Board moves to improve 50-year Member/Senior Counselor Luncheon and Program
The Board of Governors has approved a series of recommendations for enhancing a signature program that honors 50-year Florida Bar members and senior counselors.
At a December 3 meeting on Amelia Island, President Michael Tanner called the 50-year Member/Senior Counselor Luncheon and Program “an important event for a very important group of our constituents.”
“It is a very meaningful milestone in their lives and their careers,” Tanner said. “For us to properly recognize that is very important, certainly to them and their families, and to us as an institution.”
A recurring challenge for program administrators is dealing with the disappointment of attorneys who retire just shy of the 50-year mark, Tanner said.
“They retire, believing that they will still be able to get their 50-year recognition, but they can’t because you’ve got to be a member in good standing,” Tanner said.
Active and inactive Florida Bar members are eligible if they remain members in good standing, said Cheri Wright, a Bar program administrator.
“Inactive members are eligible because they are still considered members in good standing,” Wright said. “Retired members are not considered members in good standing and are ineligible.”
One of the most popular events at the Annual Convention, the program this year featured a keynote address by former Florida Supreme Court Justice Rosemary Barkett, a 50-year honoree.
The program is paid for by The Florida Bar and facilitated by the Senior Lawyers Committee. Averaging about 400 recipients in recent years, the program is growing at a steady pace, Wright said.
Honorees receive a commemorative engraved tray, a certificate, and a lapel pin.
The program also honors Florida Bar “senior counselors,” a designation recommended by the Out of State Division.
It recognizes current active and inactive Florida Bar members who have practiced law for 50 years or more and have not previously been recognized by The Florida Bar for the accomplishment.
Senior counselor award candidates are required to write a letter requesting consideration. The letter must list all state bar memberships and indicate start and end dates. To be recognized this year, a senior counselor applicant’s cumulative 50 years in legal practice must have been completed by January 1.
Every year, a few lawyers request special consideration when they learn they are ineligible, Wright said. Some are deeply disappointed, but there is often little the staff can do, Wright said.
But that could change.
A subcommittee of the Program Evaluation Committee recommended giving the Bar’s Programs Division director and other Bar staff leaders the discretion to make an exception “if warranted.”
“The PEC subcommittee believes that these exceptions should be limited to extraordinary circumstances,” the recommendation states.
Wright said the Bar might consider an exemption for a member who makes it close to the 50-year finish line — within a year — but loses eligibility due to serious illness, or some other circumstance beyond that member’s control.
But exceptions would be rare, Wright said. Enforcing eligibility preserves the program’s integrity, Wright said.
“I don’t see bending the requirements very often,” she said.
The subcommittee also recommended that Bar staff “increase communication” with members who are reaching the 50-year milestone to make them aware of the eligibility requirements.
“The discussion was to better promote that and communicate that, to make sure that some of those folks don’t drop off that recognition list,” Tanner said. “I really want to commend the work of PEC and the subcommittee on this, I think these are great recommendations.”
