DiMuro looks back at his year as VSB head

By Dawn Chase, Virginia Lawyers Weekly, Page B-3, June 30, 2003

When Alexandria lawyer Bernard J. DiMuro took the oath as Virginia State Bar president last year, one of his goals was to educate the non-lawyers in the General Assembly about judicial independence. 

A year before, that seemed an academic issue, more or less.  Sure, in early 2002 an Alexandria judge up for reelection had been interrogated for 1 ¼ hours  by the then speaker of the House of Delegates about a ruling in a gun-control case.

Ultimately, the judge was reelected, the speaker departed the General Assembly and DiMuro hoped the confrontation was an isolated incident.

Taking a scholarly approach, he educated himself about the historical and constitutional underpinnings of judicial independence and how independence must be balanced by judicial responsibility.

With the help of two lawyers from his office, he produced a paper on the subject, which he presented to the “Presidents’ Council” – a group consisting of the leaders of statewide bar groups – with the intention of eventually distributing it to the legislature.

Then, during this winter, all that academic research was put to immediate, practical use.  Court of Appeals Judge Rosemarie P. Annunziata, up for reelection, was put on hold and removed from the ballot after an interview in which lawyer-legislators grilled her about her minority opinion in a custody case involving a lesbian mother.

Bar leaders discussed how to respond.  DiMuro, a plaintiff’s attorney, is not adverse to a street fight now and then, and some in the group wanted to take an aggressive approach with the lawmakers.

But DiMuro listened to the seasoned lobbyists in the group, who urged a less confrontational response.  As head of the only bar every Virginia lawyer is required to belong to, he guided the bar leaders in that direction.

He already had offered his judicial independence “white paper” for endorsement by the Presidents’ Council, which signed off on it and sent it to state legislators.  Thus, the bar initiated an educational effort with a unified voice.

Annunziata was given a second interview; DiMuro and other bar leaders attended, expressing their support of her in a way that did not accuse legislators and that acknowledged the General Assembly’s role as the hirer and firer of judges.

The outcome?

Annunziata was reelected.

Key members of the House and Senate Courts of Justice committees met with the bar leaders to outline how they intend to exercisxe their judicial appointment responsibilities.

Legislative leaders promised they would work out kinks in the system as best they can, but they stressed that they cannot stifle an individual lawmaker’s inquiries.

Frank A. Thomas Ill, president of the Virginia  Bar Association, remarked later that the bar leaders got a s close as you’ll never get to a mea culpa from the “legislature.”

DiMuro’s take on the results?  “We educated the GA and we increased their awareness about the importance of the issue,” he said.  “I think they were a little surprised at how upset the members of the judiciary, the members of the bar and others were that the General Assembly wasn’t treating the third branch of the government with respect.”

Virginia is one of a handful of states in which the legislature elects judges, DiMuro said.   “This is a tremendous power that the members of the legislature have, and they need to exercise it, quote unquote, judiciously.

Other significant events during DiMuro’s year include:

• The VSB took on two big Richmond personal injury firms over their advertising. Allen, Allen,Allen and Allen sued after a legal advertising opinion deemed its ads, which cite some Allen lawyers’ listing in the book Best Lawyers in America, were unethical.
  
  And on June 17 a VSB district disciplinary committee held a hearing over charges that two Marks & Harrison lawyers broke the rule with the firm’s on-running ads featuring actor  Robert Vaughn.
  
  “Advertising will continue to be a tension,… between those who think there should be no restriction and those who abhor advertising,” DiMuro said.
  

• The VSB upped is support of Lawyers Helping Lawyers, a substance abuse program, form %50,000 a year to $???.  DiMuro, an ongoing supporter of LHL, hade pushed for the increase.
  
• Despite the lean times in state finances, the VSB got its full budget request – but not without some challenges from legislators.
  
  ”I learned a lot about the public sector budgetary process,” DiMuro said.  “Public sector budgets are focused more on limiting expense without looking at the quality of the productivity that you get from hiring support staff and specialists.”
  
• American National Lawyers Insurance Reciprocal – until a couple of years ago the VSB’s endorsed legal malpractice insurer – we3nt belly up after its reinsurer, Reciprocal of America, went into receivership.  The company now is in liquidation in Tennessee, where it was chartered.

By the time that happened, the bar had switched its endorsement to Attorneys Liability Protection Society.

While DiMuro says the bar made the change as early as it could, it could take a lesson from the ANLIR experience if it continues to endorse insurance providers.

“The oversight can always be improved,” he said.  “To the extent that we have oversight, it should be by lawyers that are disinterested from the carrier Disinterested means that they aren’t defense counsel” working for the carrier, he said.

He also suggested that the bar volunteers involved with monitoring the endorsed carrier no longer be “brought to the meetings at the carrier’s expense.  I’m not sure that is a process we’ll ever get back into.”

“I regret that many of our members face claims made against them, 90 percent of which they probably will prevail on.  I regret that many of our members are without,” DiMuro said.  “We’ve done  our best to answer questions.”

DiMuro said there were two highlights to this year.

One was speaking at the investiture of Leroy Rountree Hassell Sr. as Virginia’s chief justice.  The invitation “put the state bar at the podium with the governor and the speaker of the house” As VSB president, he was the voice of the judiciary, he said.

The other was speaking at the Appalachian School of Law, where he received a warm welcome and big turnout.  The students are “all so obviously delighted to be in law school,” he said.

After his talk, a member of the audience approached to thank him.  “We had F. Lee Bailey last year, and you were better, or at least less egotistical,” the person said.

Reflecting on his year, DiMuro said, “It’s been delightful.  I wouldn’t trade it for anything.  It caps everything I’ve wanted to do for the profession.

“It’s somewhat disappointing that you realize at the end of the year that you didn’t get everything done that you wanted to do.  You didn’t move the ship as much as you wanted,” he said.