Think Positive, You Plebes!

So let's see big-firmers, Morgan Lewis lays off 55 lawyers and 161 staffers, and White & Case drops 200 lawyers and 200 staffers.

I've gotten some feedback locally, but feel free to comment or shoot me an email.

Folks, it's time to bone up on personal bankruptcy and labor law -- there's always a growth market somewhere, right?

Meanwhile, the courts and clerks of court are battlin' it out over the scraps given to us by the Florida legislature. Here's Harvey Ruvin, writing somnabulantly in the Herald:

No such transparency or accountability is contained in the judges' proposals, only that all the funds would be placed in a judiciary-controlled trust fund to be allocated as they see fit -- with no apparent oversight. The editorial said, ''It isn't clear if these proposals are the best way to fund the courts.'' This gets it right.

In addition to the carte blanche funding transfer, the proposals would strip the elected court clerks of their complex court functions and place them under judicially appointed bureaucrats whose major experience is managing judges' community programs, personnel and procurement needs.

More important, placing clerks under the total control of the judiciary would eliminate the independent role that the framers of Florida's Constitution intended. This treasured independence of the clerks serves the public interest in countless ways, every day throughout our justice system.

Chief Judge Joseph Farina and I are proud of our current ''partnership.'' That relationship of mutual confidence and respect is dependent on the existing law that both protects and enables it. Destroying that independence, as these proposals call for, would work to the detriment of the very principles our laws are designed to ensure.

Zzzzz....

Sorry, I briefly lost consciousness reading Harvey's letter. There's got to be a better way to explain this turf war so the public can be engaged in the issue. I don't think lawyers are even engaged, so this won't cut it.

Why would the public care about this, Harvey -- that's what you need to figure out for the next letter.

Me, I'm heading over to the DAC right now for a little exercise.

Hey -- for real, this time.

Be back in a few!