Incoming Florida Bar President John Stewart Incoming Florida Bar President John Stewart/courtesy photo

Vero Beach civil litigator John Stewart will take over as president of the 107,000-member Florida Bar on Friday, succeeding Michelle Suskauer.

Stewart, a Rossway Swan Tierney Barry Lacey & Oliver partner with a technology focus, has been active in the Florida Bar for years, serving as president of the young lawyers division in 2006-2007. He will take over leadership of the state bar at its annual convention in Boca Raton.

Stewart, a third-generation Florida attorney at a 21-attorney law firm, spoke with the Daily Business Review about his priorities as president, the importance of a mandatory bar and how working in a smaller jurisdiction informs his opinions on tech and lawyer referral services. This interview was edited for length and clarity.

What are the priorities for your term?

My main focus for the bar has been technology's intersection with legal practice and how legal technology is changing the profession. That being said, we still have, which probably started about two years ago in earnest, the health and wellness issues, which by no means are dissipating. We keep learning more, and I think we keep getting better at helping lawyers. In fact, my soon-to-be President-elect Dori Foster-Morales was into that concept before it was cool so she's probably going to keep pushing that for me. Obviously, our continued efforts in the area of diversity, dealing with issues of gender bias in the profession, will continue.

What is the greatest issue facing Florida attorneys?

I think it's a combination between technology and mental health and wellness. Some people would say technology is driving us crazy. I think that different technologies and alternative service providers are exploding so quickly that it's very hard for lawyers. Most of our lawyers are in firms of 10 attorneys or less. Sixty-five percent of our attorneys are solo practitioners or at firms of five or less. It's really hard to keep up with the current pace of technological change: electronic discovery, social media, advertising in the digital age, attorney-client privileges. It's a lot frankly to take on when really running a small law firm is no different from running a small business. I will say that I was heavily involved in getting the bar to add three hours of mandatory technology CLE to our reporting cycle. We were the first state in the nation to do that. That's been a help, but there's obviously lots more that needs to be done.

With your push for the release of the bar's online referral service, what do you think about the role of private legal referral services?

I think they're valuable. I really do. There's a disconnect that does not make sense in a traditional marketplace. We have a growing number of lawyers — not just younger lawyers, lawyers in general, in rural areas — that need more work. At the same time, we have a growing number of citizens in Florida that need legal services. I'm not just talking about the poor. We're really talking about what I've heard referred to as the fat middle: the difference between what's covered by pro bono and legal aid at the lower level and that super high-end work at the top 10%. That middle 80% that's largely underserved is where the lawyer referral service comes in. Florida, for a very long time, probably 30 years, has permitted lawyer referral services as long as they abide by our rules. I think they're important. They reach people who need legal services better than a lot of law firms do. If they're connecting lawyers to people, that's a great thing.

What is the value of mandatory bar membership, which is being contested in other states?

The value is the collection of the whole and what it could bring. There are so many challenges we can attack and so many things we can take on simply because of the scope we have, the resources we have available, to do those things. Obviously, we carry the water every legislative session for judicial funding and making sure we have a properly funded judicial branch of government. Importantly, in my opinion, if you don't have a mandatory bar a lot of the issues relating to mental health and wellness and keeping up with technology — as well as keeping up with issues of diversity so that your lawyer population looks like the state population — fall by the wayside in voluntary organizations because their focus is really just, “What is it that my individual member needs so they'll come back and rejoin?”

Do you think that your experiences as an attorney in a smaller jurisdiction have informed your views?

I think you're right on point. It's harder in a lot of ways to make those legal connections, particularly when you're looking at that group of Florida citizens that aren't really being served by the legal industry. We don't really get to them and market to them really well. I would say really even in bigger jurisdictions that this is a solo and small-firm issue. Obviously, most small jurisdictions are served by those solo and small firms anyway, but I think those same issues apply to solo and small firms even in large jurisdictions because they have the same issues of time and resources. How do we connect them when they need work to the people who need them to do the work?