FLMIC gifts another $100,000 to enhance lawyer professionalism
Ray Ferrero
The Florida Lawyers Mutual Insurance Company, in conjunction with The Florida Bar, is donating $100,000 to an endowment that supports professionalism in the legal profession.
“The fund will support the delivery of programs to promote professionalism, civility, ethical conduct, and legal practice competency among our members,” former Bar President Gregory Coleman said in a FLMIC statement. “Professionalism is the cornerstone of every lawyer’s practice.”
FLMIC Chair and former Bar President Ray Ferrero, Jr., announced the endowment at a December 4 meeting of the Board of Governors.
Ferrero described the creation of FLMIC in 1989, when Bar leaders were trying to find a solution to a shrinking number of liability insurance providers and skyrocketing premiums.
“Many firms, including my own, were temporarily without coverage and that’s not a good feeling,” Ferrero said.
Thousands of Florida lawyers helped raise $2.5 million, Ferrero said. The fund was augmented by a $500,000 contribution by the Bar, and FLMIC was born with two employees working out of the basement of the Bar’s Tallahassee headquarters, Ferrero said.
“Obviously, Florida recognized the need and responded,” Ferrero said. “It really was a statewide effort by so many people.”
Today, FLMIC provides “a continuing and professional source of professional liability insurance based on a reasonable liability standard and reasonable premiums,” Ferrero said.
The company now has 13 employees stationed at its headquarters in Oviedo, and boasts more than $115 million in assets and a “surplus north of $73 million,” Ferrero said. Wall Street rating services give FLMIC an “A” rating, Ferrero said.
President Dori Foster-Morales thanked Ferrero for his presentation and for the FLMIC donation.
