A first look at an extensive review of the Bar’s disciplinary process and revisiting a controversial criminal procedural rule amendment will be on the agenda for the Bar Board of Governors when it meets December 16 at Amelia Island.

The board will also, among several other issues, look at a proposed new certification area for government lawyers, and take final action on rules and policies affecting grievance designated reviewers and the way the Supreme Court considers amendments to Bar rules.

Bar President-elect Hank Coxe, who also chairs the Special Commission on Lawyer Regulation, told the board in October he hoped to have the commission’s preliminary report in board members’ hands at the December meeting.

No action will be expected at that meeting, but Coxe said that would give members a chance to read and digest the 260-page report, which has 130 pages of findings and 130 pages of appendices.

Among the recommendations are a dramatic expansion of mediation in the grievance process and putting more, but not all, of the Bar’s public records about grievances on the Internet.

The proposed new criminal procedure rule received extensive debate at the board’s October meeting. The Supreme Court asked the Fast Track Subcommittee of the Criminal Procedure Rules Committee to review a state law that the court had struck down as unconstitutional to determine if there was a way it could be incorporated into the rules.

That statute would have abolished nonmonetary bonds at first appearance hearings for those charged with serious violent crimes. Board members expressed concern about the fast track process, whether it had been followed properly, and about the subcommittee’s proposal to take the pro-visions of the stricken statute and graft them to the rules.

Saying they needed more time, board members voted to take up the proposal in December, and inform both the subcommittee and the court of that action.

The board is also scheduled to take final action on two matters proposed by the Disciplinary Procedure Committee that it had on first reading in October.

One would add guidelines to Standing Board Policies for board members acting as designated reviewers in grievance cases. Those guidelines are intended to help board members carry out those duties, especially new board members unfamiliar with the process.

The second DPC item would amend Bar rules on the way the Supreme Court considers amendments to those rules. Currently those rules are considered by the court in adversarial oral arguments. The proposed change would have the court consider those amendments in conference to which interested parties would be invited and which would allow more informal discussions and give-and-take among the parties and justices.

On other matters:

• The board is scheduled to receive the final audit for the 2004-05 fiscal year. The board has already heard that the Bar received a favorable review.

• The Investment Committee will make a presentation on diversifying the Bar’s investments. Currently, the Bar’s reserves and long-term funds are invested in stock and bond mutual funds, and some cash. The committee is looking at diversifying to enhance returns without increasing risk. Possibilities include hedge funds, commodities, and real estate investment trusts.

• The board will consider a request by the Government Lawyer Section to create a new certification area for government lawyers. The new specialty would be called State and Federal Government and Administrative Practice, but the Administrative Law Section objected to some of the details. The two sections have worked out their differences, and the Board of Legal Specialization and Education has unanimously approved the compromise.

• The City, County and Local Government Law Section is expected to have advice on a request from the state Ethics Commission about Ethics Opinion 77-30. That opinion advises that a lawyer hired to represent an entire county commission cannot represent a single commissioner appearing before the state Ethics Commission. Local government lawyers have appeared before the state Ethics Commission representing individual commissioners on ethics complaints, and the commission expressed concerns that the opinion does not address whether any conflict may be waived.

• The board will consider an advertising appeal on whether language in a lawyer’s ad creates an unjustified expectation. The ad says the lawyer uses his 45 years of experience to “help accident victims like you get the money you’re entitled to.”

• The board will also make several appointments. Those include five lawyers to two-year terms on the Florida Realtor-Attorney Joint Committee, one lawyer for a three-year term on the Florida Rural Legal Services, Inc., Board of Directors, one lawyer representing the Northern District for a four-year term on the U.S. 11th Circuit Judicial Conference, and one lawyer for a two-year term on the Greater Orlando Area Legal Services, Inc., Board of Directors.