Journey's end, yet work to be done.

• Author: Pettis, Eugene K.
• Position: President's Page

My term as president has been one of the most rewarding, fastest moving, years of my life.

When sworn into office last June, I spoke about bold leadership, and I challenged us to greater heights with the hope of making lasting change and advancements toward equality for all people.

The foundational principles guiding my presidency are that inclusion is the pathway to unity, and that the strength of our profession can only be realized when we invite everyone to the table of opportunity.

We completed the inaugural year of the William Reece Smith Leadership Academy. Rarely is reality better than the dream. In this case, the experience of the academy fellows surpassed imagination. I wish space permitted me to recite some of the participants' personal testimonies of life-changing growth as lawyers and leaders. Through their enhanced understanding of our profession and development of network relationships, I expect this class to chart new paths for our profession. As we welcome Class II, I'm certain their experiences will be equally rewarding.

We are at the crossroads of major evolutionary changes in our profession. We must acknowledge a changing world, driven largely by technological advancements, and be willing to adapt. That led me to establish the Vision 2016 Commission. The commitssion is charged with studying the future of our profession in the areas of legal education, technology, Bar admissions, and access to legal services, in order to ready our profession to meet the needs of our clients and the public through new efficiencies, while preserving our core principles.

The work of the commission is well under way, with the creation of a framework for in-depth analysis that we hope will lead us toward some solutions to modern challenges. These words of former President Jimmy Carter sum up our challenge: "We must adjust to changing times and still hold to unchanging principles."

We have also addressed the challenge of making sure that our judicial system recognizes that a part of being fair and impartial is being reflective of the communities it serves. Our Task Force to study the Enhancement of Diversity on the Bench and the Judicial Nominating Commission has completed its work, providing the blueprint to achieve a judiciary reflective of the rich diversity that Florida offers.

This undertaking highlights the importance of continuity of committed leadership because this issue of judicial diversity is not new. It was the focal point of a...