by Michele Newbern Gillis
Staff Writer
The Professionalism Committee of The Jacksonville Bar Association deals with professionalism issues between lawyers, clients and the court system.
“Professionalism is being respectful to each other, your clients and the court,” said Cory Hodak of The Law Offices of Corinne Hodak and chair of the committee.
According to Hodak, the Florida Supreme Court appoints a Professionalism Committee for each district. The 4th Judicial Circuit has a Professionalism Committee made up of primarily judges with some lawyers. The Professionalism Committee of the JBA is primarily lawyers with one judge.
“The Federal Bar Association and The Florida Bar put out suggested professional guidelines and along with the 4th Judicial Circuit committee, we got those guidelines approved for use by the Middle District of Florida and also by the 4th Judicial Circuit,” said Hodak. “So, whenever an attorney from out of town is involved in a case in Jacksonville they get a notice in the mail that we follow Jacksonville Bar Association’s Professionalism Guidelines and that they also have to follow the professionalism guidelines.”
Now that the guidelines have been adopted and are in place, the committee is focusing on a study among the judges to find out what problems they are seeing in regard to professionalism and what they are doing about it.
“We are looking to see if they are entering orders for sanctions, how they are handling the problems when they see them, what professionalism problems they are seeing in the court that they think our committee should address or that would be good to educate the other members of the Bar on,” said Hodak.
There are about 35 people on the Professionalism Committee. They meet
about four times a year at federal courthouse.
“We have various committees and each reports on what they tasks have been,” said Hodak. “For instance, right now we have a committee collecting sanction orders to see what problems there have been and whether the judges have entered sanctions and under what circumstances.”
If there has been problem with professionalism, they address those issues by either forming a committee, reviewing the guidelines or educating the Bar on the issue in the Bar Bulletin.
As the chair, Hodak’s job is to essentially keep the Bar informed about professionalism and keep it in the forefront of everyone’s mind when they are dealing with other lawyers and with the court.
“Right now we are focusing on identifying what problems there are in 4th Judicial Circuit and if there are repeated problems the courts are seeing with professionalism to see what our committee can do to address them,” said Hodak.
Some of the committee members visit the Florida Coastal School of Law and talk with the students twice a year about professionalism.
“Professionalism begins with the students,” she said.
The local committee in conjunction with the 4th Judicial Circuit committee holds a seminar every year on professionalism.
“It’s usually a two to three hour seminar with a panel of judges,” said Hodak.
“Historically we’ve used vignettes or video tapes and then the judges have addressed various questions or various issues on problems that have been presented. It’s been very well attended and we have gotten some very good feedback from that event.”
This year the seminar will be held at the Florida Coastal School of Law for Bar members and law students.