by Fred Seely
Editorial Director
Saying “we don’t tell the whole story about ourselves,” the president of The Florida Bar implored local attorneys last week to get involved in an image campaign.
“This isn’t just another slick public relations campaign,” said Miami attorney Tod Aronovitz at the Jacksonville Bar Association’s monthly meeting. “In Florida, attacks on our profession and on the courts continue, and it has impacted the way we are viewed.”
The image campaign is based around the slogan “Dignity In Law” and the material aspects include a two-minute video and printed material.
“The most effective way is for each of you to get active,” Aronovitz told the 250 at the Omni. “I ask each of you to vigorously join in this effort. You have to talk to your partners, to your associates and to your clients and tell them of your pride in your profession.
“As a lawyer or a judge, you shouldn’t permit people to chide your profession.
“I go around the state and people say ‘It can’t be done. Lawyer bashing has gone on for years and years.’ I say that it must be done. We can do it now.”
Aronovitz’s goal: “To tell our story to all Floridians, starting with the governor and the legislature. Every legislative session brings another problem of some sort to our profession.”
The campaign will include mailings — mostly e-mail — to as many lists as they can find.
“It will be a very focused campaign,” he said. “We will send out stories, facts, statistics . . . everything we can find to show people that we are in an honorable profession and that we act in an honorable manner.
“We will catch their eye. We will tell them about the greatness of our profession.”
He admitted that there were continuing problems.
“Judge Judy []a television show] and the O.J. [Simpson] trial are not true reflections of our profession, but they have been held up to the public as being representative of the way that the legal system works,” he said. “We can overcome this. Just because it hasn’t been done before doesn’t mean it can’t be done now.”
Aronovitz requested attorneys to either contact The Florida Bar office directly or to go to the website (www.flabar.org) for information on the “Dignity In Law” program.