Bar lauded for its legal advocacy: members also worry about over-saturation of lawyers and balancing work and family.

More than 74 percent of respondents to a new Bar survey say the Bar is an excellent or good advocate for the legal profession, up from 71 percent two years ago.

Florida lawyers also indicated that balancing family and work, time management, and stress are their top personal concerns. The most significant problems facing the profession include the public's poor perception of lawyers, the lack of ethics/ professionalism, and too many lawyers.

Those findings were among the conclusions drawn from a survey conducted by the Bar's Research, Planning and Evaluation Department.

Those surveyed also shared their opinions on lawyer advertising, career satisfaction, and judicial competence and fitness. And the survey provides some information on how lawyers are doing financially, although the income data collected is not as comprehensive as is gathered every other year in the Bar's Law Office Management and Economic surveys.

When asked what will have the greatest impact on the profession over the next 10 years, the most often cited responses were computer technology/Internet, an over-saturation of lawyers, the economy, and tort reform.

Also, 89 percent of respondents rated the Bar's continuing legal education seminars as either excellent or good.

The Membership Opinion Survey was mailed to 2,724 randomly selected Bar members and 28 percent of the surveys have been returned. Mike Garcia, director of the Bar's Research, Planning and Evaluation Department, said the results of the survey are statistically valid and the margin of error is plus or minus 3 percent at the 95-percent level of confidence.

The Bar as an Advocate

Asked about the Bar as an advocate for the legal profession, 74 percent of respondents rate the Bar as excellent or good, up from 63 percent in 2005. In 1995, only 41 percent of lawyers polled thought the Bar was doing an excellent or good job advocating for the profession.

Just over three-quarters (76 percent) of all private practice attorneys rate the Bar as an excellent or good advocate of the profession, compared to 66 percent of all government attorneys who do likewise. A large majority of respondents who are either 35 or younger (85 percent) rate the Bar as an excellent/good advocate. By gender, 81 percent of women lawyers and 71 percent of men rate the Bar's advocacy as excellent or good.

In the past two years, 12 percent of respondents said their opinion toward the Bar had become more positive, while 12 percent said their opinion...