MINUTES – October 18, 2001

WEST VIRGINIA BAR FOUNDATION, INC.

BOARD OF DIRECTORS MEETING

STATE BAR CENTER – CHARLESTON

The meeting of the Bar Foundation’s Board of Directors was called to order by President Cheryl Henderson on October 18, 2001 at the State Bar Center in Charleston.

Members of the Board of Directors in attendance were Bob Noone, Bill File, Elliot Hicks and Howard Persinger. Participating by telephone conference call were Lisa Rose, James Companion and Dean John Fisher. State Bar Executive Director Tom Tinder was also present.

The first item on the Agenda was a review of the Minutes of the last Board of Directors Meeting which was held on July 25, 2001. A motion was duly made, seconded and passed that the Minutes be approved as presented.

President Henderson called upon Mr. Hicks to give a report from the IOLTA Advisory Committee. He said that at the last Committee Meeting, there had been a decision made to distribute $292,000 to the IOLTA grantees. Chief Justice McGraw had agreed to a news conference that had been held on October 15, 2001 when the distribution of these funds had been made. President Henderson, State Bar President Tinney and Bank One President Mark Prince participated in the news conference.

He went on to say that there had been a decision earlier in the week by the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals which declared that the IOLTA Program was an unconstitutional taking of client funds. It is assumed that the decision will be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court and that the IOLTA Program will continue to operate as it has in the past until a final decision is made.

The Board members then reviewed the financial report for the organization. There was a distribution of the budget and the funds available as of September 30, 2001. There were comments made about the revenues and expenses. Then a motion was duly made, seconded and passed to approve the financial report for the first three months of the fiscal year.

The Board members then had a discussion concerning the Foundation Fellows payment that had been received from Ann Selinger on behalf of her recently deceased husband, Professor Carl Selinger. After some comments were made, a motion was duly made, seconded and passed that the Board inform Mrs. Selinger that the third payment for the Foundation Fellows for Professor Selinger would be waived.

The next item on the Agenda related to the 2002 Foundation Fellows Program. Mr. Persinger, a member of the Committee, left the room at this time. Mr. File gave a report on behalf of the Committee which included a list of 23 persons that were being recommended for inclusion as 2002 Foundation Fellows. After some comments were made, a motion was duly made, seconded and passed to approve the recommendations from the Committee.

President Henderson then led a discussion regarding the de-mutualization of the Attorneys Liability Protection Society (ALPS). As part of the de-mutualization process, State Bar members will have the ability to determine how their $1,000 contributions to ALPS will be handled. Approximately $46,000 of the mutual contributions have been pledged to the Bar Foundation to be then passed on to the WVU College of Law for use as minority scholarships. However, there is an amount of $130,000 to $150,000 that is still available.

At a recent meeting of the Bar Foundation Officers and the State Bar Officers, there was an agreement that contact would be made with the lawyers who still have contributions available to strongly urge them to make the contributions to the Bar Foundation for the minority student scholarships. A letter will be sent from the Bar Foundation Officers and State Bar Officers to these individuals and the correspondence will include information regarding the need for the scholarships at the WVU College of Law.

The Board members then talked about the Citizen of the Year and the Lawyer of the Year Awards which will be presented at the State Bar’s Annual Meeting in May, 2002. An ad for these Awards will appear in the November and December issues of The West Virginia Lawyer magazine. A decision on the award winners will be made at the next meeting of the Board of Directors.

Under the topic of Other Business, it was reported that a contribution of $500 had been received from Mrs. James Coleman, the wife of a prominent attorney in Buckhannon. In addition, Mrs. Coleman, who had just passed away recently, had set aside $10,000 for the Bar Foundation in her will. Both of these activities had been accomplished through the excellent efforts of a past Bar Foundation Officer, Bob Wallace of Buckhannon.

President Henderson announced that the next meeting of the Board of Directors would be on January 10, 2002 at 12:00 noon at the State Bar Center in Charleston.

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