Maryland Bar
Bulletin
Publications :
Bar Bulletin |
July, 2004 |
New MSBA President Continues MSBA'S
Role as Effective Resource
By Janet
Stidman Eveleth
 |
|
CORNELIUS D. HELFRICH
111th President of the
Maryland State Bar Association |
“I am truly honored to
stand before you as President,” proclaimed Cornelius D. Helfrich as he
assumed the Maryland State Bar Association’s (MSBA) top leadership post on
June 19, 2004, during the Association’s Annual Meeting in Ocean City,
Maryland. Helfrich, a solo practitioner, is the first President from
Harford County in 104 years and the first true “solo” to serve as MSBA’s
leader in 12 years.
“I am conscious of how few
solo and small firm attorneys have stood here as President in recent
years,” MSBA’s new leader stated. “By choice, I have been a solo
practitioner almost my entire career. I chose to work my practice around
my family’s needs.”
“I ran for Secretary of the
Association because I believed MSBA would be better served if someone who
shared a similar background to 65 percent of our members was in a position
to speak on their behalf,” Helfrich continued. “I ran for President-Elect
because I believed I could serve as another example of our Association’s
commitment to diversity. For those attorneys like myself who are solo
practitioners or from a small county, my Presidency shows that
similarly-situated attorneys can contribute to the Association and be
recognized and rewarded for their efforts based on their merits.”
As he addressed the
audience of judges, attorneys and colleagues during MSBA’s Business
Meeting, Helfrich announced that “a President’s real role is to make sure
the Association continues moving forward in the same general direction
that it has been heading.” This is the President’s goal for the coming
year as he promotes MSBA’s array of valuable membership resources and
advances the Association’s role as an effective resource for the legal
community, the legislature, government agencies and the public.
Helfrich will serve as
MSBA’s President for the next 12 months and work with newly-elected MSBA
officers: President-Elect J. Michael Conroy, Jr., a partner in the
Montgomery County law firm of Pasternak & Fidis, PC; Treasurer Edward J.
Gilliss, a partner in the Baltimore County law firm Royston, Mueller,
McLean & Reid, LLP; and Secretary Alison L. Asti, Interim Executive
Director of the Maryland Stadium Authority.
Working with this leadership team, the new bar leader will focus on
technology, legislation, ADR, member services and greater diversity within
MSBA. Tort reform, pro bono service, the special needs of solo and small
firm practitioners and helping attorneys effectively serve their clients
are all on Helfrich’s agenda this year. His plans include educating the
public and enhancing its confidence in the legal system and initiating a
concerted effort to increase MSBA’s membership.
Helfrich’s key focal points
will include legislation and administrative rulemaking. In particular, the
President wants the Association to be more involved in the administrative
rulemaking process. “We have not been involved in this in the past, so we
will need to develop a process to evaluate proposed regulations and make
recommendations to the Board of Governors about positions MSBA should take
as an Association with regard to proposed regulations,” he explained. “By
the time I leave office, I expect to have in place a process so that
everyone knows how the Association deals with the administrative
rulemaking issues that fill up page after page of the Maryland Register.”
Another of Helfrich’s
focuses will be pro bono service. “MSBA is solidly behind providing
pro-bono assistance to less fortunate people,” he said. Citing a line from
a high school poem (“how low or how high in the world he may be/we give
something more than we take”), Helfrich noted “this is the essence of
pro-bono work and, in turn, the whole concept of pro-bono work: helping
those who are less fortunate feeds into the concept of ‘With liberty and
justice for all.’”
“We will encourage the
recruiting and training of pro-bono attorneys,” he continued. “I have
always supported pro bono service. If poor persons do not have access to
attorneys, there is going to be precious little justice for them when they
get caught up in the legal system.” As Helfrich noted, however, “It is
apparent that the effort to assist persons of low income with access to
justice is a burden Maryland attorneys cannot carry alone. It is a
societal problem, and I plan to point this out.
“We will also be making a
real effort to increase the Bar’s awareness of the best practices in
Alternative Dispute Resolution. ADR is very successfully practiced in the
family law area in state district courts and a variety of other settings,
including Probate Caveat proceedings. It is a trend that is gaining
momentum with the potential to catch many of us unaware when it explodes
onto the scene with all-encompassing pervasiveness.”
Helfrich then spoke of the
Association’s future. “This year, I plan to assist MSBA in determining
exactly where it will be in five and even 10 years,” he said. To this end,
he will convene a long-range planning conference “where leading attorneys
around the state delve into key areas that affect MSBA to project where we
should be as an Association five to 10 years down the road.” He expects
technology, bundled and unbundled legal services, the unauthorized
practice of law, ADR and the future location of MSBA’s headquarters to be
examined.
Finally, MSBA’s new
President exclaimed, “With the help, insight and support of our members
and staff, we can make marvelous things happen this year. I am looking
forward to working with all of you this year. Thank you very much for
electing me as your President. When it comes to the end of my year and I
think about how I would like to be remembered, I would like you to
remember me as someone who worked hard and played hard and gave 110
percent to a make the Maryland State Bar Association a better
Association.”
