Zahner to lead professionalism effort.

Walk into Carl J. Zahner's office at The Florida Bar's Center for Professionalism, and you're struck by artwork on the walls from the Far East and Polynesia, military plaques, a clock made from pallet wood by prison inmates, and a ceramic jar labeled: "Ashes of Problem Students."

The place is packed with mementoes from 56-year-old Zahner's eclectic career:

* Retired captain of the U.S. Navy Reserves, where he taught leadership, with active duty in Vietnam and the Philippines, as well as living in Guam for a number of years and receiving a master's degree in counseling from the University of Guam.

* Former director of Florida's Correctional Education School Authority, running 48 schools around the state for inmates.

* Former assistant professor at Barry University, with a Ph.D. in counseling education from the University of Florida.

* On top of that, Zahner, who received his law degree from UF in 1981, has served as a lawyer at the Department of Education, as well as a stint with the Attorney General's Office.

Mix it all together and you have the enthusiastic new director of the Bar's Professionalism Center who hopes to bring to the job the discipline and leadership skills he learned in the military, a knack for teaching, and a love of the law.

"I'm real excited," Zahner said. "It's just like being in the Navy--you need a mission."

His new mission is to spread the word among Florida's lawyers about incorporating the notion of professionalism into their everyday practice.

"Professionalism is important for a number of reasons--primarily, so lawyers can give the impression to the public that the law is fair. It is not necessarily the antics of the lawyer, but the facts of the case, which will help render the decision, so that the law is fair when people come to the courts," he said.

At the heart of professionalism, Zahner said, is for lawyers to treat each other with dignity and civility.

"You can't expect people to trust lawyers if we don't trust the courts and the system ourselves," he said.

His mission is to spread the word to lawyers, through seminars, that if lawyers treat each other with respect, it makes the job easier.

"You are going to try to win and be as zealous as possible, but zealousness has nothing to do with being rude or being vicious to each other," Zahner said. "If you treat others, even if they're rude, with...