This profile of Eugene K. Pettis originally ran in the March 21, 2011, issue of FlaLaw Online. The Florida Bar recently announced that Pettis is The Florida Bar president-elect designate. He will serve as president of The Florida Bar during the 2013-14 term.

By Brandon Breslow
Student writer

Eugene K. Pettis (JD 85) is not a just a partner in the law firm of Haliczer, Pettis and Schwamm. He is a partner to every business, government agency or individual that the firm represents.

“My job brings about not just the responsibility for litigating, but I also must manage my client’s needs prior to and after any legal issues arise,” Pettis said. “My clients know they’re getting an experienced lawyer and a counselor to their business and legal matters.”

For more than 25 years, Pettis has worked to stand out from the massive field of lawyers in Florida and across the nation. In doing so, he took risks, marketed himself and built his firm into a business.

The result was an enormity of success for the Fort Lauderdale native who has represented Starbucks, Exxon Mobil and other Fortune 100 and Fortune 500 companies in civil litigation.

However, Pettis grew up in opposition to his mother’s insistence that he should become a lawyer. He originally enrolled as a pre-dental student at the University of Florida, completing advanced chemistry and mathematics courses. He chose to leave the program after realizing that he wasn’t passionate about the subjects.

“It was then that I realized maybe Mom was right,” he said.

After a brief stint focusing on an interdisciplinary study of environmental law, Pettis switched to political science.

Continuing his studies as a Gator, Pettis enrolled in the University of Florida Levin College of Law, where he became heavily involved in moot court.

“Even though it focused on appellate-type work, it helped sharpen my advocacy skills,” he said.

Upon graduation, Pettis returned to Fort Lauderdale to work for the firm of Conrad, Scherer and James. When one of the firm’s senior partners and his mentor, Rex Conrad, retired in 1991, Pettis and James Haliczer chose to leave and to start their own firm. Richard Schwamm joined the firm in 1996, establishing the trio’s current firm.

“I chose to step out on faith as a young lawyer and develop ownership of my own firm,” Pettis said.

Since then, he has worked hard to develop his firm into a business that his clients and the public can trust.

“One thing is to practice law, but the next thing is to build a practice into a successful legal business, which encompasses excellence in law and client service,” he said.

Pettis is successful on both fronts. He was included in the 2010 and 2011 editions of The Best Lawyers in America and earned Martindale-Hubbell’s top “AV” rating among multiple other professional recognitions.

In the field of medical malpractice and personal injury, he has earned many favorable verdicts for the defendants he represented and multimillion-dollar settlements and verdicts for the plaintiffs who hired him. He also represents corporate clients in areas of commercial litigation and employment matters.

Pettis also represents hospitals, the School Board of Broward County and the Broward County Sheriff’s Office. In his career, he has had more than 60 trials of complex legal matters.

“I have fun structuring the case and the case strategy,” Pettis said, “but the true test for litigators is to lay out that strategy in front of a jury and have (it) accept your case as the most persuasive.”

To build a successful business, Pettis has made his firm a staple in the communities of Fort Lauderdale and Orlando, where a second branch of his firm exists.

“We spend a lot of time trying to make Broward and Orange counties better places,” Pettis said.

Rooted in humble backgrounds, Pettis always made community involvement a priority in his personal and professional lives.

Pettis grew up the youngest of seven children, and he watched with amazement as his father, a janitor and a waiter, and his mother, a teacher’s assistant, managed to make ends meet.

His family was named by Nancy Reagan as a Great American Family in 1985 and was awarded a trip to the White House for the honor.

“It was truly a symbol of the job my mother and father did in raising all of us,” Pettis said.

In honor of his mother’s commitment to education, Pettis and his wife, Shiela, and other siblings have created several scholarships and endowments in her name to help students in Fort Lauderdale and Broward County afford a college degree. In 2004, Pettis and his wife established the Pettis Family Endowed Scholarship, which gives annual scholarships to selected students at Broward College.

“You have to give people the tools to better themselves,” Pettis said. “Only then will they be able to stand on their own two feet.”

Pettis continues to hold strong family ties. He has two daughters, Shenele, 21, and Shardè, 16. His nephew, Yohance A. Pettis (JD 04), is an associate at his firm.

Pettis also remains committed to UF. He is a member of the Law Center Association’s Board of Trustees and served eight years on the board of directors for the University of Florida Foundation.

“I think that there is no more rewarding career than the practice of law,” Pettis said. “But to benefit from its richness, you have to get involved in your community and practice.”

Fort Lauderdale attorney Eugene K. Pettis is The Florida Bar’s president-elect designate. No other candidates came forward to challenge Pettis, who will be the first African American president in Florida Bar history, in Bar elections.

Pettis will be sworn in as president-elect at the Bar’s annual convention in June 2012, when Tampa attorney Gwynne Alice Young will be sworn in as president. He will become Bar president in 2013.

“The reach of the Bar and its members’ contributions to public good is unparalleled,” said Pettis. “Through my travels across the state, I have seen hundreds of lawyers who are using their skills in service to their communities.  These observations have ignited in me even greater pride in our Bar.”

A founding partner of Haliczer Pettis & Schwamm, Pettis is a trial attorney who has been practicing law since 1985.

In 2005, he was elected to The Florida Bar’s governing board from the Seventeenth Judicial Circuit.  He currently serves on the Executive Committee of the Board of Governors and co-chairs The Hawkins Commission, which is comprehensively reviewing the Bar’s discipline system.

For three years, Pettis chaired the Bar’s committee that fights to preserve the independence of Florida’s judiciary and led the committee as it launched its Benchmarks program for attorneys to teach civics education to adults. He remains committed to working to make sure Florida’s courts receive the funding they need instead of relying on volatile fees that have fallen with the troubled economy.

“Our challenge is to make it clear that sufficient funding for our court system is not an option but is essential,” Pettis said, adding that he will continue efforts to identify “a long-term, predictable source of court funding so that every Floridian will be assured access to our courts.”

Pettis also co-chaired the Board of Governors’ blue ribbon committee formed to promote diversity and inclusion in the practice of law.

“The Florida Bar has made diversity and inclusion an objective in its strategic plan,” he said. “I truly believe the strength of the Bar rests in the whole; together, there is benefit for us all.”

A graduate of the University of Florida in 1982 with a B.A, he went on to get his law degree at UF in 1985.  Currently, he is on the Board of Trustees at the university’s Levin School of Law and serves on several university advisory committees.

In addition to his admission to The Florida Bar, Pettis is also admitted to the Federal Bar for the Southern District of Florida, Northern District of Florida and Middle District of Florida.

Pettis has extensive trial experience in the areas of medical malpractice, personal injury, employment law, professional liability and commercial litigation.  He also represents clients in administrative hearings and other alternative dispute resolution forums.

He holds Martindale-Hubbell’s highest AV rating and has been selected by his peers in The Best Lawyers in America.

In 2009, he was honored and admitted by The Fellows of the American Bar Foundation, an academy recognizing lawyers who are regarded by their peers as leaders in the community who have contributed significantly to the legal profession.

The Florida Bar has more than 93,000 members.

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Ft. Lauderdale attorney Eugene K. Pettis has become The Florida Bar’s president-elect designate and will be the first African-American in Bar history to hold the top job. No other candidates came forward to challenge Pettis in this year’s Bar elections.

Eugene K. Pettis Pettis, who has served on the Bar Board of Governors since 2005, will be sworn in as president-elect at the Bar’s Annual Convention in June 2012, when Tampa’s Gwynne Alice Young will be sworn in as president. He will take the oath as Bar president in June 2013.

“Our Creed of Professionalism states: ‘I will further my profession’s devotion to public service and to the public good.’ I can’t think of a better way to fulfill our creed than to serve The Florida Bar,” Pettis said when his election became official. “The reach of the Bar and its members’ contributions to public good is unparalleled. Through my travels across the state, I have seen hundreds of lawyers who are using their skills in service to their communities. These observations have ignited in me even greater pride in our Bar.”

A founding partner of Haliczer Pettis & Schwamm, Pettis is a trial attorney who has been practicing law since 1985.

In 2005, he was elected to the Board of Governors 17th Judicial Circuit. He currently serves on the Executive Committee of the Board of Governors and co-chairs The Hawkins Commission, which is performing a comprehensive review of the discipline system of The Florida Bar.

For three years, Pettis chaired the Bar’s committee (recently renamed the Constitutional Judiciary Committee) that fights to preserve the independence of Florida’s judiciary and led the committee as it launched its Benchmarks program for attorneys to teach civics education to adults. He remains committed to making sure Florida’s courts receive the funding they need to function effectively — and named that as one of his top three presidential goals.

“First, I will continue the advancement of identifying a long-term, predictable source of court funding so that every Floridian will be assured access to our courts,” Pettis said. “We must also appreciate that an effective judicial system also includes well-funded court clerks, state attorneys’ offices, and public defenders, which all contribute to our quality of life and democracy.”

At a time of falling revenues for state government, he acknowledged that can be a special challenge.

“So our challenge is to make it clear that sufficient funding for our court system is not an option, but is essential,” Pettis said.

Beyond court funding, “I hope to elevate the efforts of the Bar in achieving true diversity and inclusion within our profession,” Pettis said.

“We have all been engaged in the dialog of diversity over the past decade. Most agree that diversity is good. However, there is much debate whether our dialog has translated into real, measurable changes. The Florida Bar has made diversity and inclusion an objective in its strategic plan. I will work at every level of the Bar — through sections, voluntary bars, standing committees, and the governor’s office — on JNC and judicial appointments to achieve inclusion of all sectors of our profession. I truly believe the strength of the Bar rests in the whole; together, there is benefit for us all.”

Another goal is to address “one of the devastating consequences of the recent economic downturn — the impact on legal aid organizations,” he continued.

“We must recognize an obligation to strive for equal access to an availability of legal services for all Floridians in need. The Florida Bar, through The Florida Bar Foundation, must meet the call in the coming years.”

The Bar must also help its members, particularly its newest members who face the challenge of joining a rapidly growing profession at a time the economy is restricting employment opportunities.

“We must also recognize, as the Bar continues to grow by nearly 3,000 lawyers each year, currently at 93,008 lawyers, job opportunities are scarce,” Pettis said. “Therefore, many individuals are simply hanging up their shingles in solo practices. We need to make sure that we are providing better outreach to members and mentorship opportunities. We must make sure there is an effective transition into the practice.”

Pettis said being the first African-American Bar president demonstrates both the importance of diversity and that barriers are disappearing.

“A key factor to success is believing, and we most believe that which we see,” he said. “So the fact that I will become the first African-American president of The Florida Bar will be symbolic proof that we as a profession have come a long way toward true inclusion for all. I am certainly not the first person of color that has been qualified to serve, but many of the obstacles of yesterday are gone, and we recognize there is strength in one Bar; representative of all sectors of our profession and communities.”

A graduate of the University of Florida in 1982 with a B.A., he went on to get his law degree at UF in 1985. Currently, he is on the board of trustees at the university’s Levin School of Law and serves on several university advisory committees.

In addition to his admission to The Florida Bar, Pettis is also admitted to the Federal Bar for the Southern District of Florida, Northern District of Florida, and Middle District of Florida.

Pettis has extensive trial experience in the areas of medical malpractice, personal injury, employment law, professional liability, and commercial litigation. He also represents clients in administrative hearings and other alternative dispute resolution forums.

In 2009, he was honored and admitted by The Fellows of the American Bar Foundation, an academy recognizing lawyers who are regarded by their peers as leaders in the community who have contributed significantly to the legal profession.

Neal C. Falk

Neal Falk, a partner who manages the firm’s Workers’ Compensation Department, has been named chair of the Workers’ Compensation Section of the Broward County Bar Association (BCBA).

In this role, Falk’s top priorities include overseeing and offering continuing education for attorneys and judges of compensation claims, expanding the Workers’ Compensation Section membership and integrating the section with other sections of the BCBA.

Falk will serve a minimum of a one-year term for the 10-member board, with the option to continue serving as chair with board approval. Falk was elected to the position by a majority vote of his peers within the BCBA’s Workers’ Compensation Section.

“I am proud to serve as chair of the Workers’ Compensation Section, a position that enables me to continue to serve and help lead the BCBA, our local judiciary, and our community at large,” said Falk, who focuses his practice in the areas of general liability, commercial litigation, personal injury, medical malpractice and workers’ compensation.

Falk’s other professional affiliations include serving as a current Executive Council Member for the Workers’ Compensation Section of The Florida Bar, and current member of the Rules Committee for the Workers’ Compensation Section of The Florida Bar. In addition, he offers continuing education to his fellow members of the Bar and members of the Judiciary as well as claims representatives and employers alike within the workers’ compensation field.

He currently serves on The Forum Board Certification Panel for Workers’ Compensation and has volunteered his time to teach law students at Nova Southeastern Shepard Broad Law Center.

Falk is admitted to The Florida Bar (1995) and the Federal Bar for the Southern District of Florida (1999). He is admitted to practice in U.S. District Court, Southern and Middle Districts of Florida, and in U.S. Supreme Court. He received a law degree from the University of Miami School of Law in Miami, in 1995, and a bachelor’s degree from Union College, in Schenectady, NY, in 1992.

By Eugene K. Pettis and Debra Klauber, Haliczer Pettis & Schwamm

Didn’t get the job? Sue the company for discrimination.

That’s the latest strategy that many disgruntled jobseekers are deploying in today’s competitive job market, putting undue stress on companies to protect themselves and justify their reasons for not hiring them.

More than 40% of the unemployed – roughly 6.2 million Americans – have been jobless for at least six months, the highest since the Great Depression. Stress levels are high, and the lawsuits against companies are stacking up.

It’s one of the latest hot topics currently debated by Democrats and Republicans as they struggle to address our nation’s unemployment crisis. President Obama tried to tackle the issue by proposing a jobs package that would make it more difficult for companies to turn away potential hires and give them incentives to hire more, but this measure failed last week in the Senate.

Whatever the outcome of the ongoing political debates and no matter what new employment laws are enacted, certain general principles will continue to apply. Here are some good basic tips to help employers avoid becoming targets for frivolous discrimination lawsuits from applicants:

●     Employers should keep in mind that they do not owe anything to applicants – they’re simply precluded from discriminating against them by refusing to consider or hire them because of characteristics including their race, national origin, age and gender. It’s that simple.

●     Some of the disgruntled applicants are alleging they weren’t hired because they are not currently employed or have been unemployed for a long time. Employers should not limit their advertisements and job searches to “employed” applicants. Current job status alone should never be the sole deciding factor.  Although this type of search might not technically be illegal, it constitutes bad business judgment because this criteria might cause companies to miss out on hiring great candidates.

●     Employers must take into account all aspects of potential hires, including their job history, education, qualifications, experience, and current job status, along with references and reputation information.

●     Consistency is the key, and it’s critical to treat all current and prospective employees similarly to avoid any appearance of impropriety or discrimination.

The good news: as long as employers do not discriminate against applicants and they base their decisions on legitimate criteria, they should be well-protected by the law, as it exists today.

What makes a bully? The Workplace Bullying Institute says it’s “repeated, health-harming mistreatment” of victims by perpetrators employing such tactics as:

• Offensive behavior that’s threatening, humiliating or intimidating

• Verbal abuse

• Work interference and sabotage “There’s a long list of things one human being can do to bully another, ranging from eye rolling to extreme violence,” adds Stanford University professor Dr. Robert Sutton. There’s also digital bullying—a growing problem for workers, says Fort Lauderdale, FL, attorney Eugene Pettis. “The medium invites instantaneous communications, often sent in the heat of the moment, that can be much more aggressive online than in person.”

Dr. Sutton concludes: Bullying is any occasional or frequent behavior that leaves the target demeaned and de-energized.

What Companies Can Do
Here’s an eight-step blueprint businesses can use to end workplace bullying, from WBI’s Gary and Ruth Namie, co-authors of The Bully-Free Workplace: Stop Jerks, Weasels & Snakes from Killing Your Organization.

1. Assess the culture, surveying staff to find out whether and how bullying is happening.

2. Create a policy to prevent bullying, one that has strong top-down support.

3. Develop informal solutions employees can use before bullying escalates to the point where it requires a formal complaint.

4. Create formal enforcement procedures to correct bullying and ensure personal and organizational accountability.

5. Provide restorative justice to targets, with bullies acknowledging their behavior and promising to stop it.

6. Deal with confirmed violators through mandated participation in anti-bullying clinics (such as the WBI’s Respectful Conduct Clinic) or one-on-one sessions, followed by regular evaluations.

7. Get the word out, educating employees about the anti-bullying policy and procedures and how to use them.

8. Optimize accountability through a variety of measures, including having employees evaluate their boss’s behavior (and using those evaluations as factors in determining raises and bonuses) and asking job applicants to provide references from employees they managed.

The latest case of comments made on one’s personal time leading to trouble at work comes to us from Flori-duh, my home state. Jerry Buell, a former teacher of the year, allegedly wrote on his Facebook wall, “I’m watching the news, eating dinner, when the story about the New York okaying same sex unions came on and I almost threw up.” It was not the kind of vomiting that many little kids do when they get too excited about something, like a trip to Disney World, where their little stomachs get so tied up with anxiety about the amazingness that awaits them that the contents get spilled. Instead, Buell said this because he thinks “same-sex marriages were part of a ‘cesspool’ and were a ‘sin’,” reports CNN.

Now the school district is investigating, and Buell has been suspended. Some are cheering the decision for demonstrating the school’s commitment to anti-discrimination, while others are lamenting the violation of Buell’s right to free speech — especially given that the comment was made on Facebook, not in a classroom.

With more and more of our personal lives being documented via social media, it’s increasingly easy for our employers to discover it. Especially as start-ups like Social Intelligence, about which I’ve written before, make it their business to help schools, hospitals, and other companies do social media background checks on prospective employees and ongoing monitoring of existing ones.

Where do we draw the line on how much our employers have a a right to know about us outside of work, or is that line already too blurred to see? Are we always, in some sense, on the job in the digital age?

“Social media is a tool that gives us more insight into job candidates and employees than we’ve ever had before,” says Florida employment lawyer Eugene Pettis, a partner at Haliczer Pettis & Schwamm. But he warns that employers can still cross lines that will get them into legal trouble. He points to the case of C. Martin Gaskell in Kentucky. Gaskell was up for an administrative position at the University of Kentucky. In Googling him, someone at the university found that he had done lectures on the merits of intelligent design. Though it was unrelated to the job he’d be doing at the university, objections to his anti-evolution views led the university to rescind Gaskell’s employment offer. He sued for discrimination based on his religious beliefs. The university settled the case before it could go to trial, paying Gaskell $125,000.

(Buell could likely make a similar argument if he says that his views on sexuality are religious ones.)

While the idea of schools’ monitoring their teachers’ social media use may be chilling to free speech advocates, there are arguments in its favor. In fact, parents in Nebraska sued their school district for negligent hiring for not looking at the MySpace profile of one of its teachers closely enough. In Marvin v. Bloomfield, the parents of a 14-year-old girl sued the school after a teacher went to jail for statutory rape for sleeping with their freshman daughter.

“The School [was] asleep at the wheel in terms of monitoring and supervising its employee especially given all the information and signs that were present and promoted by him on his own MySpace page,” says Brian Jorde, the Marvins’ lawyer. “I think individuals such as teachers and child care providers should undergo elevated scrutiny based on the responsibilities and risks that go with the job duties expected of them.”
The Marvins alleged that there was significant sexual content on the teacher’s page, including the fact that his user name there was John “Pecker” Hoffman — when his middle name was not actually “Pecker” — and that he posted photos of himself drinking and “groping” women.

That case was due to go to trial this fall, but also settled. The amount and terms are confidential, says Jorde.

So, again, the question: how much should we be scrutinized outside of work? Your reputation and actions outside of work have always had an influence on your employability, but now that your actions outside of work are transcribed, recorded and archived in a whole new way thanks to social networks like Facebook, does the surveillance become overly chilling?

Together with The Gift of Swimming, Schwamm provides the following list of the five most important swimming tips to help ensure a safe summer:

1. Parents should know their legal responsibilities under Florida’s Residential Swimming Pool law. A residential swimming pool must meet at least one of the following requirements relating to pool safety features: A pool barrier must completely surround the swimming pool and meet state requirements, e.g. at least four (4) feet high; the pool must be equipped with an approved safety pool cover; all doors and windows providing direct access from the home to the pool must be equipped with an exit alarm; or, doors providing direct access must be equipped with a self-closing, self-latching device.

2. Parents should have their pool/spa drains inspected regularly. Drains with suction problems can trap swimmers – particularly those with long hair – and can cause death.

3. All children should be taught, at the youngest-possible age, to swim.

4. Children should never swim without the supervision of an adult. Children should not be given the responsibility to supervise other children.

5. Develop a swimming pool rules sign for your home and place it in a location that’s easy for visiting parents and children to see. The list should include: Adults must supervise children, Swim with a buddy, No diving; Enter water feet first, Apply sunscreen.

For more information on the Gift of Swimming program, and how to donate, visit www.giftofswimming.org, call 407-905-0999 or e-mail info@giftofswimming.org.

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Attorney Richard Schwamm speaks at the kickoff event hosted by The Children’s Safety Village of Central Florida and The Gift of Swimming.

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