Veteran south Florida product liability attorney Mike Eidson has launched his term as president of the nation's most powerful organization of plaintiffs lawyers pledging to fight back more vigorously against what he calls unfair attacks on plaintiff lawyers. Half of the battle is reshaping public perception of his organization. Eidson took office on Wednesday at the group's annual meeting in Seattle. At that meeting, the members also voted to change its name from the Association of Trial Lawyers of America to the American Association for Justice. "It's a good change that reflects what we do and not who we are," Eidson said in an interview from Seattle after his installation ceremony. Eidson, a partner at Colson Hicks Eidson in Coral Gables, Fla., succeeds Ken Suggs, a partner at Janet Jenner & Suggs in South Carolina.