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11 Wyo. Law. 1 (1988)

handle is hein.barjournals/wymlawy0011 and id is 1 raw text is: The WYOMING LAWYER Vol. XI, No. 1 Offical Publhcaion of the Wyoming State Bar Febriuary, 1988 Wyoming Denies Entrance Without Exam Wyoming will no loem allow en- a Mto th statebarwithout ami- nation, aardigto a December 18 order by the yoming Supreme Tim order, an amenent of Rule 5 of the aw of the Wyomu p Court, becomes effective March 15. 'e change means ny such applice- tions resved at the Bar' office after that date will be returned to appli- Cents. In a letter to the Supreme Court dated July, 1987, the Wyoming Board of Law itxaminars rco mmended the revion as a measure of quality con- t,oL An examination procedure will seek to establish minimum standards of Competency and esure attorney hma eworking knowledge of Wyom- exaumiers noted many aspects of state law, mineral law for instance, ae distinct from other states. There i no retroactive effect to the change; attorneys who areadmitted to the Wyoming Bar on motion prior to Convention The Annual Convention of the Wyoming State Bar will be held August 31 through September 2 in Cheyenne, so mark your calendars! The specific location of the con. vention has not been selected. The date however, was set to precede the opening of the Wyoming Cow. boys 1968 football season. Wyom- ing opens against BYU in Laramie on September 3. the nactment of the order will not be required to undergo an examination. One possible outcome of the ruling may be that Wyoming attorneys lose the reciprocal privilege of admission to other state bars without examina- tion. Few states, however, still guar- antee reciprocity in light of a number of recent decisiosaroundthecountry dealing with admission without exam- ination. In 1985, the United States Su- preme Court in Piper v. New Hamp- shire, more clearly defined bar admissions standards. Since that time, a number of states have changed their rules to allow for examinations. The Wyoming case which prompted the revision, The Wyoming State Bar v. Mayo Sommermeyer, involved a pe- tition for admission from a Fort Col- lins attorney who was denied admission based on his out-of-state residency. The Court, in holding for the State Bar, necessitated the over- hauling of the rule. The Attorneys Liability Protection Society (ALPS) is finally in business after three years of work to establish a company. ALPS Board Member Glenn Smith, a Cheyenne attorney, said the com- pany plans to begin writing insurance policies in mid-to late-February. All of the procedures and all of the work connected with obtaining au- thority to write policies has been completed. He said the actual document granting that authority is waiting on the Nevada insurance commissioner's desk for him to sign. The commissioner was scheduled to review the documents February 10th. After that review, Mr. Smith said we can literally issue policies in a matter of days. With the formation of ALPS complete, it will become the second major in- surance company to write liability policies for attorneys in Wyoming. The other company, the Home Insurance Company, has been virtually the only company writing policies in Wyoming for more than a year. Another insurance company. National Union, wrote a small amount of policies during that time. As a lawyer owned company, policies are written for shareholders of ALPS. The price of an individual share is $1,000, which does not actually guar- antee coverage. However, the company said it anticipates that few attorneys would be considered ineligible for coverage. Wyoming is one of nine states that attorneys have participated in the formation of the company. In addition to pri- vate lawyer contributions, state bars have also loaned money to the company so that it could meet the threshold of $2.5 million dollars needed to make the com- pany solvent. The Wyoming State Bar, which lent the company $20,000, was one of the Continued Onl page 27 I ALPS its in Business