The task that lies ahead.

• Author: Osman, Edith G.
• Position: Florida Bar - President's Page

Sixty years ago my parents fled the Nazis, leaving behind their parents and brothers and sisters, who all perished in Eastern Europe. Sixty days ago they attended my inauguration as president of The Florida Bar.

Present at the inauguration were the Supreme Court justices of our state; the state's chief judges, and the past presidents of the Bar.

Even in light of this historic gathering of public figures, nobody's attendance was more remarkable than that of my mother and father. Their experience taught me to cherish our democracy and our legal system. Their example taught me the power of perseverance and hard work, and that defeat is not an option.

What a tribute to our democracy, our legal system, and my parents that the daughter of two Latvian immigrants could become president of The Florida Bar.

This year my first priority as your president is to work hard to protect our legal system by restoring what it needs most to survive--the confidence of the people. Our system has made us the strongest and greatest country in the history of the world. When my parents fled the Nazis they escaped from a society ravaged by disorder, chaos, and atrocities. They came from a place where men in brown shirts, not judges in black robes, made and brutally enforced the rules.

As attorneys, we are the guardians of the laws that define our society. But conventional wisdom tells us that we have degenerated from a source of pride to a source of punch lines ... in the eyes of the public, Arnie Becker has replaced Atticus Finch.

Our polling, however, tells us two important things: First, 80 percent of our citizens believe that our legal system is the best in the world. Second, the people who claim to dislike lawyers most have had the least contact with us. Put another way, those who know us best like us best, and for good reason.

As a bar, we have done an enormous amount of work for the people of our state. Last year alone Florida attorneys devoted nearly one million hours of pro bono work and almost $2 million to legal aid. The 15,000 of you who took time to complete the new fee statement survey reported an additional 1.5 million hours contributed to local nonprofit boards, schools, churches, synagogues, and community groups.

Do you know another profession that has shown that kind of community commitment? I don't. I also don't know of another profession that more effectively speaks for those who cannot speak for themselves. I know it, you know it -- and now we...