Supreme Court rules on State Bar petitions, grants nonresidents "pure" CLE comity, moves on unauthorized practice of law, among other actions

Our State Bar reports on the results of the Wisconsin Supreme Court's December 10, 2007 hearings on several petitions by the bar. (see this earlier post)

On continuing legal education comity,

The court adopted a pure comity rule for CLE requirements for State Bar nonresident members. Pure comity respects the CLE requirements of other states without demanding that they be identical or nearly identical to Wisconsin’s. Nonresidents who do not have mandatory CLE requirements in their home state must meet Wisconsin CLE requirements.

Update: Jack Zemlicka reports in the Wisconsin Law Journal December 14, 2007 State Bar endorses, Supreme Court adopts unconditional comity rule

On the Legal Services Consumer Protection petition,

In addition to requesting suggested exemption language from groups that oppose the petition, the court requested additional documentation of likely administrative needs and an assessment of organizational alternatives.

Update: Jack Zemlicka reported in the Wisconsin Law Journal December 12, 2007 Practice Makes Perfect: Court seeks more research on UPL petition

In other actions,

The court created a supreme court rule limiting to one term the number of terms a member can serve as State Bar president. The court also adopted the State Bar’s requested changes to Article II, sections 1 - 4, of the State Bar Rules and Bylaws, but denied a request seeking a formalized system requiring the statewide rotation of elections for the office of president-elect.

Update: Jack Zemlicka also reported, Court rules on a pair of State Bar bylaw revisions, that the term limits passed 4-3, while the rotation was defeated 6-1.