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The new Bar president is launching a $750,000 campaign to try to polish the tarnished image of Florida's legal profession.
By SCOTT BARANCIK, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times, published July 4, 2002
For generations, comedians have been poking fun at attorneys. Miami lawyer Tod Aronovitz is fed up with the abuse.
"Don't say any lawyer jokes in front of me," said the successful personal-injury attorney. "I'm a proud person, and I find them insulting."
Aronovitz said he even stalked off the tee in protest recently when a member of his golfing foursome began spinning lawyer jokes.
Now Aronovitz, 52, has a pulpit for his conviction that lawyers aren't getting any respect. He's the new president of the Florida Bar, which represents and regulates more than 70,000 lawyers.
He has made the centerpiece of his one-year term a $750,000 campaign to improve the public perception of lawyers and judges. He's hired RBB Public Relations of Coral Gables to help execute the "Dignity in Law" initiative, complete with a logo and upgraded Web site.
"We will build an arsenal of media materials, a news bureau of information about the profession, and a response team to combat inaccurate media coverage," Aronovitz wrote in a May fundraising letter to law firm chiefs.
True, comedians have been abandoning lawyers lately for fresher material, including evil CEOs and their patsy accountants. But the antilawyer zingers still circulate on Web sites and in movies at Blockbuster.
What do you call 500 lawyers on the bottom of the ocean? A good start. -- Actor Danny DeVito in 'The War of the Roses'
A recent study commissioned by the American Bar Association found that only 19 percent of Americans were "very" or "extremely" confident in the legal profession, while 69 percent believe lawyers are more interested in money than helping their clients.
Aronovitz said his campaign is not about ego, but about restoring respect for the legal profession and the courts, which he called "the backbone of democracy." The head of a five-attorney firm, Aronovitz has won cases involving everything from an airline passenger who was ignored after suffering a heart attack to the victim of an exploding can of corned beef hash.
He said Americans have a warped perspective about the legal profession because the media fixate on the most outrageous cases and because of sensationalistic television shows like Judge Judy and The Practice.
As in most matters, however, lawyers can be found who are ready to argue both sides of the issue.
John Morgan, a partner at the personal-injury firm Morgan Colling & Gilbert, said the $750,000 would be better spent building houses for the homeless.
"Look, lawyers have been despised a lot longer than the 21st or 20th centuries," he said. "Why did Shakespeare say, 'Kill all the lawyers'?"
Morgan's firm spent about $10-million last year on television and other advertising and he said some of his peers have unfairly accused him of cheapening the profession. But he said there are reasons people distrust lawyers, from padded hourly billing to a tendency to obfuscate issues and speak down to clients.
"There's reality and there's perception," he said. "And what they need to change is reality."
But admirers are sending Aronovitz thank-you notes. Hundreds of Bar members have sent an extra $45 contribution with their $265 annual dues, as Aronovitz requested. Last week, the Bar's young lawyers division pledged $50,000. Cesar Alvarez, managing partner of Florida's second-largest law firm, Greenberg Traurig of Miami, is asking all of his roughly 350 Florida-licensed attorneys to pony up $45. He promised to cover any that refuse.
"The lawyers I know are very smart, dedicated, put their clients' interests first, and contribute to the community," Alvarez said. "Somehow, that's not the image lawyers have in the general public."
Marian McCulloch, a partner at Allen Dell Frank & Trinkle in Tampa, supports the idea of improving lawyers' public image. "We are the peacemakers, we are the social architects, and the problem-solvers in society today," she said.
But she isn't sure the Dignity in Law campaign will succeed.
"The judicial system, as much as I'd like to tell you is a search for truth, is limited by complicated rules, and people don't understand those things," said McCulloch, who is president-elect of the Hillsborough County Bar Association.
As for banning lawyer jokes, McCulloch said she actually enjoys them.
"My law partner, Ralph Dell, always said, 'Take your work, but not yourself, too seriously,' " she said.
A guy calls his lawyer. He says, "Can I ask you two questions?" Lawyer says, "What's the second one?" -- Henny Youngman
-- Times researcher Kitty Bennett contributed to this report. Scott Barancik can be reached at barancik@sptimes.com or (727) 893-8751.
The new Bar president is launching a $750,000 campaign to try to polish the tarnished image of Florida's legal profession.
"It was so hot today that I saw a lawyer walk after an ambulance."