MINUTES – January 17, 2001

THE WEST VIRGINIA BAR FOUNDATION, INC.

IOLTA ADVISORY COMMITTEE MEETING

STATE BAR CENTER – CHARLESTON

The meeting of the Bar Foundation’s IOLTA Advisory Committee was called to order on January 17, 2002 at the State Bar Center in Charleston.

Members of the Committee in attendance were Adrienne Worthy and Jim Martin. Participating by telephone conference call was Professor Chuck DiSalvo. State Bar Executive Director Tom Tinder was also in attendance.

The first item on the Agenda was a review of the Minutes of the last Committee Meeting which was held on December 6, 2001. A motion was duly made, seconded and passed that the Minutes be approved as presented.

The next item on the Agenda related to the status on the litigation in Federal Court. There has been no change in the situation in the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals where a request had been made for the entire panel to re-consider the decision of the three judge panel that the IOLTA Program was unconstitutional or in the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals where there had been a decision that the IOLTA Program was constitutional.

The Committee members then discussed the activities of the Legal Services for the Poor Symposium. There had been a meeting on December 15, 2001 and comments had been made about the new legal services group, Legal Aid of West Virginia, as well as funding for the provision of free legal services for low income citizens.

There were then comments made by Ms. Worthy and Mr. Martin concerning the status of Legal Aid of West Virginia. It went into effect on January 1, 2002 and has been making progress since that date.

The Committee members were then informed that the amount of federal government funding from the Legal Services Corporation would be $329 million for the current fiscal year.

The Committee members then received the financial report that showed that there was $218,000 available for distribution as of January 16, 2002. Of that amount, $100,000 remained in the Rainy Day Fund, $22,000 had been set aside for payment to the special grantees and $5,000 was available for automation of the IOLTA system.

After some amount of discussion, a motion was duly made, seconded and passed to distribute $91,000 to the regular grantees and to the special grantees. After more comments, a motion was duly made, seconded and passed that at the next meeting of the IOLTA Advisory Committee that consideration would be given to a distribution to the special grantees of the appropriate percentage of the $100,000 which had been taken out of the Rainy Day Fund in December, 2001 for distribution. That amount would be $15,000.

Under the topic of Other Business, Professor DiSalvo gave a report on behalf of the special grantees. He said that economic factors were having a detrimental impact on the amount of finances available for the special grantees.

It was then decided that the next meetings of the IOLTA Advisory Committee would be on May 23, 2002 at 11:00 a.m., on August 22, 2002 at 11:00 a.m. and on November 14, 2002 at 11:00 a.m. at the State Bar Center in Charleston.

There being no further business to transact, the meeting was adjourned.