by Richard Prior
Staff Writer
Eight Jacksonville attorneys have joined a distinguished group, having been recently designated “board certified” by The Florida Bar in Tallahassee.
The attorneys and their specialties are Gregory Scott Baity (health), Vicki Joiner Bowers (elder), Michael W. Fisher (tax), Patricia Jeanne Hill (labor and employment), John Stewart Mills (appellate practice), Robert Gambrell Riegel Jr. (labor and employment), Chad Steven Roberts (aviation) and Philip Daniel Williams (labor and employment).
Of the 72,728 members of The Florida Bar, only 4,036 (5.6 percent) are board certified, according to Linda Cook, assistant director of legal specialization and education for The Florida Bar.
“Those who are certified are able to hold themselves out to the public as being substantially involved in that area of law, having met the requirements set by the Bar,” said Hill. “It’s also a pretty good referral service among lawyers. The attorneys know who is specializing in what areas.”
It’s not just other lawyers who are paying attention to such a designation, she added.
“The public is becoming more aware of board certification, much as they are when they go to a physician,” said Cook. “That doesn’t mean they’re necessarily better than someone who’s not certified, since it is a voluntary program.
“But the public does know that an attorney who has been certified has passed the requirements set by The Florida Bar.”
The process typically takes about a year from the time the Bar receives an application to when an attorney is certified. And, Cook said, the majority who apply are certified.
“There are probably as many as 5 percent who may get all the way through the approval process but don’t sit for the exam,” she said. “Maybe a trial is scheduled for the exam day, which is only that one day a year.
“But we’ll probably see them come back the next year.
Hill, who specializes in labor and employment law, has been with Akerman Senterfitt since the office opened in November 1999. Before that, she worked in Chicago with a national labor and employment firm, and also helped set up their Atlanta office.
She received her undergraduate degree at the University of Wisconsin at Madison and went to law school at Chicago-Kent College of Law.
She represents management in cases involving traditional labor issues, such as contract negotiations with unions and unfair labor charges. On the employment side, she represents management with discrimination claims, pension matters, and wage and hour issues.
Since the notice has just been received, Hill’s certification hasn’t been made part of Akerman Senterfitt’s advertisements yet.
“But I do give a lot of speeches, and it probably will be included in the bio the firm sends out,” she said.
Each area of law has its own criteria for the voluntary program, Cook said. In general, those who apply must have practiced for at least five years and have a certain number of education credits in the area for which they applied.
They must be “substantially involved” in the area for which they applied, usually around 30 percent of the person’s overall practice.
They must go through a peer review process and, “most important,” complete an all-day “comprehensive” exam that is given once a year in Tampa, Cook said.
“It’s a very long, very difficult exam,” said Hill. “Three hours in the morning and three hours in the afternoon.”
The application itself is exhaustively comprehensive, too, she added.
“You have to fill out an application that’s about six inches thick,” said Hill. “You have to include every deposition, every trial and hearing you’ve had over the past five years.
“I’m so grateful I kept paper copies of my records.
“I have some national clients, since I have cases all over the country. The Florida Bar had to contact each of them about their cases, I suppose to verify the information and make sure I was a good person.”
The exam was no less grueling for Baity, who basically went through the certification process in health law as a refresher course.
“People in private practice can advertise they are specialists and hold it out that they have specialized, demonstrated knowledge. But I don’t market myself,” said Baity, an attorney with Baptist Health System.
Health law, he said “pulls together a lot of regulatory work, administrative, transactional and general corporate work.”
In preparation, Baity attended a two-day seminar conducted by The Florida Bar that reviewed areas that would be on the exam.
The exam, a combination of multiple-choice and essay questions, was apparently every bit as grueling for him as it was for attorneys in other specialties.
The fact pattern for one essay question alone was three pages long, he said.
Bowers, who received her certification in elder law, agreed the test was “exhausting, mentally and physically.”
Four Jacksonville lawyers are certified in elder law, and three of them are at her firm, Berg O’Connor & Bowers.
She started studying “at least” six weeks before the test date, then took a week off just before the exam to devote more time to the material.
Even with all that preparation, candidates in some areas were clearly struggling, Bowers said.
“When I went in to sit down for the test,” she said, “everyone around me was there for different certification exams. And all of them were there for the second time. That made me very nervous.”
There are several benefits to going through the process, Bowers said.
“The process of studying for it was a plus,” she said. “And you’re recognized as a specialist in that area.
“It also opens more doors for you. A lot of people, when they’re looking for an elder law attorney, are looking for someone who really focuses on that area.”