Board approves plan to enhance professionalism
Automated platform for resolving civil disputes also ready for review; Special Committee on Mentoring New Lawyers takes shape; and Florida High School Appellate Brief Writing & Moot Court Program revived
The Board of Governors granted preliminary approval of a sweeping plan to improve professionalism, endorsed a statewide, automated platform for resolving civil disputes, and greenlighted a series of proposed rule amendments.
Meeting May 20 in Tampa, the board also approved a request by President-elect Gary Lesser to form a “Special Committee on Mentoring New Lawyers.”
When it comes to the professionalism proposal, one of his top priorities, President Michael Tanner assured the board they were only granting preliminary approval.
“What we’re voting on here today is not a formal rule proposal,” Tanner said. “We are voting to simply allow us, informally, to send this to the Supreme Court, and gauge their response.”
The proposal has been under development for the past year by the 20-member Special Committee for the Review of Professionalism in Florida, which is co-chaired by Lesser and Ft. Pierce attorney Elizabeth Hunter.
Among other things, the proposal includes a proposed Supreme Court administrative order that would establish a revised and updated “Code for Resolving Professionalism Referrals.”
Another provision would require Bar members to complete additional professionalism credits every three-year CLE reporting cycle.
Surveys show Bar members are increasingly concerned about declining levels of professionalism, and expect Bar leaders to act, Tanner said.
“Every member in this room has had an experience with an unprofessional lawyer,” Tanner said. “This is something we need.”
Lesser said the proposed code “establishes [more uniform] local professionalism panels (LLPs) in each judicial circuit that will receive, screen, and act on complaints of unprofessional conduct; and address those complaints informally, if possible.”
Local professionalism panels have existed for years, but if the proposed code is adopted, it would increase and standardize the informal “peer-to-peer” mentoring process for addressing instances of unprofessional conduct — separate and apart from instances of misconduct that require the formal grievance process, Lesser said.
Lesser stressed that the process does not replace the Florida Rules of Professional Conduct or the formal disciplinary process for more serious lawyer misconduct.
Hunter, who also chairs the Standing Committee on Professionalism, said “LPPs’ process for peer mentoring is very effective and our goal is to make sure more people know that this resource is there, and it works.”
Under the revised code, the work of the LPPs would be confidential, but they would be required to submit annual reports – including the number and type of cases – to The Florida Bar, but the reports would not include lawyer names, Lesser said.
The proposed order states: “The LPPs are entities independent of The Florida Bar, established in each circuit for the purposes of informally resolving referrals or claimed unprofessional conduct by lawyers participating in that circuit, including appellate practice and transactional practice.”
It also says, “any person may initiate an unprofessional conduct referral against a member of The Florida Bar through the appropriate judicial circuit’s local professionalism panel”. Local professionalism panel members and staff would have “absolute immunity” from civil liability for their work associated with the panel.
The special committee also proposed increasing to 3 hours the number of professionalism CLE credits lawyers must earn every three-year reporting cycle.
If approved, a Florida Bar member’s overall continuing legal education credit requirement for a three-year cycle would increase from 33 to 35 hours, which Lesser said is still less than the annual CLE requirement of many other state bars.
The special committee based its work on In Re Code for Resolving Professionalism Complaints, Case No. SC13-688, in which the Supreme Court identified The Florida Bar Professionalism Expectations, the Florida Bar Oath of Professionalism, the Rules Regulating the Florida Bar, and the decisions of the Supreme Court, as the collective “integrated professionalism standards.”
Statistics show that most of the 110,000 Florida Bar members meet the high standards the profession demands. The Bar logged 8,000 complaints in 2019, but only a small fraction, 325, resulted in some form of disciplinary action.
The statistics also demonstrate that most lawyers are unfamiliar with the disciplinary process.
Both co-chairs said one of the major goals of the special committee is to increase access and awareness.
“Education is an important component,” Hunter said, “so that attorneys are aware of what the professionalism standards are and how they are enforced.”
Automated Platform
The board also voted unanimously to ask the Supreme Court to forward a COVID-19 Pandemic Recovery Task Force proposal to create a statewide, automated platform for resolving small-value civil disputes to its Florida Courts Technology Commission. The platform was another of Tanner’s priorities.
A “Turbo Court” platform developed by Matterhorn is already in use in some circuits in Florida and could be easily integrated with the Florida Courts E-Filing Portal, Co-Chair Jay Kim said. Tanner initially asked for a platform that would help resolve disputes worth less than $1,000, but the task force thinks it would be worthwhile to raise the threshold to $8,000, Kim said.
Florida could be a national leader, Kim said, adding it would probably be the first of its kind in the nation.
Tanner thinks the system could greatly expand access to justice.
“This has the potential to be a gamechanger for us,” he said.
Mentoring
In other business, the board approved a Program Evaluation Committee proposal, requested by Lesser, to create a Special Committee on Mentoring New Lawyers.
The committee’s goal will be to create mentoring programs for attorneys that have three or less years of experience and practice in firms with three or fewer attorneys, said PEC Chair Roland Sanchez-Medina.
“The idea of a mentoring program has been on my mind for a few years,” Lesser, the incoming president, told the board.
More beginning lawyers are striking out on their own and losing an opportunity to be guided by an experience professional, Lesser said.
“They’re not being advised on ethics and professionalism; there’s no one to talk to them about a career path,” Lesser said.
Lesser appointed two former Young Lawyers Division presidents, Katherine Hurst Miller and Zackary Zuroweste, as co-chairs.
Lesser said he expects to see proposals developed before the end of the calendar year.
Other Business
The board also received a presentation by University of Miami Law Professor William Sklar, chair of the Real Property Probate and Trust Law Section’s “Condominium Law and Policy on Life Safety Issues Advisory Task Force.”
The taskforce was formed immediately after the June 24 collapse of Champlain Towers South condominium claimed the lives of 98 Surfside residents.
At a preliminary meeting on July 2, the taskforce set a 90-day deadline to hear from witnesses and craft recommendations to enhance life and safety, Sklar told the board.
The taskforce served as a legal resource for policymakers and did not advocate for specific legislation, Sklar stressed.
“It’s not a lobbying effort; it is an advocacy effort for the purposes of protecting life and safety,” he said.
The taskforce found that 922,000 of Florida’s 4.5 million condominium dwellers live in residential structures that are more than 30 years old, Sklar said.
With the exception of Miami-Dade and Broward counties, which require safety inspections every 40 years, the state has no requirement for regular safety inspections, Sklar said.
“You have a 60-year statute, a very evolved statute, with no standards,” he said.
Lawmakers filed bills for the regular session that convened in January that included many of the taskforce recommendations, including regular inspections. But the bills failed after lawmakers were forced into overtime to complete budget negotiations.
“I like to think the Bar stepped up and advised the Legislature on important life safety,” Sklar said, adding that the taskforce will continue to serve as a resource.
Tanner agreed with Sklar.
“This is one of the best examples of the Bar … serving the public,” Tanner said. “This is a very pervasive issue that affects the state.”
In other business, the board:
• Approved the president-elect’s standing committee assignments and leadership appointments for the 2022-2023 Bar year.
• Elected veteran board members Tom Wert, Paige Greenlee, and Michael Fox Orr to the Executive Committee.
• Approved a Program Evaluation Committee proposal to revive the Florida High School Appellate Brief Writing & Moot Court Program. The state competition is a two-part program that gives competitors an opportunity to write appellate briefs and conduct mock arguments before the Florida Supreme Court.
• Received a demonstration of the new technology featured in the updated The Florida Bar Benchmarks program, revamped in partnership between the Bar’s Constitutional Judiciary Committee and the University of Central Florida’s Lou Frey Institute.
• Approved a proposed amendment to Rule 20-5.1 (Generally), that would add a character and fitness requirement to the application and reapplication process for the Florida Registered Paralegal program.
