Young lawyers work to improve PWP program.

Who wouldn't like to build a better mousetrap? The Young Lawyers Division consists of men and women, not mice, but that won't stop them from improving the tried-and-true formulas of its signature seminar--Practicing with Professionalism.

Jewel White Cole, chair of the PWP committee, would like to address the need for change, saying that the YLD is looking to "revamp some of the curriculum," by making some of the content more relevant.

"I think that any seminar needs to be looked at and updated every couple of years or so," Cole said. "We really have an opportunity to make some positive changes."

The Florida Supreme Court mandates that all new lawyers must take the PWP seminar within 12 months of joining The Florida Bar. Cole understands the importance of disseminating information that is both contextually appropriate and engaging for all involved. This can be hard to accomplish, she said, especially with large groups of lawyers having all types of legal backgrounds.

"Our numbers have been up dramatically," said Cole, adding 300 lawyers attended the last Miami PWP program.

Course evaluation forms let the YLD know exactly who is tipping their hat, and who is wagging their finger. These forms are reliable indicators of what needs to change and what needs to stay the same. Cole describes what the PWP recipients are saying in the feedback forms, and it seems that the issues are the same across the board.

"It doesn't matter whether they're a government lawyer, or a trial lawyer, or a transactional lawyer, or a private sector lawyer--they all complained about the same thing," she said. "The videos go on for too long, the vignettes are 'hokey,' the technology's not that good."

Aesthetics are a valid concern. According to some of the course evaluation forms, the videos and vignettes may be reminiscent of Three's Company reruns, and not in a good way.

"You can tell they were probably shot back in the '80s sometime," said Cole, with a laugh. "I think that some of the subject matter is probably still relevant, although it could use a little bit of an updating and a newer spin on things. You can tell that attitudes have changed about certain things."

The course evaluations aren't all bad, though. Cole said a panel of judges is there to discuss ethics in the afternoon, and PWP participants seem to like that.

"I think people are pretty engaged by that because they like to hear what judges have to say," Cole said. "Judges are always a big draw."

Cole does, however, feel the winds of change. She says that some of the changes include capping attendance, offering additional seminars at the big locations like Miami and Tampa, and trying out a new seating format.

Cole would like to see the participants seated at tables instead of row after row of chairs in the back of the room. "It's very difficult to get that kind of interaction when you have that many people," she said.

Circular seating arrangements seem to be more conducive to large groups. "I think it induces a little bit more interaction because there's not such a big audience," said Cole. To offset the seating problems in Miami, the PWP programmers broke the seminar into two days and capped attendance at 150.

Cole said the YLD would also like to include a bias elimination component to the program.

"With this seminar, we hit every new lawyer in The Florida Bar, so what better place to have a component on bias elimination?" Cole said. "It's something that's very important in the profession; it's [PWP] a forum where you're going to get to talk to every new lawyer, so it just makes sense that we would talk about it."

The grievance process is another hot-button issue. Cole says that some young lawyers may not be aware of how frequently grievances arise and what sort of grievances to be aware of.

"The grievance process is something we really, really want to talk about so that we can give them the context," Cole said. She said the YLD would like to make the grievance process more realistic for the participants.

While the YLD does embrace change when it comes to PWP, it's not looking to scorch the earth.

"Really the hardest part in trying to deal with new curriculum is not just coming up with the topic or the curriculum, but coming up with a way to replicate it repeatedly throughout the state," Cole said. "That's kind of the hardest part with PWP. It's not like it's a single course that gets put on one time a year in a given location. There's a PWP going on, probably, twice a month."

Consistency is key.

"We do want to keep the curriculum consistent because we want to be sending the same message to all of our new lawyers," Cole said. "We don't want to send a different message depending on which location you attend."

These improvements will be taking place in the near future.

"We want to get it all done, but we want to do it right, so it's not going to be an overnight change," Cole said. "Ideally, I would want to see changes happen no later than the beginning of the next Bar year."

By Theresa E. Davis

Assistant Editor