'Our primary job is to regulate lawyer behavior'.

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Incoming Bar President Scott Hawkins has announced the formation of a commission to study the Bar's regulation of lawyer conduct, with an eye on the growing number of Bar members and recent high-profile instances of lawyer misconduct.

Hawkins announced the commission at the Board of Governors May 27 meeting, and the board gave its unanimous approval to the proposal.

He said a review was timely both because of the rapid growth in Bar membership and of new challenges faced by the grievance system.

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"In launching this commission, my goal is ... to make sure we are--keeping with our regulatory obligations--as vigilant and able as we can be to help regulate over 100,000 lawyers, which soon will be our number. It won't take long to get there," Hawkins said.

He also said the Bar has faced novel issues, such as the giant Ponzi scheme run by former Ft. Lauderdale attorney Scott Rothstein and the alleged involvement of attorneys in robosigning and other paperwork difficulties associated with the ongoing home foreclosure crisis.

"We have big issues to think about, not the least of which is: How do we handle the mass fraud problem such as [former President] Jesse [Diner] had to wrestle with in the Rothstein debacle in the fall of 2009? How do we deal with mass issues such as the robosigning problems with foreclosures?" Hawkins said. "Are there things we should be thinking about differently or more broadly in regard to regulating lawyer misconduct?"

The commission's membership will include both board and nonboard members, he said, and may have three co-chairs and three vice chairs. As chairs, Hawkins said he's considering board member Eugene Pettis, former Bar President Miles McGrane, and Naples trial...