Aging gracefully.

• Author: Young, Gwynne A.
• Position: Florida Bar services for older lawyers - President's page

I admit to wincing when an invitation to join the AARP hit my mailbox when I turned 50. Surely, I was not old yet. And it was a tad embarrassing when I first qualified for "senior discounts" at movie theaters and stores, until I learned to enjoy the savings.

Now that I've passed the big 6-0 birthday benchmark, I am inching closer to the day I am entitled to Medicare and Social Security checks.

Still, I just don't think of myself as old. After all, I am an active business litigator and trial lawyer at Carlton Fields, where I've worked for nearly 36 years. I travel to as many Duke basketball games as my schedule allows. And I love to explore new countries with adventurous friends and throw a good dinner party. Who, me, old? No way! Still, when I fill out a form and have to insert my age, it causes me to step back and go hmmm. I'm older than I feel. I really am a senior citizen. I really am an aging lawyer.

When The Florida Bar News ran a story in the November 15 issue, with the headline: "Bracing for the 'tsunami' of aging Florida lawyers," there was some negative feedback about this understandably emotional issue.

Several lawyers in the over-55 age group exchanged outraged emails, called, or wrote letters to the editor, saying they were offended to be clumped into this "aging lawyers" category.

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"I really expected better of our learned profession than to relegate competence to any measure of chronological age," wrote one lawyer.

"It was bad enough to have Romney include me in his 47 percent deadbeat lineup, but now the 'Aging Lawyers Working Group' includes me in the feebleminded 11 percent," wrote another.

The Bar is not trying to lump everyone of a certain chronological age into a single category of aging lawyers experiencing problems. But here's a reality check: The Florida Bar has more aging lawyers than it ever has before, and your Florida Bar president is one of them.

The Florida Bar has more than 14,000 members who are 60 or older.

We have a significant aging population, and it's an issue that the Bar cannot sweep under the rug.

Many older lawyers are still very active and very alert, and I'm glad to count myself as one of them. But some older lawyers are having issues that, sadly, have run them afoul of the disciplinary system because they have not been able to adequately represent their clients.

The Bar is simply trying to help our aging lawyers and keep them involved. The Bar is trying to help law firms who...