AI

 The Florida Bar has issued an opinion on AI, on the heels of their last-much anticipated opinion on the internet released last week ("The internet also known as the world wide web has the potential to help lawyers and clients through the use of such innovations as email. We however urge caution as electronic data will never replace letters, paper filing and lawyers appearing in court...").

You don't have to read the whole thing, and of course if you wear a robe to work, you don't have to read any of it, you have better things for your time. 

But here is our summary- AI is good and useful and if you use it the wrong way we will sanction you. 

FL Bar Ethics Op 24 1 by Anonymous PbHV4H on Scribd

CUETO'S REPORT BASHES BAR

When dog bites man, there is no headline. 
But when Judge Bites the Florida Bar, there is. 

Long rumored, much discussed, and the subject of a torrent of emails and comments to publish the Mueller Cueto report,  we present it for your review.  Have at it. 

The Florida Bar (motto "We'll get you my pretty and your little  dog too"). 
doesn't look good here.  Attorney Ramon Rodriguez vindicated in the Lewis/Tein/Miccosukee mess which has resulted in disbarment for other lawyers.  

Amended Report of Referee - Cueto by Anonymous X2glnmuma on Scribd

WELCOME TO FLORIDA. NOW LEAVE

Message to all attorneys in the other 49 states: Florida doesn't want you. 

Reciprocity, the comity that states extend to members of the bar: "you let our lawyers in your Bar and we'll let your lawyers in our Bar" doesn't exist in Florida. 

Florida has long believed that every lawyer in the union would want to retire here:

"Yeah, we bought a little place in Boca Raton and I'm going to hang out a shingle and do some closings from my house. The condo has a golf course and a clubhouse and canasta on Thursdays and Gladys's sister and her husband Hubert moved five years ago and they love it. We can't take these winters anymore." 

Meanwhile, no lawyers in Florida are saying: 

"Iris and I found a charming place in East Detroit. You can't believe how cheap houses are, and really we like the harsh winters. So we're going to retire and I'm going to pick up a few court appointments on the side." 

So the Bar waded in to this dispute and sent out a panicky email assuring us that while they are processing our renewal fees, they are otherwise DOING NOTHING. 
Yes, the Florida Bar, really really wants you to know that despite what you may heard around the water cooler (or the nespresso machine in our office which we absolutely love) the Bar is doing NOTHING about this. So don't worry, because if there is one thing the Florida Bar has shown us over the years is that they are absolutely experts at doing nothing. 

Dear Colleagues:
 
As your Eleventh Circuit representatives to the Board of Governors, we write to echo the email message you received yesterday from the President of The Florida Bar and to likewise assure you that we recognize the responsibility of representing you and the more than 100,000 lawyers licensed in Florida. We have not nor will we ever advance a recommendation or an initiative contrary to the interest of the lawyers we represent and the public we serve.

We emphasize three points:
           (Maybe  you thought we were exaggerating):  No Action Being Taken:  To be clear, The Florida Bar and its Board of Governors have taken no action on the issue of admission by motion/reciprocity and have no current plans to do so without input from membership. In fact, the issue has only been one part of a broader analysis – Vision 2016 – studying the evolving practice of law in Florida and throughout the country.
            Vision 2016 and the Future:   Under Vision 2016, the goal to date has been simple: to identify challenges facing the legal profession, analyze issues and make recommendations as to how best move the practice forward and remain competitive in today’s fast-changing landscape. These topics range from bar admissions and technology to legal education and access to legal services.
            An inclusive process:  The Florida Bar’s rule-making process is intended to be collaborative and inclusive by design, with all Florida Bar members strongly encouraged to share their comments, feedback and concerns on any issue brought forward for discussion. These comments can be shared via email or by going directly to The Florida Bar’s dedicated Vison 2016 site at www.floridabar.org/vision2016. Together, we can positively chart a path forward for the organization and the profession.

As we move forward, we will continue to be staunch advocates for all of the lawyers we represent and the public we serve.

Thank you.
The Florida Bar, Eleventh Circuit Board of Governors
 
Steven Davis
Dori Foster Morales
John H. (Jack) Hickey
Michael Higer
Dennis Kainen
Leslie Lott
Roland Sanchez-Medina

JOINT POST BY JUSTICE BUILDING, SOUTH FLORIDA LAWYERS, AND SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF FLORIDA BLOGGERS

You lose your rights, not with a bang, but with a whimper. One small encroachment after another. A bureaucrat pushes the edges here, a prosecutor challenges the boundaries in a few cases there. No one says or does anything and then you look up and suddenly a cherished right is gone. 

Nothing is more insidious and dangerous to our constitutional rights than a bureaucrat who, under the cover of a government agency, seeks to intimidate someone. That is why the letters we have posted  from the Florida Bar to attorney and blogger William Gelin have so alarmed us: the bloggers who run the Justice Building Blog, the South Florida Lawyers Blog, and the Southern District of Florida Blog.

Bar Letters from Justicebuilding

WIlliam Gelin runs the JAA Blog which covers the Broward County Courthouse. To Mr. Gelin's credit he has never sought to hide his identity as the lawyer behind the blog. As a blogger who has openly challenged the way things are done in Broward, Mr. Gelin has courageously taken on numerous people in Broward County, including judges. Now, apparently after a series of posts about two Judges in West Palm Beach and Broward County, (ironically) anonymous bar complaints have prompted the Bar to send Mr. Gelin letters seeking him to admit or deny his involvement in the JAA Blog. 

We as the legal blogging community in Miami view these letters as an unprecedented attack on the First Amendment and freedom of speech. The letters are chilling, and will have a chilling affect on the free speech of lawyers. Judges are invested with responsibilities and powers and all too often those powers cloud their judgment. The ability of lawyers to freely comment on a Judge represents an important check on those powers. The ability of citizens to write about the issues of the day has a long and storied history in our country. James Madison anonymously published many of the federalist papers under the pseudonym Publius in the local newspapers of the time. Blogging, anonymous and otherwise, serves a similar purpose. 

The Florida Bar's letters to Mr. Gelin amount to both a fishing expedition and a veiled threat for him to stop criticizing Judges from the pages of his blog.  We jointly condemn the letters the Bar has written, and stand behind our colleague in this matter. That is why all three blogs have taken the unprecedented step of running this post simulataneously. We urge our readers to voice their support of Mr. Gelin by writing to the Bar to condemn the actions of the Bar Counsel in this case. 

Thank you. 

Justice Building Blog

South Florida Lawyers

Southern District of Florida Blog

BAR NONE

EDITORIAL

TC PALM Editorial: Judicial Candidates Hide Behind Florida Bar's Restrictive Free-Speech Canon

Florida's sparsely contested judicial contests continue to suffer from a lack of transparency

Florida has 162 Circuit Court judgeships up for grabs this year. So far, just 23 of those races are contested and only five incumbents face a challenge.

Voters might infer that the current crop of sitting judges is doing such a spectacular job that no competition is necessary. That questionable inference is buttressed by the Florida Bar, which effectively muzzles campaign debate via the "Code of Judicial Conduct."

Canon 7 prevents judicial candidates from making "pledges or promises of conduct in office other than the faithful and impartial performance of the duties of the office." It also prohibits "statements that commit or appear to commit them with respect to cases, controversies or issues likely to come before the court."

The Code of Conduct may be a well-meaning attempt to keep "politics" out of the judiciary, but elections are, by definition, political. To properly exercise their franchise, voters need transparency not robotic responses and legalistic stonewalls.
Federal courts, up to the U.S. Supreme Court, have repeatedly held that judicial candidates like every other seeker of public office have First Amendment rights to free speech.

In a 1990 case, American Civil Liberties Union v. the Florida Bar, a federal district court threw out provisions of Florida's Code of Judicial Conduct that barred judicial candidates from announcing their views of disputed legal or political issues.
Yet this state's Bar and its disciplinary council continue to chill the environment.

"Florida is defying these decisions," says James Bopp, an Indiana attorney who litigates free-speech issues nationwide. In 2006, he sued over judicial candidates' failure to respond to a questionnaire from the Florida Family Policy Council. The case is pending at the 11th U.S. Circuit Court.

Calling this state's canon "unconstitutional," Bopp says the Bar has "a lot of authority over judges." And, it seems, over voters, as well. With precious little disclosure or debate, the electorate can only go by what the Bar deems appropriate.

Acting as a virtual cartel, the Bar indulges in a bit of politicking itself by issuing recommendations in judicial retention elections. Batting 1.000, it has advised Floridians to retain every judge, and voters have obeyed that counsel every time. The Soviet Union's Politburo had greater electoral diversity. (Rumpole notes that our Comrade Bar President has done a very good job, da?)

Lawyers, including lawyers who want to be judges, maintain that the judiciary is "different" than the executive or legislative branches of government. But to suggest that politics don't enter into the courtroom is simply fatuous. As long as the Florida Constitution provides for election of judges, the electoral process must be open and transparent. Democracy demands it.
"There's a move nationally toward further disclosure of judicial candidates' philosophy," says Tom Fitton, president of Judicial Watch in Washington, D.C. That trend, backed by federal court decisions, needs to play out in the Sunshine State, which, in other arenas, has some of the strongest open-government laws in the country.

It's time the Bar and its barristers let the sun shine in.

Rumpole says, isn't it a little bit much to ask our dear robed readers to speak intelligently in public on issues of importance? It's not like most of them had any training or experience in public speaking before ascending to the bench.