by Richard Prior
Staff Writer
Without even being aware of it, attorneys make choices every day that become the tone and content of the letters of their lives.
By the time they get to the close, those choices will determine if the letter should be framed or burned.
“Although you are young lawyers, most of you already have begun, either tacitly or explicitly, to make choices that will define your careers,” said Florida Supreme Court Justice Raoul Cantero III. “I don’t mean the obvious choices about what area of law to concentrate in or which job offer to accept.
“As important as these choices are, they are less important than the choices I am referring to.”
The choices he had in mind affect moral principles and ethical rules, said Cantero, the keynote speaker at last week’s luncheon and election of The Jacksonville Bar Association’s Young Lawyers Section.
Those crises of conscience can rise at any time — over billable hours, destroying documents for a client, concealing essential material, spending family time at work.
“These examples are not far-fetched,” said Cantero. “They are similar to choices I faced in my own career. I was often invited to cut seemingly small corners here and there, where no one would notice.
“How I reacted to these invitations defined me as a lawyer and as a person.”
Before the luncheon, announcements and Cantero’s speech, members of the YLS attending the meeting at the Omni voted for three of the 10 candidates listed on the ballot.
Elected to seats on the board of governors were Nicole Fried, Beth Luna, Kirby Oberdorfer and Ann Bittinger.
This year’s YLS officers are W. Braxton Gillam IV, president; Troy K. Smith, president-elect; Geddes Anderson Jr.; secretary; and Kevin Cook, treasurer.
New attorneys and the officers were sworn in by U.S. District Judge Timothy J. Corrigan.
All members of the JBA who are no older than 36, or who have been admitted to the Bar for five years or less, were eligible to vote.
Cantero was appointed to the Supreme Court in July 2002 by Gov. Jeb Bush. Before his appointment, he was a shareholder and head of the Appellate Division of Adorno & Yoss in Miami.
He specialized in civil and criminal appeals at all levels, handling more than 250 appeals and more than 100 oral arguments after joining Adorno & Yoss in 1988. He also has extensive experience in commercial litigation.
The way he reacted to certain requests and temptations placed in front of him as an attorney determined the direction his life took, Cantero said.
“It was the choices I made early on that defined my career and, I believe, eventually resulted in my appointment to the Florida Supreme Court,” he said.
Since composing a “life letter” can’t be avoided, Cantero recommended following the style used by Mother Teresa, who said “we should write a love letter with our lives.”
“What she means is not that our lives should be full of romance,” he said. “By love she means love of others, service to others, recognizing the dignity of others — whether it’s the client, opposing counsel, opposing party, judge or the homeless person sitting on the sidewalk.”
Cantero recommended the audience take to heart one of his favorite quotes from literature, delivered by the ghost of Jacob Marley in Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol.”
Ebenezer Scrooge, distraught that he and Marley would share such a grim afterlife, said, “You were always a good man of business.”
Marley replied “Mankind should be our business. And we do not adequately attend to it.”
“That statement — that mankind should be our business — is more true of lawyers than of any other profession,” said Cantero. “We are participants in the system of justice, a system that must be available to everyone, regardless of economic or social status.
“Lawyers are involved in the law at every level — in making the laws, in executing them and in interpreting them. By virtue of our profession, we can be leaders in our community and help to make it a better place.”