76th President of The Florida Bar
June 2024 to June 2025
On June 21, 2024, Roland Sanchez-Medina Jr. was sworn in as the 76th President of The Florida Bar at the Bar's General Assembly in Orlando. The Florida Bar regulates and serves more than 113,000 lawyers. He was the third president of the Bar born outside the United States.
He came to the presidency after about a decade on the Bar's Board of Governors, where he served on numerous committees and chaired the Program Evaluation Committee. In December 2022 he was elected president elect designate without opposition, and he was sworn in as president elect in June 2023.
Priorities
Professionalism
He appointed a special professionalism committee whose recommendations, in his words, led to lasting positive changes to the Bar and the legal profession. Weeks into his term, in August 2024, he spoke on the panel “From the High Court: High Standards for Professionalism and Ethics” at the Cuban American Bar Association's Judicial Forum and Luncheon.
Fairness
He worked to balance the Bar's core mission of regulating lawyers with helping its members succeed, keeping the process fair while upholding high ethical standards. “A major part of what we do is regulating attorneys,” he told Coral Gables Magazine, so that lawyers act ethically and the public keeps its trust in the legal system.
Lawyer well being
He made lawyer well being, including mental health, one of his top priorities, recognizing the pressure lawyers face from an always connected, around the clock practice. “We need to talk about it at some level,” he told the Miami Herald, encouraging lawyers to use resources such as Florida Lawyers Assistance.
Opening doors
He encouraged newer lawyers and immigrant lawyers to take part in Bar service and leadership.
Results of his term
Practical guidance on artificial intelligence
Building on the work begun under past President Scott Westheimer, the Bar's Special Committee on AI Tools and Resources released a practical AI guide for lawyers through LegalFuel, the Bar's practice resource center. It covers protecting client confidentiality, reviewing AI generated work, avoiding common ethical pitfalls and choosing secure platforms.
Cybersecurity for law firms
The Bar's Cybersecurity and Privacy Law Committee developed voluntary Model Incident Response Plans to help lawyers and firms prepare for and respond to cyber attacks.
Service to the public
In his farewell address he reported that Florida lawyers had contributed more than 1.7 million hours of pro bono service and more than $11.6 million to legal aid organizations in the prior year, and he urged lawyers to keep serving through pro bono work, mentoring and bar leadership.
A call to service and unity
On June 27, 2025, at the Annual Florida Bar Convention in Boca Raton, he gave his farewell address to the Bar's General Assembly. He credited saying yes to getting involved with shaping his own career, and he called engagement in the profession “not a duty, but an opportunity.” He reminded lawyers that the Bar's central mission remains regulating the practice of law and protecting the public, and that the profession must adapt to technology like AI while staying true to that purpose. He passed the gavel to Rosalyn Sia Baker-Barnes of West Palm Beach.
In his own words
In his final President's Page column, “A Farewell to an Incredible Year: A Tribute to The Florida Bar Team” (The Florida Bar Journal, May/June 2025), he credited the people behind the Bar's work: the Board of Governors, the justices of the Florida Supreme Court, Executive Director Josh Doyle, and the staff who run lawyer regulation, continuing legal education, the Lawyer Referral Service and member programs. He closed by saying of the incoming leadership, “The Bar is in great hands.”
Championing pro bono service
In March 2025, as Florida Bar President, he joined 15th Judicial Circuit Chief Judge Glenn Kelley and Judge Lisa Small, chair of the circuit's Pro Bono Committee, at the committee's Fifth Annual Pro Bono Awards Ceremony at the Palm Beach County Courthouse. Before more than 80 guests, including former Florida Bar Presidents Michelle Suskauer and Gary Lesser and circuit judges, they praised the award winners for their dedication and encouraged continued pro bono service.
Leadership style
Colleagues described him as a quiet leader who emphasized listening and gave Bar committees room to do their work. At the close of his term, at the 2025 Annual Florida Bar Convention in Boca Raton, he presented the President's Awards of Merit to Bar leaders whose work reflected the full range of the Bar's mission, from lawyer regulation to access to justice.
Before the presidency
He was president of the Cuban American Bar Association in 2009, after joining its board around 2001, and he is a member of the National Conference of Bar Presidents.
Sources: Roland Sanchez-Medina, Jr., becomes president of The Florida Bar (Florida Bar News, June 2024); Sanchez-Medina bids farewell with a call to service and unity (Florida Bar News, June 2025); Sanchez-Medina presents President's Awards of Merit (Florida Bar News, July 2025); CABA hosts Judicial Forum and Luncheon (Florida Bar News, August 2024); election announcement (The Florida Bar, December 2022).