About | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline

34 Fla. B. News 1 (2007)

handle is hein.barjournals/flabn0034 and id is 1 raw text is: 





       Committee Preference Forms are now at www.FloridaBar.org

White named president-elec


By Theresa E. Davis
Assistant Editor
   John G. Jay White III, a veteran member of The Board of
Governors, has become president-elect designate of The Florida Bar.
   White filed unopposed to be president-elect for 2007-08. Filing closed
December 15.
   White, a shareholder at Richman Greer in West Palm Beach, will be
sworn in at the June Annual Meeting in Orlando as president-elect when
current President-elect Frank Angones takes the oath as president. White
will become president in June 2008.
   White is the quintessential Floridian. Like tens of thousands of other
Floridians, White spends time away from his office on his boat. You may
find him fishing or catching lobster or- if he's dockside- watching Gators
football. A Pensacola native, White received both his undergraduate degree


and his law degree from the University of Florida.
   With his new responsibilities, White now will spend less time boating
and more time doing what he feels is his professional duty. White said lie
was taught to give back more than lie takes and hopes to give back to a
profession that he says has been very good to him.
   I truly enjoy working with our wonderful members of the Board of
Governors and The Florida Bar members throughout the state, lie said.
   White, a member of the Board of Governors since 2000, already has his
finger on the pulse of issues facing Florida lawyers. White said he would like
to ensure adequate funding of the court system, criminal conflict counsel, and
the dependency cases. White also hopes to improve upon the Bar's existing
relationships with the legislative and executive branches of government and
                                         See White, page 5


                                                                                                                                                  est. 1974





         qThe Flonda Bar News



Volume 34, Number 1                                               floridabar.org                                                        January 1, 2007


Rule allowing

judges to fine

lawyers nixed
By Gary Blankenship
Senior Editor
   The Florida Bar Board of Governors is
supporting a call to withdraw from Supreme
Court consideration a controversial proposed
rule giving trial judges the right to fine and
send to professionalism school lawyers who
act badly in their courtrooms.
   The court's Commission on Professionalism
notified the Bar in November that it was
asking the court to allow proposed Rule 3-5.4
to be withdrawn, and asked the Bar to support
that step. The board did so at its December 8
meeting in Key Biscayne.
   The commission and the Bar's Committee
on Professionalism had submitted the
suggested rule to the court last summer. The
rule would spell out that it is within judges'
authority to levy a fine between $100 and
$500 and send to a Bar professionalism school
lawyers who acted unprofessionally in court.
The fines would have been paid to the Bar's
Henry Latimer Center for Professionalism.
   The court forwarded the rule to the Bar
and asked that it either include the rule in its
annual rules package to be submitted early
this year or submit a comment on the rule
early this month. The Bar, in turn, sought
feedback from its sections and committees,
as well as other organizations.
   The rule found some support, notably from
   See Professionalism, page 19



   Cha-ching?
   The B          tt      nomic
     sure'       nd t    46/0 of
     responde    s     hey get no
     bonuse ,Id dhave
 somethh.i0) do with 2 9/0 of the


Source: The Florida Bar's Research, Planning
and Evaluation Department


the Grade


Barry U., FlU granted full ABA accreditation.


BARRY U. DEAN R;CHARD HURT leads the celebration at the university in Orlando.

By Jan Pudlow
Senior Editor
   Delivering doubly good news to a pair of Florida law schuols, the ABA granted
 full accreditation to both Miami's Florida International University and Orlando's
 Barry University in December.
   The achievement was especially gratifying for Barry officials, who had traveled
 a weary journey seeking ABA accreditation, marked by the resignation of its law
 school dean and a petition to the Florida Supreme Court by the Orange County Bar
 Association seeking to help 109 Barry law school graduates caught in the accreditation
 quagmire. Because those students graduated in January, June, and July 2000- more
 than 12 months earlier than the ABA's February 4, 2002, decision to grant Barry
 provisional accreditation - they could not take the bar exam and their careers were
 stuck in limbo. Eighty-six of those students returned to Barry for two additional years,
                                               See Schools, page 8


Court calls for
   While grateful for 110 new trial court
judges over the past two years, Chief Justice
Fred Lewis' message to the legislature is
Florida still needs 37 more judges if the courts
are to operate efficiently and to be accessible
to all.
   On December 14, In re: Certification of
the Need for Additional Judges, (case no.
SC06-2267), Lewis justified the need for
two additional judges in the district courts of
appeal, 22 circuit court judges, and 13 county
court judges.
   The certification of need breaks down as
follows:
   - A new judge for both the Second and
Fourth DCAs.


37 new judges
    * Six additional circuit court judges for the
 Fifth Judicial Circuit.
    - Three additional circuit court judges for
 the Seventh Judicial Circuit.
    - Two additional circuit court judges for
 the Fourth Judicial Circuit.
    - One additional circuit court judge each
 for the Second, Sixth, Eighth, Ninth, 10th,
 13th, 14th, 15th, 18th, 19th, and 20thjudicial
 circuits.
    - Four additional county court judges for
 Hillsborough County.
    - Two additional county courtjudges each
 for Duval and Palm Beach counties.

              See Judges, page 15


Board moves

closer to Web

site ad rules
By Gary Blankenship
Senior Editor
   The Bar Board of Governors came close
but failed to reach agreement on a proposed
advertising rule regulating lawyer and law
firm Web sites.
   The board rejected a proposed rule
from the Special Committee on Website
Advertising Rules and then rejected an
amendment that would have added a
comment to the rule to clarify how lawyers'
Web sites could comply with Bar advertising
rules.
   The board spent about two hours at
its December 8 meeting in Key Biscayne
debating the proposed rule and how it would
affect Bar members.
   Most members appeared to agree with the
committee's approach to regulation but had
questions about how technically feasible and
how easy for Bar members to understand and
implement it would be.
   Board member Chobee Ebbets, chair
of the special committee, said the panel's
suggested rule would make Web sites subject
to advertising Rule 4-7.2, which limits the
content of ads. The Web ads, though, would
be exempt from the requirement that they
be submitted to the Bar for review. Rule
4-7.2 bars the use of testimonials, language
describing the quality of a lawyer or law
firm's services, references to past successes,
or language promising results, among
others.
   Ebbets said attorneys could still post
such information, but it would have to be in
a restricted area of their Web sites accessed
only by the viewer taking an affirmative
           See Web sites page 16

What Is HeinOnline?

HeinOnline is a subscription-based resource containing thousands of academic and legal journals from inception; complete coverage of government documents such as U.S. Statutes at Large, U.S. Code, Federal Register, Code of Federal Regulations, U.S. Reports, and much more. Documents are image-based, fully searchable PDFs with the authority of print combined with the accessibility of a user-friendly and powerful database. For more information, request a quote or trial for your organization below.



Short-term subscription options include 24 hours, 48 hours, or 1 week to HeinOnline.

Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?

profiles profiles most