obert E. Gallatin, a fellow San Diego attorney passed away on November 11, 1988 at his home. He was sixty-nine years old and had been ill with cancer for approximately six months.

Dear Ned: Receipt of your December 1988 DICTA article is hereby acknowledged. I certainly agree the health of our association is excellent. We are going on 6000 strong, including close to 2000 associate members.

Having had the opportunity of attending last summer’s ABA Annual Convention in Toronto and the recent mid-year meeting in Denver, one could easily cross-reference the movements and problems common to bar associations of all sizes and lawyers engaged in all types of practice.

During my State of the Bar speech to Congress last January I promised to regularly report the status of our hopes and dreams for 1989…

It is interesting to me to observe the many different legal issues that our office encounters on a daily basis. Often times those issues involve complaints from attorneys, more often however, those complaints come from the public about our judicial system.

It became apparent about four years ago, that the size needs of the association had grown to such dimensions that a new facility would be necessary…or constructing a facility on the SDCBA’s downtown property at Union and “B” Streets.

It was envisioned by many that the new bar building could be a community legal center housing the expanded needs of the San Diego County Bar Association, the Lawyer Referral and Information Services, and many other regional or specialty bar associations of interests.

Domestic violence, poverty, homelessness and the AIDS epidemic are concerns which are all too real and prevalent in the nation and in San Diego… One of these agencies is the San Diego Volunteer Lawyer Program (SDVLP), the bar association’s exclusive program for organizing and delivering pro bono services.

My father once told me when I tried to talk intelligently on a topic I knew little about, “better to be quiet and thought a fool son, than speak and remove all doubt.” He would remind me that to listen was to learn, to speak was to repeat only what you already know.

A few Fridays ago the San Diego Tribune covered a story dealing with the pro bono efforts of lawyers in San Diego County.