A Florida Bar training program lauded by participants for helping diversify the pool of applicants that become active in state bar committees and leadership has shrunk this year to half its original size.

The Wm. Reece Smith Jr. Leadership Academy began in 2013 with 59 fellows as the brainchild of former Florida Bar president Eugene Pettis, who that year became the association's first African-American president. The program was meant to help lawyers from a variety of backgrounds better understand the work of the bar, present them with volunteer options and assist them in becoming better leaders.

Pettis, a co-founder of Haliczer Pettis & Schwamm in Fort Lauderdale, was adamant that the program serve the individuals least likely to rise up in the bar. The makeup of the program fluctuates from class to class, but more than a third has always been minorities, and more than half of the selected fellows each year have been women. Past graduates include two members of the Florida Bar's board of governors, two voluntary bar association liaisons to the board and six members of the Young Lawyers Division.