STATE BAR NEWS
Pierce begins term as State Bar president By Montana Lawyer Staff
Juli Pierce began her term as the 2019-2020 State Bar of Montana president in September, announcing that she intends to meet as many of her fellow attorneys around the state as she can during her term. Pierce, who operates Juli Pierce Law in Billings, was elected president-elect in the 2018 State Bar of Montana elections. She previously served as Chair of the Board of Trustees. She joined the board in 2013. She took the gavel from 2018-2019 President Eric Nord on Sept. 13 in Billings during the Business Meeting at the bar’s Annual Meeting. Pierce said sheespecially hopes to talk in the eastern part of the state where there is great need for more attorneys. She also hopes to build on the work of her predecessors, particularly in the areas of access to justice, attorney wellness, and making the bar more relevant, both to members of the bar and the public. She is also excited that the inaugural Montana High School Mock Trial competition will happen while she is president. Other officers who began terms during the Annual Meeting were: ■■ President-Elect: Kate Ellis, attorney at Chrstensen Prezeau in Helena. Ellis was chair of the Board of Trustees in 2018-2019. ■■ Secretary-Treasurer: David Steele, a partner at Geiszler Steele in Missoula. Steele, who joined the board of in 2016, takes over for Jason Holden. Holden was termed out after two twoyear terms. ■■ Chair of the Board: Brian Smith, a solo practitioner from Missoula. Smith has been a member of the board since 2016.
Three new trustees join board
Two new trustees from Area F (Lewis and Clark County and Jefferson County) began two-year terms on the bar’s Board of Trustees at the September meeting in Billings. Danna Jackson has been chief legal 10
MONTANALAWYER
Juli Pierce speaks after taking the gavel as State Bar of Montana president on Sept. 13 during the 2019 Annual Meeting in Billings.
counsel for the Department of Natural Resources and Conservation since 2016. She previously worked as in the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Montana as a tribal liaison and in the Indian Crimes Unit, and as counsel for Akin Gump in Washington, D.C. Aislinn Brown is an assistant attorney general in the Montana Department of Justice’s Agency Legal Services Bureau. She is a graduate of Georgetown University Law Center. The board selected Erica Grinde of Missoula for an open Area B trustee position. Grinde was one of three people who applied for the two-year term, which became open with Steele’s election as
Secretary-Treasurer. She is currently Missoula County’s director of risk management and benefits. Grinde said she has put a priority on bar service, both on the state and national levels, in her 11 years as a lawyer. She volunteered in the State Bar’s New Lawyers Section for years, serving as president in 2012-2013. She was appointed in 2009 to a two-year term as the the American Bar Association Young Lawyers Division’s district representative for Idaho and Montana. She has since held various leadership roles in the YLD, and chosen by the YLD as a Member-at-Large in the ABA’s Board of Governors. Area B encompasses Lake, Missoula, Mineral, Ravalli, and Sanders Counties. WWW.MONTANABAR.ORG
