Gender Bias.

Never mind that members just recently elected the female candidate (from a two-person firm) for Bar president-elect over her male counterpart--in a tough, close contest. With the June 15 News headline "12-point plan aims to eradicate bias," The Florida Bar has anointed itself, once and for all, as the omnipresent, autocratic "nanny" of Florida lawyers.

The slippery-slope campaign alleges that Florida attorneys are currently engaging in implicit or explicit "gender bias" on such an egregious level as to warrant wholesale reviews, committees formation, and new categories of compliance. The Bar plans to develop and disseminate "easy-to-use toolkits" so managing attorneys can uniformly address ways to run their businesses more decently (in line with Bar direction), and salaried associates or job applicants might assess their individual treatment and expectations.

Some specific campaign proposals: "Toolkits" that address fair and transparent compensation, family leave, gender-neutral hiring, etc.; new rules/policies for confidential reporting and grievances; nonpublic disciplinary measures for misconduct; and "blue ribbon" designations for those that show a "commitment to diversity" (alternately molding and shaming the ribbonless).

Governing bureaucracies (like the Bar) are loath to pull back on the reins. They won't restrain their impetus toward expansion of power and scope of authority--at least in part, and perhaps subconsciously--because their...