Abadin gears up for the challenges ahead.

Looking at the large number of major issues facing the Bar in the next year or so, President-elect Ramon Abadin has told the Board of Governors he's looking at overhauling the board's meeting agendas when he becomes

president in June to allow more time to discuss those issues.

The board typically starts its meetings at 9 a.m. and sometimes 8:30 a.m., and runs in the afternoon until finished, with an hour for lunch. Typical adjournments come between 2 and 4 p.m.

Abadin, at the board's March 27 meeting, said he's considering an 8 a.m. starting time and adjourning at 3 p.m. Lunches would be devoted to discussions of topical issues, especially those related to the rapid transformations coming to the practice of law and the legal marketplace. He said he wants a definite ending time so board members can plan their travel home and not be tempted to leave the meeting early to make flights, adding the full board is needed for upcoming critical decisions.

"We have got to have some really hard discussions as a board. We've got to talk policy. We've got to change people's minds," Abadin said.

"The ground is moving under us."

He pointed to a variety of issues rushing at the board, including board member John Stewart's report, earlier in that March meeting, on the Vision 2016 Technology Committee's recommendations. Those include raising CLE requirements for Bar members to allow for more technology training and radically expanding the Bar's lawyer referral service to compete with private companies offering online legal forms (see story on page 1).

Other changes, Abadin said, include that England now allows its law schools to provide direct legal services. Online, virtual law firms, which have a fraction of the overhead of traditional firms, are beginning to compete for business. Nonlawyers offering online legal forms raise both UPL and legal access questions. Another new company, which grew from the Stanford law, computer, and design schools, may change the way legal research is done.

"We have to address those issues, and we have to address them now," Abadin told the board. "We are no longer in an environment where we can sit.... We just don't have time anymore, folks. I want to be clear with everyone in this room: We do not have time....

"If we don't act, there will be no decisions for you to make."

He pointed to the online...