groups.

How much time should we devote to state-wide issues vs. local office issues? Working through local office issues you learn new ways of handling other issues.

There are two issues: functional and focus group issues. Communication needs to improve between staff and the private bar, to become a partnership. It's not an "us" vs. "them". Private bar feels they are perceived as slave labor.

Look at the feedback from the Private Bar Focus Group and the Recruitment/Retention plan. This is a good starting point. Need to identify the issues and work through them with staff and private bar. Consensus/approval from the group.

Deb invited all committee members and other private attorneys to contact her directly with questions. The Assigned Counsel Division wants to be responsive to your needs.

The committee agreed to meet quarterly by telephone with an in-person meeting at the fall SPD Conference in October. Mary Gold will prepare the minutes to be distributed to the committee and set up the next meeting.

General Discussion Issues

Can private bar hire an intern or law clerk to do some legal research?
On a limited case-by-case basis this may be approved.

Homicide cases by a solo/small law firm are very difficult. Co-counsel on homicide cases would be preferred, but SPD has a policy of not appointing co-counsel to handle homicides. ACD will work with the committee to find ways to try to address this issue.

Is a listserve a possibility at the SPD? Deb will check with IT staff to see about the possibility. With budget constraints, and limited IT staff available, resources need to be prioritized and would need to be carefully monitored. Deb will report back to group on this issue.

Provide training to private attorneys for free/reduced rates. Going to Trial Skills training is very costly to private attorneys. Need to set up a mentoring/training program for new, inexperienced attorneys taking SPD cases. Need to provide time to take their phone calls. The State Bar could be doing more for new attorneys/small firms. They have more resources than the SPD. We need to have a support network to help us out on scheduling, juggling all our cases, etc. A suggestion was made that the survey could go to a new attorney's first 20 clients for feedback.

Collect calls are a problem state-wide. Rock and LaCrosse counties have system set up to have clients call their attorneys. Madison Trial is currently working on having a few private attorneys participate in a pilot program in Madison.

Contracting:
Contract cases don't get reimbursed for collect calls and is a problem for in-custody cases. Need to look at the current policy for contracts to see if some expenses can be allowed for contract cases in the future. In Milwaukee County contract attorneys handle intake duties frequently. Parity issue on intake in Milwaukee County vs. rest of the state. Some contract attorneys are spending a significant amount of time on contract cases before withdrawal and not getting paid. Deb promised to review this policy with Assigned Counsel Division staff.

Recognition of private bar attorney work. Newsletter, possibly years of service recognition like staff get.

Milwaukee County Issues: Staff has ID badges to avoid some security hassles, but private bar does not. Staff has access to some conference rooms in courthouse, but private bar does not. Question was raised if a private attorney could be reimbursed for their time in defending themselves against OLR complaints. SPD staff is able to have other staff represent them on OLR complaints. Deb will explore this with the committee.

Meeting adjourned at 11:30 am.