Young Lawyers in the News

New inductee Francine Fishbein and John M. Stewart at the Ceremony for Induction of Candidates for Admission to The Florida Bar that was held at the Florida Supreme Court.

TRANSCRIPT OF SPEECH by John M. Stewart
FLORIDA SUPREME COURT INDUCTION CEREMONY
October 9, 2006

May it please the Court, my name is John Stewart and I am the President of The Young Lawyers Division of The Florida Bar.  I appreciate the honor the Court has bestowed upon myself and the Young Lawyers Division in allowing me to speak briefly before you today at this wonderful ceremony.  Today is Columbus Day, the day we associate with Columbus’ discovering of America.  Today will begin your discovering of The Florida Bar and all that it has to offer.  In discovering The Florida Bar, let me tell you what I view as three priorities of interest for you to consider. 

First, is pro bono publico; the pro bono activities for the good of the public that The Florida Bar and its attorneys perform every day.  The Florida Bar’s position as adopted by The Florida Supreme Court calls for lawyers to contribute at least 20 hours of free legal work for the poor or to donate $350.00 to legal service organizations that represent the indigent.  In 1973 it was estimated that Florida lawyers provided 454 hours of free legal service to the poor; in 1983 that number was approximately 699,000 hours; in 1993 that number increased to approximately 1.1 Million hours of pro bono work; in 2003 that number was estimated to be over 1.5 Million hours of pro bono work, coupled with over $3.7 Million contributed to legal aid organizations by Florida lawyers.  Young lawyers perform much of this work and I encourage you to not only continue this tradition but improve the tradition of providing pro bono services.  The Young Lawyers Division honors the young lawyer who has given the most of his or her time in the voluntary performance of pro bono service and that award is bestowed in this very Court at a fantastic award ceremony. 

The second point of interest for you to consider, is the issue of professionalism.  Attorneys in Florida continue to pursue the lofty goal that Florida’s attorneys will have the highest ethical and professional standards in the country.  Often our young attorneys often face the most pressures in balancing time, life, family and work.  These pressures, whether in the large law firm setting, within the governmental environment, or when hanging out your own shingle, can sometimes lead one to the occasional unethical or unprofessional action.  Under the current leadership of Justice Cantero, The Supreme Court Commission on Professionalism and The Florida Bar’s Standing Committee on Professionalism strive to assure that all lawyers, and particularly young lawyers, have the tools that they need to handle the daily stresses of their new-found work environment so that they do not stray from our professionalism ideals.  Toward that end, the Commission and the Committee on Professionalism will be holding a spring retreat solely focused on how best to protect young lawyers and ensure that their actions maintain our high professionalism and ethical standards.  I encourage each of you to contact me with your suggestions or comments regarding the stresses that may affect your decision-making as you venture out on your new profession. 

Finally, I have always believed that it is of the utmost importance for young lawyers to be engaged not only in The Florida Bar but also in the legislative governmental process.  The judiciary and our profession are routinely attacked and lawyers are not always positioned to properly defend those attacks.  Toward that end, the Young Lawyers Division is holding its annual Governmental Symposium at the mid-year meeting in Miami on Friday, January 19, 2007 and the subject of that Symposium is “Grass Roots Lobbying Efforts.”  Young lawyers will be educated on the process of staying involved in legislative and governmental activities so that they can protect not only The Florida Bar and the judiciary as a whole, but also their own personal practice areas.  This Symposium will be followed by the first ever “Young Lawyers Day in Tallahassee.” 

Once the swearing-in ceremony is complete, you will now be members of The Florida Bar and the Young Lawyers Division.  I welcome you and strongly encourage you and ask that you encourage your colleagues as well to find out about ways to get involved with The Florida Bar and with the Young Lawyers Division.  You can find out about the activities of the Young Lawyers Division does at our website at www.flayld.org.  Or you can feel free to contact me at anytime. 

Congratulations and much success as you embark on your careers.