Board of Governors Meeting Preview – March 2024
The following items are up for action or discussion at the March 15, 2024, meeting of the Board of Governors as of today; changes may occur before the meeting. Please contact your board representative(s) if you have any input or questions.
The board will consider a proposal from the Bar’s Board of Legal Specialization and Education to allow Bar members to receive 1 hour general continuing legal education (CLE) credit for every 4 hours of pro bono service, not to exceed five hours of CLE in a three-year reporting cycle. The Florida Supreme Court, in an August 1, 2023, letter, requested that the Bar consider “Authorizing continuing legal education credit or professionalism credit for pro bono participation.” Justices issued the letter after reviewing recommendations by the Bar’s Special Committee on Greater Public Access to Legal Services.
The board is scheduled to receive a report from the Special Committee on AI Tools & Resources, including an update on Miami-Dade Public Defender Carlos Martinez’s deployment of the Casetext legal assistant “CoCounsel,” an advanced, large-language model based on Chat GPT-4. The office has been using the assistant since June 2023.
The board will also consider whether a law firm’s advertisement with a “magic button” “can reasonably be interpreted as a prediction or guarantee of success of specific results the lawyer can achieve” in violation of Rule 4-7.13(b)(1). The ad features a disclaimer that provides, “Dramatization, Not an Actual Event,” but the Standing Committee on Advertising still concluded that the ad was an impermissible prediction or guarantee of success.
In addition, the board will consider a proposed amendment to Rule 4-7.19 (Evaluation of Advertisements) replacing language that sets a $150 fee for review of timely filed advertisements and a $250 fee for late-filed advertisements with a statement that the fees are “set by the bar’s executive director as approved by the Board of Governors.” The revisions would also add that the Bar would provide the Florida Supreme Court with 30 days’ notice prior to the effectiveness of any increase in a fee amount, or the imposition of a new fee. The Board Review Committee on Professional Ethics proposal notes that the fees were established to cover the cost of evaluating the ads and enforcing the rules. This proposal is on first reading.
In other business, the board will:
- Weigh a screening committee’s recommendation of four candidates to replace outgoing Florida Bar Board of Governors Public Member Linda Goldstein of Tampa. The Supreme Court will select one of the nominees to serve a two-year term commencing June 21, 2024.
- Consider the appointment of an attorney to serve a four-year term commencing July 1, 2024, on the Judicial Ethics Advisory Committee.