Bar dues are unlikely to increase for California lawyers in 2019 despite a push by state bar leaders to raise them.

Recently drafted annual bar dues legislation, scheduled for its first policy committee review on Tuesday, would keep the tab for active members at $390. Bar leaders had sought more revenue for disciplinary work and employee costs.

A tentative labor agreement approved by the bar's board of trustees in January promised workers a pay bump if the Legislature approved a dues fee hike of $20 or more. A subsequent amendment to the agreement dated April 18 and signed by bar management and the union representing bar workers said employees will receive a 3.5 percent cost of living adjustment “lump sum” in January 2020, with no mention of securing a legislatively approved dues hike first.

Both sides have agreed to seek a bar dues fee increase in 2020 “that is both meaningful and sustainable and that ensures that the state bar will be able to carry out its public protection mission and appropriately invest in its workforce.”

Mark Stone.

Assemblyman Mark Stone, D-Scotts Valley, whose judiciary committee is carrying the dues legislation this year, told The Recorder in March that he was hoping to pass a largely status quo bill that would allow the substantial changes enacted by the Legislature last year to take effect.

The bill does propose some changes to bar operations:

• It asks the bar to develop a rule that would allow lawyers to receive continuing legal education credit for certain pro bono work. The program would supplant pending legislation that would require attorneys to provide 25 hours of free legal services each year or pay a $500 in-lieu fee to the state's legal aid program. The 2019 bar bill would also track the amount of pro bono work generated by the rule.

• It requires the bar to contract with the state auditor to review the agency's operations and report back to the Legislature by July 2019. The auditor's findings could be used in setting the 2020 dues level.

• California lawyers would be called “licensees” instead of bar “members.” Dues would become fees. The changes are keeping in line with legislative efforts to recast the bar as a public oversight agency instead of a professional advocacy organization.

• It requires the bar to develop a plan to increase diversity in the legal profession. The review may include analyzing the impact of California's high bar exam pass score, the bill says.

• It would make it easier for the bar to place a lawyer on inactive status for wrongdoing.

A spokeswoman for the bar said agency leaders have been involved in negotiations over the bill but have not taken an official position on it.