How are local professionalism panels working?

"It works because we care, and we let them know we care."

West Palm Beach attorney David Prather identified that as the key to the 15th Circuit's Local Professionalism Panel, set up under the Supreme Court's Commission on Professionalism's plan to have a local means of addressing lawyers' professional conduct.

The 15th Circuit has heard more cases than any other LPP around the state, a statistic that Amy Borman, who co-chairs the Palm Beach County Bar Association's Professionalism Commission and who serves on the 15th Circuit LPP, attributes to its taking over for an existing Palm Beach County Bar professionalism effort.

Other circuits have just created or are setting up their own LPPs. In compliance with last year's order from the Supreme Court to establish the panels, circuits are tailoring their professional programs to meet local needs. However three programs contacted by the News--in the 15th, Second, and Fifth circuits--did have one thing in common in that all three include a strong education and training element in their local programs.

"We have power point presentations, which we have through the [Henry Latimer] Professionalism Center at The Florida Bar," Borman said.

Those are shown at CLEs around the circuit and presented at larger law firms, and the state attorneys and public defenders offices.

"At the end, we talked about if you are dealing with someone who is unprofessional, we want you to make a complaint," Borman said.

She and Prather said the 15th Circuit had an advantage in that the Palm Beach County Bar Association for years had an ongoing professionalism program, which was adapted to meet the Supreme Court's order last year.

"We just changed our name from council to panel. We already had it in place," Borman said. "We were already doing what they asked."

The panel evaluates the incoming complaints, she said. If the complaint is about a judge, it automatically goes to the panel. If it's about a lawyer, it is reviewed to make sure it meets the program's criteria. The panel got nine complaints over the past year and got involved in eight of those. Six or seven members from the larger LPP are chosen to sit on a case.

The panel includes judges, senior lawyers, a local representative from the Bar Board of Governors (Prather, in this case), and others.

"It's been everything from nasty emails to an attorney being disrespectful and rude in the courtroom," Borman said of the complaints. One attorney, originally from out of state...