After giving it a lot of thought and spending a significant amount of time discussing it with my family and partners, I regrettably must resign from my final three months president of The Jacksonville Bar Association.
I had settled into thinking the past nine months have been some of the most rewarding of my professional career, but it became increasingly evident that the cons of serving in this position far outweigh the benefits.
I can't take the time to list all of the factors that my family, my partners and I considered, but here are a few for you to chew on. I'm generally not very good at quitting, so please bear with me.
• The position does not take up enough of my time. Dan Bean, Courtney Grimm, Mike Freed and others all told me to plan on spending 15-25 hours per week on the JBA. What a bunch of bunk. It's more like 15-25 minutes per month.
• The pay is too high. It's not so much the base salary. It's the stock options, car allowance, country club memberships and excessive vacation that really get my goat.
• No one ever emails me. I stare at my computer screen all day, and the emails never come. Maybe one every now and then from Susan Sowards, but that's about it. Thank goodness for March Madness to help fill the gaps in the days.
• Lawyers are too easy to deal with. Lawyers don't have an opinion about anything and there never are any egos involved, both of which make it way too easy to make decisions on issues. Also, no one ever complains — I mean makes suggestions. Sure, people complain about my jokes, but can't someone be creative? How about saying the chicken at lunch is too dry — or that we really should have fish? How about telling me we should be rid of the invocations because we are offending too many people? How about suggesting that we buy a better coffee machine — preferably one that can't be stolen — in the Attorney Conference Center? Out of 2,000 of you, surely someone can come up with some great complaints, uh suggestions, like those.
• No one volunteers. Whether you are talking about The JBA's staff, the members of The JBA's Board of Governors, the chairs of The JBA's sections and committees or any of the association's 2,000 members, there simply is no one interested in helping our profession or our community. I'm on an island and that's no fun.
• I didn't ask to be a public figure. No one, and I mean no one, told me about the groupies and paparazzi blitz that would result from the tapings for Comcast public television. I can't remember the last time our family was able to go out to dinner and eat in peace.
• I'm terrified of public speaking. Hank Coxe told me there would be a teleprompter and that I could just stand at the podium and read stuff. The Florida Bar apparently uses teleprompters because The JBA certainly does not.
• The social media is wearing me out. Try keeping up with 12 followers on Twitter. That, in and of itself, eats up my 15-25 minutes per month. And you can forget about LinkedIn and Facebook. It's simply overwhelming.
• My partners don't want the extra revenue. I'll just leave it at that.
• My wife says I'm home too much. Since my term began, I have been coming home around 4:30 p.m. every day versus the late nights I frequently had before my term began. This was a big factor in my decision to resign because the fights over whether we are watching Oprah or Judge Judy have become serious.
• My golf game has improved too much. I have spent all that extra time playing golf. I now find myself in an awkward position of being too good for The JBA golf tournament, but not quite good enough to play on the PGA Tour. It's quite the conundrum.
• I'm tired of the dress code. I can't wait to return to wearing a tux to work every day. These suits make my clients who come to the office in shorts and jeans feel way too comfortable.
• I couldn't wait any longer for a crisis. At the American Bar Association's Bar Leadership Institute, they told me that I would have at least one crisis during my term. Well, I'm waiting.
The Bar is open. Come make a difference.