Kenneth Hodges. Photo by John Disney/Daily Report.
The State Bar of Georgia served up more yoga and less alcohol during its annual meeting at the Jekyll Island Convention Center over the weekend.
The reason for both those menu changes is the same: The bar is emphasizing healthy lifestyle choices in order to help its 49,000 members avoid the all too common dangers of depression, anxiety, alcoholism and even suicide.
Our profession is a very high-risk category for that sort of stuff. We need to address it, said Kenneth Hodges III of the Ken Hodges Law firm. Hodges was installed as president-elect at the gathering, which concluded Sunday. He has chaired a task force on wellness, which the bar's Board of Governors voted Saturday to elevate to a standing committee. He talked about wellness and other bar business as he drove home to Albany from the coast Sunday.
It's not just physical fitness, Hodges said of the new Attorney Wellness Committee's mission. It's emotional and mental well-being, too.
Hodges authored a Georgia Bar Journal article on the program. The title: A Healthier Lawyer is a Better Lawyer.
The wellness group has in recent years added more fitness opportunities to the bar's annual meetings and gatherings throughout the year. This year's event featured an early morning fun run on the beach as well as a sunrise yoga class. Because the attendees were spread out over four hotels, they also had plenty of walking opportunities.
Hodges said he had a nice walk on the beach to get from his hotel to another one for the sunrise yoga class. The run was better attended than the yoga session, he admitted. Perhaps the least popular of the innovations involved the new earlier closing of the bar's bar.
We've cut out the late-night hospitality suites, said Hodges. The decision has gotten a little bit of pushback.
People are adults, and they've got charge cards. They can go somewhere else and buy drinks, Hodges said. We felt it was inconsistent with the wellness initiative to have people up drinking all night.
Hodges added, You can get a drink until midnight. That's late enough.
He added the change seemed particularly helpful with breakfast meetings at 7:30 a.m. for some members and 9 a.m. sessions for everyone.
Not to mention that sunrise yoga class.