11WWW.MONTANABAR.ORG MAY2021
YOU SHOULD KNOW
Steele running for State Bar President-Elect
David Steele’s candidate statement
I am honored and humbled to be nomi-
nated to serve as President-Elect for the State
Bar of Montana. I have served in various
capacities in both my local bar and the State
Bar over the last several years. I look forward
to the opportunity to continue to serve
Montana’s citizens,
attorneys and courts
as President-Elect
of the State Bar of
Montana.
I started my
tenure as a State Bar
Trustee for Area B.
During those years,
I became familiar
with the inner work-
ings of the State Bar, and how the various
Commissions, Committees and Sections in-
teract with the Courts, the Bar and with each
other. As my experience grew, I was asked
to serve on various ad-hoc and permanent
committees established to ensure the State
Bar remains responsive to its mission and its
members. rough this work I have had the
good fortune to develop important relation-
ships with a number of stakeholders, includ-
ing Committee and Commission members
and peripheral organizations involved with
the Bar.
During the last two years, I have served
as Secretary-Treasurer for the State Bar. As
Treasurer, and among other duties, I served
as chair of the Finance Committee. e
Finance Committee is charged with estab-
lishing a proposed budget for the State Bar,
and works with the Executive Committee
and Executive Director to establish that
budget. During these years, I have gained a
detailed working knowledge of the state bar
budget and how those numbers on a spread-
sheet translate into real life. As a member
of the Executive Committee, I have also
become familiar with, and continue to be
involved in a large variety of non-budgetary
issues which aect the State Bar, its mem-
bers and Montanans. And over these years,
I have continued to develop and maintain
those important relationships with the
Courts, the Board of Trustees, the Executive
Committee Members, and the Executive
Director and State Bar sta.
If I am fortunate enough to serve as
President-Elect for the State Bar of Montana,
I will work hard to continue the great work
my predecessors have done. It is not lost
upon me that I will stand on the shoulders of
those who have helped make the Montana
State Bar such an outstanding organization.
I will continue those eorts by working with
all of you to ensure the State Bar of Montana
remains dedicated to its purpose and mis-
sion, responsive to its members and a model
integrated bar organization for the country.
Area C Area G Area H
Area E
LIBERTY
HILL
CHOUTEAU
BLAINE
PHILLIPS
VALLEY
DANIELS
SHERIDAN
ROOSEVELT
LEWIS
AND
CLARK
DAWSON
WIBAUX
PRAIRIE
McCONE
GARFIELD
ROSEBUD
CUSTER
FALLON
CARTER
TREASURE
POWDER
RIVER
BIG HORN
YELLOWSTONE
CARBON
STILLWATER
SWEET
GRASS
GOLDEN
VALLEY
WHEATLAND
GLACIER
JUDITH
BASIN
FERGUS
PETROLEUM
BROADWATER
RICHLAND
Area A
FLATHEAD
LINCOLN
GRANITE
POWELL
DEER
LODGE
JEFFERSON
MEAGHER
BEAVERHEAD
MADISON
PARK
Area B
SANDERS
LAKE
MISSOULA
MINERAL
RAVALLI
SILVER
BOW
Area D
TOOLE
GLACIER
PONDERA
TETON
CASCADE
GALLATIN
MUSSELSHELL
Area F
Bar elections running online through May 24
I am seeking to serve as your Secretary/Treasurer.
As your Secretary/Treasurer, I will do my best to ensure
that a proper record is kept of our meetings, that we
have a balanced budget that is used to serve the needs
of the membership and that I complete all of the duties
of the position. I would use my experience serving in
such roles in the past, including serving as my college’s
President of Student Government Finances, overseeing
a million dollar budget, serving on a number of Gallatin
County nonprots in the same or similar role and bal-
ancing my own law rm’s budget for years.
About me personally: I am a general civil attorney
with Grith & Cummings, PC. My practice focuses on
the legal areas of contract law, particularly business, real
estate, construction and community association law. I
am actively involved in Montana’s legal community. I
am President of the Professionalism Committee as well
as Chair of the Board. I volunteer for many local legal
assistance programs and nonprots. I enjoy constantly
looking for my son’s mask prior to school, socially dis-
tancing from the other baseball and soccer families, and
hiking with no hiking buddies but my dogs. I continue
to be profusely thankful my husband is an IT consultant-
genius and am looking forward to normalcy soon.
Grith running for secretary/treasurer of state bar
12 MONTANALAWYER WWW.MONTANABAR.ORG
AREA F
Aislinn Brown, Montana
Department of Justice, Helena
I am a Helena resident, current trust-
ee for Area F, and Assistant Attorney
General for the Montana Department
of Justice. As trustee, I have enjoyed
serving the attorneys in Broadwater and
Lewis and Clark counties for the past
two years, and I hope to continue doing
so.
is past year especially has been
challenging, and the State Bar has acted
quickly to meet the needs of Montana
attorneys during the global pandemic.
For example, we recommended to the
Montana Supreme Court that they
allow temporary
admission to the
bar for eligible
candidates who
were unable to sit
for the bar amid
the pandemic and
worked to make
CLE courses avail-
able remotely. We
also recommended
revisions to Montana’s professional
conduct rules and approved two new
State Bar sections: Animal Law and
Public Utilities Law. As your trustee, I
look forward to continuing to ensure
that Montana attorneys have the sup-
port and resources they need, so they
in turn can assist Montanans with the
many challenges they face.
When I am not interacting with
the local legal community, you will
most likely find me exploring the
great outdoors with my husband, Roy;
our hyperactive dog, Bowie; and the
newest addition to our family, our
son, Tucker.
AREA E
Joel Krautter, Netzer Law Oce,
Sidney
I would be honored to serve as a
State Bar Trustee and represent the
attorneys and local bar associations
in Area E. Issues I would like to work
on would be seeing more in-person
continuing legal
education events
being held in Area
E, including an
annual Bucking
Horse Sale CLE in
Miles City. I would
also look for ways
to increase educa-
tion to the public
about the State
Bar, support for the rule of law and the
importance of preserving an indepen-
dent judiciary.
I am an attorney with the Netzer
Law Oce, P.C., in Sidney and serve as
the President of the Northeast Montana
Bar Association. I have also enjoyed
helping out with the Access to Justice
Commission’s Policy and Resources
Subcommittee and the Montana Legal
Services Association’s Rural Incubator
Project for Lawyers.
Candidate statements from 2021 State Bar
of Montana Board of Trustees candidates
Anna Kecskes, Uda Law Firm,
Helena
I am currently running for the Area
F Trustee position to the Montana
State Bar.
By way of a bit of background, I
am originally from Montana, and I
completed both my undergraduate
degree and my law degree at Gonzaga
University, in Spokane, Washington. I
moved back to Montana aer gradu-
ation in 2015, took the bar exam that
summer, and have been working in
Helena since.
I am excited about the opportunity
to serve in the Trustee position; as I
now have a few years of experience un-
der my belt, I am
less consumed in
the day-to-day
survival, and
am increasingly
interested in the
bigger picture of
the practice of
law. I currently
work at a small
rm with a civil
practice, and I have come to realize
that the legal world in Montana is a
small but active one. e extremely
complex nature of the law requires all
lawyers to be able to navigate a com-
plicated world, and to make the best of
our connections to solve problems for
clients, especially aer all that the year
2020 brought us. In the position of a
Trustee, I would hope to bring new
ideas for hosting a community of at-
torneys in the State of Montana, across
dierent practice areas, geographical
locations within the state, and espe-
cially in this time of limited face-to-
face interaction.
Stuart Segrest, Montana
Department of Justice, Helena
Since 2014, I have had the privilege
of representing the attorneys in Lewis
and Clark and Broadwater counties on
the Board of Trustees. I look forward
to working with new Trustee Anna
Kecskes and continuing to work with
Trustee Aislinn Brown. Please con-
tact me with any questions or con-
cerns.
ONLINE VOTING RUNS THROUGH MAY 24
