Today, the California State Bar becomes subject to the Bagley-Keene Open Meeting Act (Cal. Gov’t Gov’t Code § 11120 et seq. ).  The Bagley-Keene Act generally requires multimember state bodies to provide public notice of their meetings, prepare agendas, accept public testimony and conduct their meetings in public unless specifically authorized by the Act to meet in closed session.  Previously, the legislature had required the State Bar make its open meeting requirements consistent with the Bagley-Keene Act.  Apparently concluding that the State Bar had failed to do so, the legislature last year enacted legislation that specifically subjects the State Bar to the Bagley-Keene Act starting today.  Cal. Bus. & Prof. Code § 6026.7 (added by Stats. 2015, ch. 537 (SB 387)).

The California State Bar is technically a public corporation.  Cal. Bus. & Prof. Code § 6001.  To practice law in California, lawyers must be an active member of the State Bar.  Cal. Bus. & Prof. Code § 6125.  The State Bar performs a number of functions, including attorney discipline.  The State Bar also operates 16 voluntary sections dedicated to various legal areas.  Each section is governed by an executive committee appointed by the State Bar Board of Trustees.  Several years ago, I was a member of the Executive Committee of the Business Law Section.  Sections often operate through various standing committees. For example, the Business Law Section has a Corporations Committee, a committee for which I once served as a co-chair.  These standing committees undertake a number of projects, including commenting on legislation, proposed regulations, and even drafting proposed legislation.  In 1971, Corporations Committee Chairman Anthony R. Pierno originated the idea of completely rewriting California’s corporation law.  The result was the current General Corporation Law.

The application of the Bagley-Keene Act to the State Bar, its sections and their standing committees has created mass turmoil.  Committee members are concerned that adherence to the Bagley-Keene Act requirements could jeopardize attorney-client confidentiality.  As a result, I’ve heard that some committee members have resigned and some committees are electing to “go dark”.  The lawyers who work on these committees do so as volunteers and contribute their time and expertise to the improvement of California law.

I have also learned that a group of former Chairs and Vice-Chairs of the Business Law Section, various Standing Committees of the Business Law Section and the Council of State Bar Sections have formed the California Lawyers Guild, a California nonprofit mutual benefit corporation (and an entity that is a 501(c)(6) business league), to provide “a potential home for the work of all of the Sections, including the Business Law Section, by creating a voluntary, statewide bar association in California”.  While it is a shame that the work of the State Bar Sections has been thrown into confusion, it may be that a voluntary association of lawyers will be able to carry on the tradition of the Sections.