PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE
Vision 20/20 – Focused on Recovery
Step 2 – Learning how to fish again
Dean T. Xenick
2020-21 PBCBA President
The old adage “give me a fish, eat for a
day, teach me to fish, eat for a lifetime”
is more true than ever. Our current
situation has forced us to rethink our
practices and “learn to fish” again, and
in more creative ways. We are facing a
renaissance in our work lives. In order
to succeed we need to figure out new
and more innovative ways to thrive in
these challenging times.
This “work renaissance” comes in
many forms:
• How do we market for new
clients with traditional
networking restricted?
• How do we interact with our
clients?
• How do we most effectively
communicate with the court?
• How do we deal with other
lawyers who aren’t cooperative?
• How do we move our cases
in the best interests of our
clients in light of the current
courthouse situation?
• When will the courthouse
open?
• When the courthouse finally
opens, what will it look like?
• When will jury trials resume?
• How can we cut costs and
continue to provide the same
level of service to our clients?
Learning to fish again means educating
yourself and, in some cases, reeducating
yourself on your practice
by seeing what others are doing while
being unique at the same time, in order
to separate yourself from the pack. But
how do we do this?
Thankfully, we already have many
tools and resources at our disposal,
literally at our fingertips, to get the
information we need to continue to get
new clients and service our current
clients as efficiently as possible. We
just need to re-learn how to use them.
In the past, many of us would scroll
through the PBCBA bulletin or the
Florida Bar News looking for pictures
or perhaps a CLE, maybe skim over
an article, see who was hired or fired,
etc. This cursory review is no longer
enough.
These publications which you get
regularly, for FREE, are a treasure
trove of valuable information that your
fellow lawyers spend considerable
amounts of time assembling for you,
to HELP you succeed. Don’t take them
for granted anymore!
These very same publications contain
news stories, CLE opportunities,
webinars, and other valuable information
which will be laser-focused
on our current situation and how you
can benefit from them. Thus, you must
retrain yourself to not only read these
publications, but do so with a focus on
how it can help you and your clients,
how it can help you plan your budgets,
workflow, and so much more. Some
of this innovative programming includes:
• Our virtual Bench Bar Conference
in the month of August
• August 19 - Civility and Good
Practice Navigating Complex
Cases
• September 16 - CLE relative to
Remote Notarization Statute
• September 17 – CLE relative to
Keeping Client Info Off of the Dark
Web
• Town hall Zoom meetings with
local judges and Florida Bar
representatives
So my ask of you this month is for you to
take advantage of what is right in front
of you and use those resources to focus
on your practice, to GET INVOLVED,
and to GET ENGAGED, in order to learn
to fish again by doing the following:
• Read the PBCBA Bulletin, cover to
cover;
• Check out our website www.
palmbeachbar.org weekly for new
information and stories about
local topics of interest;
• Read the emails from the PBCBA
e-mail blast for new programming
we are releasing weekly;
• Like and visit our Facebook page,
for breaking news from Palm
Beach County and the state of
Florida, all of which will affect
your practice;
• While you are doing the above,
keep an eye out for new and
inventive programming that we
will be offering to HELP you;
• Go to our CLE page and download a
CLE on a relevant and timely topic:
https://cle.palmbeachbar.org/;
• Visit https://www.15thcircuit.com/
for local courthouse news and
information;
• Read the Florida Bar News, cover
to cover;
• Visit www.floridabar.org and
https://www.floridasupremecourt.
org/ for breaking news stories and
information about the state of the
Courts and the Bar; and
• If you still have time, go
backwards a couple of months into
these publications for past stories,
which no doubt can help you.
Sometimes we take for granted what
we already have right in front of us.
So, instead of being “given a fish”, take
the initiative and “learn to fish” again,
using tools and resources you already
have access to. You will be surprised
by what you will learn.
Again, if you ever have any questions,
concerns, or ideas of how we can do
better, I invite you to call or email me at
[email protected]. We are
YOUR Bar Association and are always
looking for ideas to help you and your
practices.
HAPPY FISHING or as fisherman say,
“Tight lines!”
Next up, Step 3 – “Who moved my
cheese”…..Stay tuned
PBCBA BAR BULLETIN
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