Visiting Rotarians: Jim Blaney (Whatcom North)
 
Guests: Nick Furnari (Skagit Bank), Michael Tilley (PakMail), Ben Webb (Tyler’s guest and board member Whatcom Day Academy), Susie Betts, Larry McDonald (Lakeway Inn), Carlye Gillespie (Archer Halliday).
 
Calendar 
  • Rotary Leadership Institutes training series coming up;
  • Bill Geyer (with Tony Freeland and Glendale Barkley) attended last weekend’s Rotary Grants Seminar put on by District - District will match funds dollar for dollar from $500 up to $10,000.  Attendance at the seminar means we are now “accredited” to apply for these grants;
  • District will host a Membership Seminar on February 28th, 8:30-3pm at Springhill Marriott in Bellingham; 
  • Board meeting this Thursday Feb 12 at 4:30 at Talbot/Barkley office, open to all.
Short Program
Stan Dyer spoke on the importance of attendance!
 
Business Minute
This week, Gordon Plume talked about his company GR Plume and one of the more interesting projects Plume is working on now, an elaborate bell-shaped canopy structure that will be shipped off to Connecticut soon (see Facebook site for photos https://www.facebook.com/GrPlumeCompany).
 
Bucks in the Bay
  • Donna proud of daughter, who is very strong lifter! She is graduating Hawaii Pacific in May.
  • Scotty with a plug for B&G Club's upcoming fundraiser “Bourbon Street Bingo” https://www.facebook.com/events/1077223348969908/ Saturday Feb 21!
  • Jim Johnson with thoughts for Kayla Mueller, who was killed recently in Iraq by ISIL, she was an amazing and accomplished young woman.
  • John Templeton just back from Kauai, saw the Seahawks game there and connected with some locals;
  • Bill Geyer thanks Eddie for some back work!
  • Scot Swanson recent birthday, and he attended Superbowl!
  • Mike Hammes attended a recent informational meeting on combating the local sex trafficking problem;
Sergeant at Arms by Flo Simon
Fines for Tyler Bird, Flo read a funny letter from former member Ed Zech, which included quite a few fines.
 
Anna on Paul Harris Fellowships
Pins given to Sarah Rothenbuehler (her second) and to Chuck Walters (his third!).
 
Long Program 
Dannon introduced attorney Phil Buri who spoke on legal ethics.
 
Bio: Phil served as a law clerk in the United States District Court from 1987-89 and in the Washington Supreme Court from 1993-95. Before founding Buri Funston, he was an appellate litigator for eight years at Brett & Daugert in Bellingham.  Phil enjoys identifying the nucleus of an issue and creating persuasive arguments from that knowledge. His love of writing and speaking are key elements in transforming convoluted issues into concise briefs.
 
Phil expounded on the most important three things, which may seem almost too obvious, that he has learned about legal ethics over his three decades in practice:
  1. Don’t steal your clients money - i.e. take care of yourself (stay away and fix your addictions, debt, etc) so you don’t wind up in a place where you are driven to do something so stupid.
  2. Keep your secrets - one of the best things a lawyer can offer a client is the absolute confidentiality for them to tell the truth.
  3. Don’t help your client commit crimes - However, this can be complicated:  For example, marijuana law (Initiative 502) where legal under State, but illegal under Fed law.  Since Fed law prevails, your job as lawyer should be to NOT agree to help any pot business.  However, in this case, the Feds now say WA, CO (and soon AK and OR) the Feds WILL NOT prosecute pot businesses here, and in fact WA regulators are even encouraging lawyers to coach, guide and represent pot businesses.  
Question: If attorney knows client is guilty, does he/she have to report it?  How can an attorney represent a guilty party?  The answer is that unless there is a danger of future crime, then the defense attorney should not report the guilt, and should continue represent the client. In fact, the attorney is not even allowed to withdraw from a case in any way that will obviously compromise his client’s appearance of guilt.
 
Respectfully submitted, 
Stowe Talbot
 
Tim Krell wins the raffle