Prestigious Uniform Law Commission Meeting in Santa Fe

On July 9th, more than 350 top legal pros from every state, DC, Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands descended on Santa Fe’s recently completed Community Convention Center for the annual meeting of the 118-year old Uniform Law Commission (ULC), a group with many distinguished past members, such as Woodrow Wilson, and now New Mexico’s Sen. Cisco McSorley, Raymond Sanchez and others. The annual meeting continues through July 16.

This is the first ULC annual meeting ever held in New Mexico, the nation’s leading state for adopting uniform law, according to a ULC press release. During the week-long meeting, a number of new uniform laws (detailed below) will be addressed, modified and approved -- and may find their way to the New Mexico legislative floor next year. Commissioners are appointed by their states to draft and promote enactment of uniform laws that are designed to solve problems common to all the states. Past laws range from the Uniform Commercial Code, to Uniform Child Custody and Jurisdiction Act, to the Katrina inspired Uniform Emergency Volunteer Health Practitioners Act, to the Uniform Prudent Management of Institutional Funds Act.

New Mexico joined ULC in 1908 and the state’s commissioners have been influential in the drafting of uniform law and enacting uniform laws in New Mexico for over 100 years. Since 1908, 133 uniform laws have been enacted, including 8 this legislative session.

One previous New Mexico Commissioner, Orie L. Phillips, served as president of ULC from 1933-1936. Today, there are eight active Uniform Law Commissioners representing New Mexico. They are:

• Jack Burton, private practice in Santa Fe
• Joseph Cervantes, private practice in Los Cruces
• Robert J. Desiderio, private practice in Albuquerque
• Thomas P. Foy, Sr., retired (long-time NM legislator)
• Philip Larragoite, private practice Albuquerque
• Cisco McSorley, state senator
• Raymond Sanchez, private practice, Albuquerque
• Paula Tackett, government lawyer, Santa Fe

The ULC is facing a busy agenda of legislative drafts -- dealing with issues ranging from a new law that addresses the various penalties and disqualifications that individuals might face incidental to criminal sentencing to a new act regulating the transfer of real property upon an owner’s death.

After receiving the ULC’s seal of approval, a uniform act is officially promulgated for consideration by the states, and legislatures are urged to adopt it. Since its inception in 1892, the ULC has been responsible for more than 200 acts, among them such bulwarks of state statutory law as the Uniform Commercial Code, the Uniform Probate Code and the Uniform Securities Act.

Six new uniform acts are scheduled for completion at this summer’s annual meeting:

• The Uniform Collateral Consequences of Conviction Act addresses the various penalties and disqualifications that individuals face incidental to criminal sentencing, including disqualification from voting, prohibitions from running for office, exclusion from certain types of employment, etc. The provisions in the act are largely procedural, and designed to rationalize and clarify policies and provisions which are already widely accepted by the states. The act includes provisions to ensure that defendants are aware of the existence of collateral sanctions before sentencing.

• The Uniform Real Property Transfer on Death Act provides a mechanism for the non-probate transfer of land. The Act allows an owner of real property to pass the property simply and directly to a beneficiary on the owner’s death without probate. The property passes by means of a recorded transfer on a death (TOD) deed. During the owner’s lifetime, the beneficiary of a TOD deed has no interest in the property and the owner retains full power to transfer or encumber the property or to revoke the deed.

• The Uniform Law Enforcement Access to Entity Information Act is designed to be a substitute for the Incorporation Transparency and Law Enforcement Assistance Act (S.569), currently pending in Congress (co-sponsored by Senators Levin, Grassley, and McCaskill). S.569 would require virtually all corporations and limited liability companies to file “beneficial ownership” information with the Secretary of State. The Uniform Act, a joint project with the ULC and the American Bar Association Committee on Corporate Laws, and supported by the National Association of Secretaries of State, would preserve the traditional confidentiality of entity ownership and would instead require the filing of the name of an individual (a records-contact) who would be responsible for obtaining, maintaining, and verifying record ownership information.

• The Uniform Collaborative Law Act will regulate the use of collaborative law, a form of alternative dispute resolution that is becoming more popular in the states. Collaborative law is now used mainly in family law disputes, but its practice has spread to other areas of the law, including the settlement of contract and insurance disputes. States have approached the regulation of collaborative law through a variety of means, including statutes, court rules, and independent boards. This new Act standardizes the most important features of collaborative law participation, mindful of ethical concerns as well as questions of evidentiary privilege.

• The Uniform Statutory Trust Entity Act governs the use of statutory trusts as a mode of business organization. A statutory trust provides a flexible business entity that can be used as an alternative to the partnership, limited partnership limited liability company, and corporate forms of organization. Statutory trusts are commonly used in the mutual fund and securitization industries, and it is also used in certain tax-advantaged real estate transactions. The Uniform Act modernizes the existing, but outdated, laws governing these types of entities.

• A portion of the Uniform Business Organizations Act (UBOA), containing language to harmonize common provisions found throughout existing business organization acts, such as the Uniform Partnership Act and the Uniform Limited Partnership Act, was also approved. This portion of the project establishes common definitions, and makes the mechanics of filing, qualification of foreign entities, and entity transaction provisions on mergers, interest exchanges and domestications consistent between the various business entity acts. Work continues on the rest of the UBOA.

The current drafts of all of these acts can be found at the ULC’s website at www.nccusl.org.