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53 Fla. B. News 1 (2026)

handle is hein.barjournals/flabn0053 and id is 1 raw text is: Committee Preference Forms Are Due January 15 -Page 5 j 197 O RL j sin Is-pt/ Ci gs The Florida Bar S a ll ' m Volume 53, Number 1 FloridaBar.org/News January 2026 Paige Greenlee, Jeff Rynor seek Bar presidency By Samadhi Jones Senior Editor Board of Governors members Paige Greenlee of Tampa and Jeff Rynor of Miami Beach have qualified as candidates for Florida Bar president-elect in the Bar's 2026 elections. Qualifying closed December 15. Voting will begin March 1. The News will publish platform statements and a Q&A with the candidates, both online and in the February printed edition. The winner will be sworn in as president-elect at the Annual Florida Bar Convention in June when current President-elect Michael Fox Orr becomes Bar president and will assume office as president at the 2027 convention. Both Greenlee and Rynor have served on the Bar's Board ofGovernors for eight years, in various leadership and service roles. Greenlee notes that in addition to serving as a member of the board's Executive Committee for six of those years, she has chaired/co-chaired several Bar committees, including Disciplinary Review, Communications, Technology, and Program Evaluation, and has served as a past president of the Young Lawyers Division and ofthe Hillsborough County Bar Association. See Election, page 4 Baker-Barnes briefs panel on Al ethics, Courts seek legislative support to strengthen discipline, and emerging safeguards case management, security, and staffing The president addressed the Civil Justice and Claims 'we're very sensitive to the fact that as we try to adjust the system to have more active case management, we have to make sure that people Subcommittee as part of Al Week' in the Legislature have the tools that they need to be able to do that as well as they can' By Jim Ash Senior Editor The Florida Bar is monitoring Al closely and as an arm of the Supreme Court takes its responsibility to protect the public seriously, President Rosalyn Sia Baker- Barnes assured a House panel in a December presentation. Technology is something that is really an incredible tool for lawyers, but also can cause some significant challenges, and that has required us to take a closer look at Al, she said. A board-certified civil trial lawyer from West Palm Beach, Baker-Barnes was invited to brief the Civil Justice and Claims Subcommittee as part of AI Week in the Legislature. Al has caught fire in the legal profession, like many others, Baker-Barnes said. A Legal Trends report showed only 19% of lawyers were employing Al in their practices in 2023, she noted. That number has grown exponentially, she said. A recent survey from Clio showed that now, nearly 80% of lawyers are using Al in some way, shape, or form. The Florida Bar is a national leaderwhen it comes to keeping pace with the trend, Baker-Barnes said. We have a Professional Ethics Committee that in January of last year made us the first state in the nation to formally issue an opinion, she said. Amongotherthings,Ethics Opinion 24-1 recommends that a lawyer obtain the affected client's informed consent prior to utilizing a third-party generative Al program if the utilization would involve the disclosure See Al, page 5 By Jim Ash Senior Editor Chief Justice Carlos Muniz assured the Board of Governors in December that the Supreme Court will press lawmakers in the upcoming session for more resources to support civil justice reforms. In brief remarks at a meeting in Orlando, Muniz thanked board members for their service and called President Rosalyn Sia Baker-Barnes an especially effective advocate for lawyers and the court system. It's really impressive and amazing and humbling to see all of you gathered like this, and to know how much time you put into this, and that it's a volunteer effort, he said. Sia's an amazing representative for lawyers and the branch and that's going to continue throughout the session. Muniz said the courts will ask lawmakers for resources to support an ongoing active case management initiative to speed the resolution of civil cases while maintaining just outcomes. We're very sensitive to the fact that as we try to adjust the system to have more active case management, we have to make sure that people have the tools that they need to be able to do that as well as they can, he said. The judicial branch MUINIL legislative budget request for the coming fiscal year is designed largely to build on the 39 new trial and appellate judges that lawmakers and Gov. Ron DeSantis approved last session, Muniz said. A top priority for the See Courts, page 5 Canady bids a reflective goodbye after 17 years on Florida's high court By Mark D. Killian professional life in public he sat at the bench for the Editor service I have been able to last time. Justice Charles Canady unite my vocation with my What a great privilege drew on poet Robert Frost avocation, said Canady, it has been to participate in to frame a personal farewell who is stepping down just the work of this court, in the December 12, delivering three years short of two great project of giving life emotional remarks from the decades on the court. And to the rule of law, he said. Florida Supreme Court bench that is a special privilege.... Words truly do fail me in at the close ofhis final day of If I did not need to make a expressing how much I owe oral arguments. living, I would do this job for to all the people who helped Noting that Frost wrote nothing. It is just an honor to me come to this court and all of uniting my avocation be able to do this job. those who have helped me in and my vocation / As my At times pausing to my service here. two eyes make one in sight, maintain his composure, Chief Justice Carlos Canady said the lines sum Canady said he never felt his Muniz opened the session by up his career. gratitude for the work more delivering a personal tribute Throughout my keenly than here today as to his colleague, mentor, and You're not alone. We can help. Let's talk about a better way forward. familydiplomacy.com | 813-443-0615 friend. Justice Canady has been a truly remarkable public See Canady, page 8 IE. FAMILY A C() IAR 4AW FRM ADAM B. CORDOVER Managing Attorney PAIGE GREENLEE 0 wo<I 0 0 ° a- 0(1 0 0 N 0 O -J CD 0 C'.I 01 C31 4 _-( CL 0 03 E ME 4t