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Hawkins in line to become Bar president

Scott HawkinsWest Palm Beach attorney Scott G. Hawkins has become president-elect designate of The Florida Bar after Coral Gables attorney Ervin A. Gonzalez withdrew from the race. Hawkins will become the Bar’s 2010-11 president-elect when he is sworn in at the Bar’s Annual Convention in June. Gonzalez is one of the lead plaintiffs’ attorneys in the class action lawsuits over defective Chinese drywall used to build thousands of homes in Florida and other parts of the country. He said his duties to his clients had a greater claim on his time.

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Board of Governors Candidates' Platform Statements

YLD Board of Governors Candidates' Platform Statements

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Josefsberg wins Simon Pro Bono Service Award
Robert JosefsbergTo explain how he ended up center stage at the Florida Supreme Court to receive the state’s highest public service award, 71-year-old Robert Josefsberg reached back a century to his grandfather’s three-bedroom apartment in Brooklyn. Within its walls, for a decade, grandfather Jake invited hundreds of refugees from Russia and Germany to stay with him when they first arrived in America. “My father, his two brothers, and sister never knew who would be sleeping on the floor or on a cot next to them when they woke up in the morning.



Jesse DinerLawyers line up to assist Haiti
Florida lawyers seeking ways to contribute to Haitian earthquake relief efforts can do so directly through The Florida Bar’s Web site. The Bar — working in concert with the International Law Section — has set up links at www.floridabar.org. . .


More News This spring the court system will ask the Legislature to allow it access to some of the money flowing into the court’s new trust fund in order to help it cope with the dramatic increase in filings associated with the downturn in the economy.
It was a simple question. Yet it gave Neal Katyal, then a Georgetown law professor, pause. Katyal, now the principal U.S. deputy solicitor general, was at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base in 2004, meeting for the first time with his client, Salim Ahmed Hamdan. Hamdan — Osama bin Laden’s driver. . .
Former Florida Bar president and ABA President-elect Steve Zack introduced a brimming agenda to the Bar Board of Governors at its January 29 meeting in Tallahassee, inviting Bar members to show their support for a variety of programs he wants to implement during his tenure as ABA president.

Notices

The Florida Bar Journal

February 15, 2010
Move underway to require e-swapping of documents
Paul RegensdorfService of documents between attorneys will be accomplished by e-mail instead of regular mail under a rule change accepted in concept by a Bar rules committee. Ft. Lauderdale attorney Paul Regensdorf presented the amendment to the Rules of Judicial Administration Committee January 21.

If not done right, e-filing could hurt more than help
BOG member Murray Silverstein and Sarasota Clerk Karen Rushing.
Shifting Florida courts to electronic filing and record-keeping could offer a path to a more efficient court system for parties, judges, lawyers, and clerks. If it works. If it doesn’t, it might be a confusing system that baffles lawyers.
James Bain of Polk County, who wrongly spent 35 years in prison, rings the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia. Photo/Alejandro Alvarez
When David Rothman looks into the eyes of Florida’s wrongfully convicted, he can’t imagine what goes through their minds. “But I know what is going through my mind. It’s anger, frustration, and such a sadness that someone can spend most of their life in prison knowing they. . . are innocent. . . . These folks spent decades in prison knowing they are innocent, and there’s nothing out there to prove it until the Innocence Project came along.”

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[Revised: 02-09-2010 ]