The State Bar Association of North Dakota Spring 2015 Gavel Magazine | Page 2

SBAND PRESIDENT
another way to serve all of North Dakota.

JACK McDONALD
SBAND President
It’s been a distinct pleasure to serve as
president of the State Bar Association of
North Dakota this past year and to work for
and with so many fine North Dakota lawyers.
One of the eye openers for me in this position
was the realization of how many lawyers
we now have in the state working in nontraditional lawyer jobs; i.e. positions outside of
law firms, private practice or government law.
I don’t believe there’s ever been a time in
North Dakota when we’ve had so many
attorneys working in these areas. No matter
where you look, you see attorneys working
in private businesses, nonprofits, banks,
development companies, home construction,
hospital management, private foundations,
association management and a myriad of
other areas. You name an area and you will
likely see an attorney involved.
Equally impressive is the number of attorneys
throughout the state working with non-law
related community benefit and volunteer
activities. A very real way for the legal
profession to give back to the community and
the state.
We have several attorneys serving in elective
office on the state and federal level, and we
had a high-water mark of 10 attorneys in the
recently adjourned 65th Legislative Assembly.
I hope that the number of attorney-legislators
continues to grow. An attorney’s training,
I believe, makes them uniquely well suited
to serve in the legislature and provides yet

2

THE GAVEL

And, speaking of the 64th Legislative
Assembly – I know you do little else these
days – it was a good session for the legal
community. North Dakota’s 64th Legislative
Assembly convened January 6, 2015, and
adjourned April 29, 2015 – the House at
12:47 p.m. and the Senate about an hour
later at 1:28 p.m. – on its 78th legislative day.
The Constitution limits the Legislature to
meeting 80 days every two years, so the 64th
Legislative Assembly put two legislative days
in the bank that it can use at any time during
the interim to call itself back into session.
The Governor also has the authority to call
the Legislature back into session at any time.
It was a long session any way you look at it.
It went for 143 days – about 40 percent of a
year.
For those of you really into statistics –
and aren’t we all – there were 939 bills
and resolutions introduced this session,
as compared to 918 in 2013. About 57
percent of those passed and will become
law. The appropriations finally passed by
the legislature totals about $14.2 billion in
special and general funds. That is a lot of
dollars for North Dakota.
There were 289 new government jobs funded
by this session. The significance of this
number for the legal community is that it
includes funding for four new judgeships
along with four new court reporters for the
new judges.
The exact location for these new judgeships
hasn’t been determined by the Supreme
Court as yet, but they are likely to be in
the West – the Bismarck, Dickinson and
Williston-Watford City areas.
The 63rd Legislative Assembly in 2013
added three new judges, so the judiciary has
gained seven new seats since 2013. Quite
a change in an area that doesn’t usually see
much change or turnover. With these new
judgeships North Dakota, by the end of this
summer, will have 51 district court judges.
The remarkable feature of that figure is that

of those 51, 22 or 43.1 percent, will have
been elected or appointed since 2010. Again,
quite a change in just five years.
These new judgeships will enable the legal
profession to better serve North Dakota’s
rapidly expanding legal needs. The rapid
commercial and population expansion
North Dakota has experienced the last five
years has also driven up the need for greater
availability of judicial and legal services.
Another reason for the need for additional
judicial services is the rapidly expanding legal
community in North Dakota. We now have
2,820 licensed attorneys in North Dakota,
with an additional bump due this fall after
the July bar examination. SBAND will likely
top the 3,000 figure within a year or two.
This is quite a change for an organization
that barely had 1,500 licensed attorneys not
all that long ago.
With these numbers brings new challenges
for SBAND to meet the needs of its
members in new ways as we enter an everincreasing digital age. This challenge is
heightened by the fact that about half of the
licensed attorneys reside out-of-state.
SBAND is well positioned to meet these
new challenges. We have new offices easily
accessible to all attorneys in North Bismarck.
SBAND’s staff, headed by executive director
Tony Weiler, is well prepared and able to
make SBAND not only one of the best
professional organizations in North Dakota,
but in the country.
I want to thank not only the SBAND staff,
but also the Board of Directors in place
during my term as president. It’s gone the
extra mile in working to see that SBAND
meets the needs of the state’s legal profession.
And, finally, I want to thank all of you
for giving me the opportunity to serve as
SBAND president. It’s been quite a ride!
Don’t forget two big dates coming up soon.
June 17-19 SBAND will have its 125th
Annual Meeting in Bismarck – an event
you will not want to miss. The UND School
of Law will formally dedicate its new law
school addition Homecoming Weekend in
Grand Forks, October 16-17.