Candidates Boll and Troupis seek better service from State Bar

Wisconsin Law Journal, January 6, 2009, on our State Bar's two slated candidates for President-elect, James C. Boll, and James R. Troupis, of Madison.

Boll, who is in-house counsel for Madison Gas & Electric, Co., supports a voluntary bar and said that it is time the organization admit and address the fact that a portion of its membership is unhappy.

“We need to identify why there is disillusionment,” Boll said. “I think it exists based on some members who don’t believe they get anything from the bar.”

Troupis, a partner with Michael Best & Friedrich, LLP, in Madison, is less concerned with whether the bar goes voluntary, and said the primary focus of the organization should be its members and how they can more effectively work with clients and the judiciary.

He suggests that leaders avoid spending energy and resources on politically divisive issues that do not directly impact the daily lives of attorneys and the public. Troupis conceded that entities like the Wisconsin Judicial Integrity Committee created by former President Thomas J. Basting Jr., spark constructive debate, but monitoring judicial elections is not necessarily a core responsibility of the bar.