The State Bar of Texas announced Friday it's made the difficult decision to cancel the 2020 annual meeting planned for June.

The bar took into account the health and safety of its staff, lawyers, speakers and exhibitors when it pulled the plug on the agency's largest gathering, which was planned for June 25-26 in Dallas at the Hilton Anatole.

"It's putting common sense and safety first and foremost, and I'm not sure anybody is going to disagree with that," said State Bar of Texas President Randy Sorrels.

Bar spokeswoman Amy Starnes added that it was a hard decision to cancel the event, but it was the right answer. She noted that attorneys who were registered for annual meeting will automatically get a refund. Also, the Hilton Anatole will automatically cancel their hotel reservations without attorneys having to take action. However, anyone who booked a different hotel will be responsible for canceling his or her own reservation.

Many Texas attorneys rely upon the annual meeting to satisfy all of their minimum continuing legal education requirements for the year.

"We understand the impact," Starnes said. She added that attorneys can get CLE courses through TexasBarCLE's online offerings. Also, the state bar does want to go virtual with some annual meeting events.

"We're going to be working to offer key features of what normally is part of annual meeting in a virtual format," Starnes said. "We're going to offer, for example, the swearing-in of Larry McDougal—that's going to happen online. We're planning a key note address."

Other CLE sessions that were supposed to happen at annual meeting will also move online, said Starnes.

"We're also being flexible on MCLE reporting, because people struggle in this time to get their CLE in," added Sorrels.

He said that the state bar has already extended CLE reporting deadlines for 60 days for lawyers whose requirements were due between January and May. He added that the bar will probably extend compliance deadlines even further because of the cancellation of the annual meeting.

The bar has also released three free CLE courses that provide six hours of credit, covering topics like COVID-19 tax stimulus packages for law firms, practicing law during the pandemic and invoking force majeure clauses because of the virus.

When asked how the cancellation would impact the state bar's budget, Starnes replied there's no significant impact. Fees for sponsorships and reservations cover the expenses, which means funding doesn't come from the general budget, she explained. Also, the hotel allowed the agency to cancel with no penalties.

This is only the second time in Texas Bar history that the agency canceled its annual meeting. It started hosting the event in 1939, Starnes wrote in an email. In 1945 the bar canceled annual meeting because the federal government, pushing to conserve transportation resources for the World War II effort, had denied the bar a permit to hold a convention, Starnes explained.

"The bar held shortened annual meetings in 1943 and 1944 in an effort to conserve resources, which appears to have satisfied federal requirements at that time," Starnes said. "In lieu of holding an annual meeting in 1945, the board of directors held a joint meeting of the outgoing and incoming board members in Dallas, the hometown of the incoming president."