The Senior Lawyers Committee is 10 years old! Membership has grown substantially since the committee held its first meeting, so many of the newer committee members may be unfamiliar with our history. This article will review how and why the Senior Lawyers Committee was created, and some of the issues it has addressed.
Creation of the SLC
The idea for a Senior Lawyers Committee grew out of The Florida Bar’s 2012 review of the lawyer discipline system (the “Hawkins Commission”). The resulting report, which was approved unanimously by the Board of Governors, identified two types of “Aging Lawyers”:
There are two general categories of lawyers that are touched by the issue of Aging Lawyers. First, there are many instances where some lawyers work past their point of effectiveness to a period of life where they develop mental and physical problems. This can lead a lawyer who has had a stellar career to lose his or her reputation, practice and resources during the twilight years of his or her career.
Second, there is the group of lawyers who are aging but still very healthy and have many years of productive work life ahead of them. These individuals can be engaged in various Bar programs, including mentorships and committees. The Bar could benefit from the wealth of knowledge and experience that they have at a period when they probably could offer more time to service.
Hawkins Commission Report at p. 19. The recommendations included developing a system of member services and communications that would begin to be sent to Bar members “at a certain age, i.e. 55, a member starts receiving information that is pertinent to his or her practice, both professionally and personally, at this stage of life,” described as something along the lines of an AARP for aging lawyers. Another recommendation was for special membership status for senior lawyers and opportunities for lawyers who are transitioning out of active practice that would allow The Bar to better utilize their “long-earned experience.” Hawkins Commission Report at pp. 20-21.
Jake Schickel, a former member of the Board of Governors who had served as a vice-chair of the Hawkins Commission, proposed the concept of a Senior Lawyers Section or Senior Lawyers Division shortly after the Commission’s report and recommendations came out. Under his proposal, if the Senior Lawyers group was structured as a section, its budget would be funded by $30 section dues; if it was designed to be a division, $1 would be collected from the Bar dues of every member who qualified for membership by reason of their age.
The Bar conducted a survey of active members aged 55 and above (“2013 Survey”), which revealed that 53% of the responding attorneys thought it would be beneficial for The Bar to organize a new section devoted to the interests of senior attorneys. Their top four interests were employment options for senior lawyers, discount programs for products or services used by senior lawyers, closing or selling a practice, and technology training. Materials for: Proposal for a Florida Bar Senior Lawyers Committee at pp. 8-9.
The survey results showed that 75% of the responding lawyers would not be willing to pay dues to join a section, but over 50% would be interested in joining a senior lawyers committee with no dues. Materials for: Proposal for a Florida Bar Senior Lawyers Committee at pp. 7-8. 69% of the responding lawyers opposed the formation of a senior lawyers’ division that would automatically enroll Bar members over a certain age, even with the ability to opt out. Materials for: Proposal for a Florida Bar Senior Lawyers Committee at p. 13. A number of responses objected to any age requirement for membership on the grounds that it would be discriminatory and/or would exclude younger lawyers who could benefit from membership due to their early retirement or personal circumstances.
The final version of the proposal that went to the Board of Governors was for a senior lawyers committee. It contained no age restrictions, had no cap on the number of members who could join and had a modest budget that did not require the collection of any dues (either as dues paid directly by from members or deducted from Bar fees paid by lawyers over a certain age). The proposal set forth the mission and objectives of the committee:
Mission: The Senior Lawyers Committee shall serve the interests and needs of the profession by fostering an interchange of ideas, sharing the accumulated knowledge and experience of its members and addressing issues that are of particular significance to senior lawyers.
Objectives: To address the issues typically confronting senior lawyers;
To identify and enhance the benefits senior lawyers can provide to The Florida Bar, the profession and the community by utilizing such lawyers’ wisdom, expertise and experience;
To develop and provide information and resources geared to senior lawyers to assist in the continuation or the winding down of professional careers.
Materials for: Proposal for a Florida Bar Senior Lawyers Committee at p. 1. The Senior Lawyers Committee proposal was approved at the August 2013 Board of Governors meeting, and the committee held its first meeting on January 23, 2014.
The 2017 Survey of Senior Lawyers
When the SLC came up for its first review by the Board Program Evaluation Committee (PEC), the PEC’s recommendations resulted in the committee’s development of a webpage, newsletter and virtual CLE programming, among other innovations. One of the recommendations was to survey Florida Bar members over a certain age to identify the areas of interest they wanted the committee to address. The resulting 2017 Survey generated new interest in the SLC among the general membership and resulted in a substantial increase in committee membership.
The survey responses revealed that the top challenges that senior lawyers faced in 2017 were new technology and transitioning away from full-time practice.
The Continuing Work of the SLC
Over the past ten years, the SLC has addressed many issues that face senior lawyers, in its newsletter, its CLE free programs (free for all Florida Bar members, regardless of age or committee membership) and in its advocacy on behalf of senior lawyers. Some of the issues the SLC has tackled are the accessibility of Florida Bar meeting venues, how to sell a law practice, tips for having a fulfilling life after retirement, tutorials on keeping up with law office technology, investment issues and Medicare. The SLC’s annual reports offer a complete review of the committee’s activities every year since its inception. All SLC reports are available on the Florida Bar Journal’s webpage at https://www.floridabar.org/journal_article_section/annual-reports/
Some issues continue to arise. Although the 2013 and 2017 surveys did not ask senior lawyers about reduced fees or new membership categories for retired and semi-retired attorneys, individual survey responses raised these suggestions as ways to encourage older lawyers to remain involved in pro bono work and Bar activities. Questions about how The Bar and the community can benefit from the knowledge and experience of healthy senior lawyers both before and after they retire from The Bar were first identified by the Hawkins Commission in 2012. They were raised at the committee’s first meeting, and they remain issues for the SLC today.
At a 2015 meeting, then SLC Chair Marianne Trussell explained that the cost of maintaining a license and fulfilling CLE requirements could be a disincentive to senior lawyers who want to donate their legal services and continue to be of value to the community. The SLC appointed a subcommittee to research senior lawyer retention programs in other states. In 2016, the subcommittee proposed that lawyers over the age of 70 who had been Florida Bar members in good standing for at least 20 years pay reduced annual fees and CLE costs. It was reported that cutting Bar fees to $100 for lawyers aged 70 and up would impact The Bar’s annual income by about $873,000.
In 2021, the SLC added a “Retired Lawyers Inclusion Subcommittee” to work on finding ways to keep lawyers involved in some Bar activities and benefits after they retire from The Bar. The Subcommittee worked with The Bar’s Research, Planning and Evaluation Director to develop two surveys in 2023 – one for retired lawyers and one for Bar members aged 55 and over. The survey of age 55+ Bar members showed that 45% were contemplating retirement within 5 years and 66% planned to retire sometime in the next 10 years. Questions in both surveys centered on two topics: whether an annual fee reduction for senior lawyers would affect their decisions to retire from The Florida Bar, and whether lawyers would be interested in retaining access to some Bar activities and services after retirement.
The 2023 survey results showed that a majority of retired (54%) and active senior lawyers (69%) were in favor of allowing retired members to continue to participate in some Florida Bar services and activities, and when asked which they would be interested in, subscribing to electronic or paper copies of the Florida Bar News and Journal and retaining access to member benefit discounts were the top choices for both groups.
Some responses were less clear. A little less than half (45%) of the lawyers aged 55 and over were in favor of a program that would allow lawyers retired more than 5 years to provide pro bono services. But when asked if they would participate in such a program themselves, only 14% of the 5 year+ retirees and 19% of the senior lawyer Bar members said they were interested.
Questions about a fee reduction along the same lines as the proposal that was discussed in 2016 also yielded mixed responses. 59% of the senior lawyers and 46% of the retirees were in favor of a fee reduction for members over a certain age with a minimum number of years of Florida Bar membership in good standing. However, most of the retirees (73%) responded that Bar fees had not been a significant factor in their decision to retire, and a majority of the current Bar members (63%) did not foresee that the amount of annual fee would be a significant factor in deciding whether to retire.
The Retired Lawyers Inclusion Subcommittee, and the SLC as a whole, are currently working on a proposal to address the Hawkins Commission’s recommendation for a special membership status for senior lawyers and retiring lawyers that would allow The Bar to better utilize their knowledge and experience to benefit the profession and the community. For more information about these efforts, please see the Subcommittee’s update in this issue of Experience Matters.