MDP committees' pro and con reports outline issues.

The full text of the reports from the "pro" and "con" subcommittees on multidisciplinary practices are available on The Florida Bar's website: www.FLABAR.org. They will also be published in the March edition of the Florida Bar Journal.

Here are highlights from those reports:

The "pro" subcommittee's report, "Facing the Inevitability, Rapidity and Dynamics of Change," was submitted by Jean Bice, Howard Berlin, Edgar Dunn (chair), Charles Robinson, Ronald Rosengarten, Marsha Rydberg, Roberta Stanley, and Donald Tescher. It says:

"Our view is that the Con Report failed to 'face the tide of change,' because it fails to understand the significance or implications of the dramatic and pervasive change in the marketplace on the paradigm of the practice of law as we have known it. Times have changed, and so has the delivery of legal service."

The reports notes that there has been "positive support of the MDP delivery system from such organizations as the American Corporate Counsels Association, consumer groups, two ABA sections and other groups who appeared before the ABA [MDP] Commission, and the support (possibly the endorsement) of four or more sections of The Florida Bar."

In sum, the pro subcommittee is convinced that "MDPs are not only needed, but inevitable. Indeed, MDP is already a reality. The question is: How will The Florida Bar respond to an evolving marketplace?

"The Florida Bar must focus on strategies that will enlarge the scope of law practice, as opposed to depleting our resources and energies by fighting over smaller and smaller specialized areas of practice while competing with those from other professions who recognize the need to change. More and more, consumers of professional services present lawyers with problems that are mutlifaceted and multidisciplinary in nature. Such problems require competent, efficient and cost-effective one-stop solutions. The marketplace is replete with examples of cooperating professionals using their skills and knowledge to best serve...