BOARD OF GOVERNORS TO ADDRESS DISCIPLINARY RULES, AI BENEFIT, SECTION BYLAWS

The Bar’s Board of Governors will tackle a wide-ranging agenda when it convenes July 17 for its first meeting of the 2026-27 Bar year, including final action on proposed disciplinary rule changes involving frozen trust funds, consideration of a new AI-powered legal notetaker as a member benefit, and section bylaw amendments to expand remote participation.

Disciplinary Revocation – Disposition of Frozen Trust Funds

It’s anticipated the board will take final action on changes to Rule 3-7.12 (Disciplinary Revocation of Admission to The Florida Bar) to delay the dismissal of pending disciplinary cases following a member’s disciplinary revocation until frozen trust funds have been disposed. In March, the Supreme Court directed the Bar to address the issue and report back to the court by September 14.

The issue arises because a disciplinary revocation automatically dismisses all pending discipline cases. In a few recent cases, a disciplinary revocation was granted when there were frozen trust funds to be disposed, the pending discipline cases were dismissed, and the Bar had to request that the court reappoint a referee to handle the disposition of the frozen trust funds.

The proposed changes separate the Bar’s response and the Supreme Court’s judgment into individual subsections.

The proposed rule changes have been unanimously approved by the Disciplinary Procedure Committee, the Program Evaluation Committee, and the Rules Committee, with the Bar’s chief financial officer’s assessment finding a de minimis fiscal impact. If the Board of Governors approves the changes, the proposed rule amendment will be sent to the Supreme Court for consideration.

Member Benefit – Lua Legal

The board is also expected to take final action on whether to add Lua Legal, an AI notetaker for lawyers, to the member benefits lineup. Bar members would receive a 10% discount on basic and pro licenses.

Lua Legal is a privilege-protecting notetaker for attorneys, providing a transcript, summary, and action items for phone calls, in-person meetings, and video conferences. Users can ask Lua questions, have it draft their follow-ups, manage privilege and discovery review, and control where their data lives, according to the company. Lua Legal was founded at Harvard Law School by a team of attorneys and engineers with backgrounds at Google, Amazon, McKinsey, and Salesforce.

Entertainment, Arts and Sports Law Section – Teleconferencing for Meetings, Voting

The Entertainment, Arts and Sports Law Section recently approved adding phone and/or video conferencing options for its meetings. The board proposal follows a CFO finding issued at the end of April that reported a de minimis fiscal impact and notes that "the section has successfully navigated electronic communications with board meetings for several years."

The changes to the section’s meetings require an amendment to its bylaws, which must be approved by the Board of Governors.

The board will also hear two proposed changes for the first time regarding:

• Rule 3-7.2, Procedures on Criminal or Professional Misconduct — updating and simplifying language in subdivision (f), necessitated by a prior amendment to Rule 3-5.1, and stating the respondent is "suspended from the practice of law."

• Civil Procedure Rules Committee procedure to "reply all" in email voting — Board members will consider a Program Evaluation Committee recommendation to change the procedure to send comments to Bar staff, which will collect and share the comments, to avoid "flooding members' inboxes" with unnecessary emails.

The first Board of Governors meeting under the leadership of Bar President Michael Fox Orr will also include a review of the Board of Legal Specialization and Education's 2025-26 Report, detailing BLSE activities and outcomes. Reports from the Disciplinary Procedure, Rules, and Legislation committees, as well as a review of the Budget Committee's and Audit Committee's dashboards and current litigation, also are scheduled for presentation.

Information regarding the Members Health Plan Insurance (MHPI) Captive and the recently acquired AI member benefit, Clio Work Standalone, also will be shared by the Member Benefits Committee.