Are we outraged yet?

It was nothing less than refreshing to watch the outrage boil. Charles "Cully" Stimson, then deputy assistant secretary of defense for detainee affairs, said on the Federal News Radio that he was dismayed that lawyers at many of the nation's top firms were representing prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and that the firms' corporate clients should consider ending their business ties.

"I think, quite honestly, when corporate CEOs see that those firms are representing the very terrorists who hit their bottom line back in 2001, those CEOs are going to make those law firms choose between representing terrorists or representing reputable firms," said Stimson, a lawyer.

Within two hours of that story breaking, I received at least 50 e-mails from bar leaders around the country. I made the decision that The Florida Bar could not sit idly by, especially when some of our own lawyers were representing detainees pro bono.

With the unanimous support of the Board of Governors Executive Committee, I fired off a letter to President George W. Bush, asking for his immediate repudiation of Stimson's statements, which I described as "abhorrent to the highest ideals of this nation's legal profession and an affront to the lawyers who provide legal services to the needy and oppressed throughout Florida and America."

The Florida Bar's voice joined the chorus of condemnation by the American Bar Association, numerous other state bars, and deans from more than 130 law schools. Three weeks later, on February 2, Stimson turned in his resignation over his controversial remarks.

Now that we've looked at Stimson with a judgmental eye, let's take a long look at ourselves.

While the number of lawyers steadily increases in Florida, the number of hours and dollars dedicated to pro bono service is decreasing.

Here are the numbers for attorneys participating in pro bono through The Florida Bar Foundation's Legal Assistance for the Poor Grant Programs: The high in 1998 was 26,031 lawyers giving 163,210 hours. The low in 2005 dropped to 16,618 lawyers providing 81,910 hours.

Monetary contributions have also declined, dropping from nearly $3.8 million in 2003-04 to $3.4 million the following year. And those monetary contributions come from only about 8,000 lawyers, one-tenth of the current Bar membership.

Presently, 13,636 Florida Bar members state they do not provide any pro bono service or contribute a dime, and 15,605 failed to report at all, even though it is a mandatory requirement. We are quick to champion the ideal that lawyers have the obligation to deliver services to people most in need--popular or not, whether those people are Guantanamo detainees or tenants wrongly evicted from their homes. We are quick to denounce anyone who challenges that ideal, and we rise to fight for everyone's access to our courts. But when we look closely at ourselves, are we doing the very thing we told the world is at the heart of our profession? Are we doing all that we should be doing when it comes to representing people who can't afford to pay for a lawyer? If we answer honestly, many of us would have to say, "No."

Pro bono service is not the obligation of a few, or the duty of some Bar program or committee. Pro bono service is every lawyer's responsibility.

Consider this: For every person who shows up for help at legal services, another is turned away. Many just aren't poor enough, because they make more than $9,800 a year as a single person or more than $20,000 a year for a family of four. Can you imagine trying to hire a private attorney as you struggle to make ends meet on that income?

Many more fit federal poverty guidelines, but they are rejected because there aren't enough legal services lawyers to carry the load.

These are battered women who desperately want to divorce their abusers, elderly people hounded by credit card debt collectors because they can't afford their prescription drugs, disabled children who aren't receiving educational services they need, and former foster children struggling to make it on their own.

Thank you, Florida lawyers, who do step up to represent poor people who desperately need lawyers.

But what has happened to the rest who have lost the will to meet this fundamental obligation of our profession? Where is the firestorm of protest and outrage about that?