State Bar Head Faces Trial by Fire

Some of Colin Wied’s colleagues wonder why in the world he wants to be president of the State Bar. After all, they point out, life at the Bar hasn’t exactly been trouble-free of late.

For starters, there’s the attorney discipline problem. With the state Legislature threatening to take away lawyers’ self-policing powers, the Bar is under the gun to revamp its much-maligned system of weeding out unethical attorneys.

Also dogging the Bar is a dismal public image, and malpractice insurance rates have mushroomed out of control. Finally, a state-appointed watchdog churns out frequent, scathing reports detailing these woes for all to see.

“There’s an awful lot of pressure on the Bar right now, and I don’t envy Colin at all,” said San Diego Superior Court Judge Kevin Midlam, an acquaintance of Wied’s. “He’s got a tough job ahead of him.”

Saturday, Wied, 53, was formally elected president by the Bar’s Board of Governors at a special meeting in San Francisco. He ran unopposed and will replace San Mateo attorney Terry Anderlini when he takes office at the Bar’s annual meeting Sept. 23. The president’s term is one year.

Wied doesn’t seem worried. Indeed, the slender, soft-spoken business law attorney from San Diego seems downright inspired by the challenge of serving as State Bar president.

“Certainly, there are a lot of pressing problems on the agenda,” Wied said in a recent interview. “But I feel we’re right on the verge of solving some of them and it’s a terrific honor to be selected for this position.”

Most recently, Wied has been vice president and treasurer of the State Bar, serving as chairman of its Administration and Finance Committee. He was active in hammering out a controversial proposal to raise annual dues to $470 to fund improvements in the attorney discipline system and has worked on a plan to bring malpractice insurance rates under control.

Wied conceded that his term as president is likely to be a tumultuous one.

Wied said his first priority will be to carry out the far-reaching discipline system improvements recommended by State Bar Monitor Robert C. Fellmeth. Fellmeth has harshly criticized the system in a series of reports, noting that its massive backlog of consumer complaints causes intolerable delays in reprimanding attorneys whose conduct deserves prompt attention.

Perhaps the most important of these changes involves the creation of a panel of 11 administrative-law judges to decide disciplinary cases and a three-person appellate court to handle appeals.

These judges will replace a sometimes unreliable army of volunteer attorneys whose verdicts have been criticized as inconsistent.

Other reforms include hiring more investigators to reduce workloads and upgrading pay to attract qualified people and improve morale. Nearly all of the improvements are contingent on passage of pending legislation.

Improving Competence

Another issue Wied hopes to address during his tenure is improving the competence of California’s 110,000 attorneys. Despite the high degree of specialization that characterizes the profession today, Wied said, “half the attorneys in the state are practicing in these specialty Bars without any training whatsoever.”

“I’m not talking esoteric things here, but basic skills that you really don’t learn in law school, like drafting a will or a durable power of attorney,” Wied said.

Wied also said he wants the Bar to pursue improved delivery of legal services to middle-income clients and mount an education campaign to stem the erosion of public confidence in the legal system.

Wied, of Mission Hills, is former Navy flier who retired as a captain in the Judge Advocate General Corps. He received a law degree from UC Berkeley’s Boalt Hall in 1964. His law practice, Wied & Smelko, focuses on business reorganization and bankruptcy.

Daniel Tobin, a La Mesa attorney and fellow Navy man who bumps into Wied at the local Navy Exchange from time to time, said his old friend is a natural for the Bar presidency at this time.

“Candidly, I don’t think there’s a person in the state that’s had more involvement overall in all aspects of Bar work,” Tobin said. “Colin is the type of person the Bar needs at this time. When he identifies an issue he feels needs to be addressed, he is very, very persistent until he pushes it to resolution.”