What a Ride!
Gregory W. Coleman
My year as your Florida Bar president whizzed by at clipper-ship speed, navigating through the shoals and reefs, and making some important stops along the way. But we have not yet reached our final destination.
Driving this ship is Vision 2016, the three-year commission studying technology-driven changes to the legal profession. We have opened up a box we cannot close. What we found are exciting challenges that will significantly change this profession forever. How we deal with these issues is yet to be seen.
We realize technology is driving drastic changes in the traditional practice of law. Our clients, our customers, now have access to the same information we once controlled.
At the same time, the 60 percent of our Florida citizens who cannot afford a lawyer — because they are the working middle class, living paycheck to paycheck — created a $45 billion market opportunity nationwide.
In my term as president, Chief Justice Jorge Labarga launched the Florida Commission on Access to Civil Justice, recognizing this is a societal problem that cannot be cured by the legal profession alone. We invited members of the business community to join us at the table to try to figure out the access to justice crisis. This important work continues, and I am confident in the next couple of years we will see a dramatic shift in the way our citizens can access justice in our legal system.
One tangible accomplishment this year was creating a brand new resource for our members called The Florida Bar Practice Resource Institute. Anyone with a Florida Bar number can go to www.floridabar.org/PRI and receive help with all of the business aspects of setting up, managing, merging, or closing a professional practice. Dubbed the “technology president,” I recognized we didn’t have a good current, Web-based resource for our Florida Bar members. Thanks to the work of the Technology Committee and Member Benefits Committee, we were able to deliver.
But the biggest challenge awaiting our new Bar President Ramón Abadin, who will be sworn in at the Annual Convention on June 26, is continuing the lively debate of Vision 2016. He will need your full attention.
I am heartened to see so many of our members educating themselves about our changing world. So many of you have signed on to the FlipBoard application to read what the Board of Governors members are reading every day, by simply searching “BOG” on the FlipBoard App.
Statewide, I hear the conversation gaining momentum.
As former Bar President Eugene Pettis, Abadin, and I have traveled around the country observing other state bar associations, one thing became crystal clear: The Florida Bar is years ahead of the rest of the state bar associations.
Unfortunately, we are behind the curve on outside technological forces shaping the way legal services are being delivered. We need to figure out a way to speed up.
In this ever-changing environment, our internal Bar has operated in much the same way for the past 50 years, and must become more nimble and reactive. We are on our way.
Your 52-member Board of Governors is dynamic, energized, and dedicated, and it has been my absolute pleasure to work with them for the past nine years. The wonderful Bar staff has been ready to help whenever I called.
At the helm is Jack Harkness, the longest serving bar executive director in the country, hitting his 35-year mark this year. Every Florida Bar president says the same thing: We could not do our job without Jack, a truly unique person with a heart of gold and mind that is sharp, inquisitive, and reflective.
Our annual convention this month in Boca Raton is aptly titled: “Charting a Course to the Future.” I plan to sail off into the sunset and re-engage in the full-time practice of law (much to the excitement of my law partners). I will never forget my year as Florida Bar president, the lessons learned while traveling the state and speaking to voluntary bars, interacting with our members from Key West to Pensacola and everywhere in between.
From the bottom of my heart, I thank you for this opportunity to serve this wonderful Florida Bar. Smooth sailing!
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