Voluntary Bar News

The Florida Bar

www.floridabar.org

This electronic digest of voluntary bar news is dedicated to the interaction of local, special interest and substantive bar associations. It will serve as a forum to share information and highlight the many activities of the voluntary bar associations of The Florida Bar and will be published at least once a month or as needed. You can view past and current issues by going to the bar's website, www.FLABAR.org. Submit articles, pictures or general comments to Maria Simmons Johnson, the Bar-to-Bar E-news editor and your voluntary bar liaison, mjohnson@flabar.org or 651 E. Jefferson Street, Tallahassee, FL 32399-2300. Photos sent by e-mail should come in jpg and gif format.

January 2009, Issue 43
HAPPY NEW YEAR!

2009 Midyear Meeting Reminder -- The Voluntary Bar Liaison Committee will meet on Thursday, Jan. 15 from 2-4 p.m. by conference call.

Save the Date! - 2009 Voluntary Bar Leaders Conference -- The 2009 Voluntary Bar Leaders Conference will be held at the Hyatt Regency Tampa, July 24-25. Registration will begin in early May. Visit the Voluntary Bar Center for more updates.

WHAT'S HAPPENING AROUND THE BARS. . .

TBA, Legal Aid and the YLS partner up for new Partners in Pro Bono Program -- The Tallahassee Bar, the Young Lawyers Section and Legal Aid have launched a new Partners in Pro Bono Program that will benefit existing members and encourage new membership. The program will team up TBA's young lawyers and experienced lawyers to handle legal aid matters. Young lawyers will receive a mentoring opportunity and guidance on legal aid matters, and all TBA members will have an opportunity to share the workload associated with the legal aid cases. The Partners in Pro Bono Program was developed by TBA's Membership Committee and Young Lawyers Section.

Central Florida Diversity Picnic set for February -- The Second Annual Central Florida Diversity Picnic is set for Saturday, Feb. 28, from 1-4 p.m. at the Stetson University College of Law, Tampa Law Center, located at 1700 North Tampa Street in Tampa. Students from all Florida law schools are invited to attend the event, which gives law students from diverse backgrounds an opportunity to meet and establish mentoring relationships with attorneys and members of the judiciary from Central Florida. The picnic is sponsored by the Tampa Bay Hispanic Bar Association, the George Edgecomb Bar Association, the Sarasota County Bar Diversity Committee and the Hillsborough County Bar Association. For more information, contact Tony Cabassa at lcabassa@tsg-law.com or Lennon Graves at lgraves@tsg-law.com.

FAWL and voluntary bars plan cultural awareness program -- The Florida Association for Women Lawyers in cooperation with nine voluntary bar associations will sponsor a CLE luncheon on Jan. 16 entitled 'The Battle Against Bias - Cultural Awareness and the Practice of Law." The CLE lunch will be held at the Miami Courtyard Marriott at 200 SE 2nd St. in downtown Miami, located across the street from The Florida Bar's Midyear Meeting location. The course presentation is designed to weave together the ethics rules of effective representation with research on interpersonal communication in various cultures, the view of the role of lawyers in other cultures, how cultural norms influence the law and emerging trends in which cultural values are influencing the practice of law. The cost of the lunch and CLE is $40 for members of all sponsoring organizations and $50 for non-members. For more information and to register online, visit www.fawl.org or call (850) 894-0055.

HBACF sets installation dinner for Jan. 19 -- The Hispanic Bar Association of Central Florida will celebrate the installation of new board members for the 2009 calendar year at its annual installation dinner Jan. 19 at the Walt Disney World Yacht & Beach Club Convention Center. Francisco Angones, immediate past president of The Florida Bar, will be the keynote speaker for the evening. For more information, contact Cindy G. Duque at (407) 855-1660 or e-mail cduque@duquelaw.com.

Eat - Learn - Earn - Save -- On Jan. 21, the Sarasota County Bar Association (SCBA) will sponsor a WebCredenza CLE Seminar on Ethics featuring Attorney Elizabeth Clark Tarbert, Ethics Counsel for The Florida Bar. WebCredenza is conducted by telephone. Attorneys and/or staff simply pre-register, then call into the seminar on the appointed day. The WebCredenza program is a cost and time-effective way to earn CLE credits, as there are no travel or meal expenses or downtime involved. One hour of ethics credit has been applied for. For more information, contact the SCBA at (941) 366-6703 or scba@acun.com.

WDFJBA Commemorates MLK -- The Wilkie D. Ferguson, Jr. Bar Association will be partnering with the Church of the Incarnation, the LINKS & Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. for a Martin Luther King Day Celebration on Sunday, Jan. 18 at 9 a.m. at the Church of the Incarnation in Miami. WDFJBA will present an achievement award to Miami Herald columnist, Leonard Pitts, Jr., who will serve as the event's keynote speaker.

PBCBA Professionalism -- The Palm Beach County Bar Association recently presented its Professionalism Awards. Manuel Farach was honored with the Individual Award. Gunster, Yoakley & Stewart was recognized for its mentoring program. At Gunster, Yoakley & Stewart, all new lawyers are assigned a mentor and learn that the client's position can be advocated vigorously and effectively while at the same time with courtesy, respect and dignity.

St. Pete Bar Foundation to honor Ludin and Walbolt -- The St. Petersburg Bar Foundation will honor Eric E. Ludin and Sylvia Walbolt as the 2009 Heroes Among Us recipients at 6 p.m. on Saturday, Jan. 24 at the St. Petersburg Yacht Club Ballroom. The guest speaker will be Florida Supreme Court Justice R. Fred Lewis. For more information, call (727) 823-7474 or by e-mail info@stpetebar.com.

TBA/LAF Chili Cook-off -- The Tallahassee Bar Association and The Legal Aid Foundation will host the 13th Annual Chili Cook-off on Jan. 28, at 7 p.m. at the Carriage House at Goodwood Museum in Tallahassee. For more information, contact Kathy Arrant at (850) 222-3292 or e-mail arrantk@tallahasseebar.org.

BCLA to host 22nd Annual Pro Bono Awards Gala -- Brevard County Legal Aid, Inc. will host its Annual Pro Bono Awards and Recognition Gala on Feb. 6 starting at 6 p.m., at the Suntree Country Club. The Honorable William Van Nortwick, Jr. will speak and present the Pro Bono Awards. For more information or to make reservations, call Kathleen at (321) 631-2500, ext. 14.

Law Day 2009 -- A Legacy of Liberty - Celebrating Lincoln's Bicentennial is the theme for this year's Law Day. Please send the name of your Law Day chair(s) and a summary of planned activities to Maria Johnson, mjohnson@flabar.org. Law Day chairs are listed in the statewide news release announcing Law Day. Visit www.lawday.org for resources, lesson plans and program materials.

Melanson to lead Lee County FAWL -- Noelle M. Melanson has become president of the Lee County Association for Women Lawyers. Congratulation Noelle!

Greer to lead FSCHS -- Alan G. Greer, partner and shareholder in the Richman Greer law firm, has been elected president of the Florida Supreme Court Historical Society for 2008-09, succeeding Rutledge R. Liles of Jacksonville. Greer previously served the Society as first vice president. As FSCHS president, Greer will direct the organization's programs and activities designed to educate the public about the important role of the courts in our system of government and to preserve the history of the Florida judiciary. The Society has more than 700 members, mostly lawyers and judges, located in Florida and elsewhere.

SCBA YLD Law at the Library Series -- The Sarasota County Bar Association Young Lawyers Division will offer five, free public service programs for 2009. The 90-minute sessions are held at Selby Public Library from 6-7:30 p.m., and will feature Bar members, judges and other court and law enforcement personnel explaining the ins and outs of common legal matters. The program schedule is as follows: Jan. 26, Feb. 23, March 30, April 20 and May 18. For more information, contact the SCBA at (941) 366-6703.

Do you want your news in? -- To get your news in the Bar-to-Bar E-News, contact Maria Johnson, editor and voluntary bar liaison, at (850) 561-5648 or e-mail mjohnson@flabar.org.

THE FLORIDA BAR

The 2009 Midyear Meeting is right around the corner -- Make plans to attend the 2009 Midyear Meeting Jan. 14-17 at the Hyatt Regency Miami. Book online or call the reservation center at (800) 233-1234 or (305) 358-1234. Use group code G-TFBB.

Committee preference forms due Jan. 16 -- Each year the president-elect of The Florida Bar appoints interested bar members to serve on standing committees. If your term ends June 30, 2009, and you wish to serve another term on a committee, you must complete a committee preference form. The form is posted online from Dec. 1 to Jan. 16. All appointments begin July 1 of each year.

Florida Bar leaders elected -- Orlando City Attorney Mayanne Downs has become president-elect designate of The Florida Bar after being elected without opposition. She will be sworn in as president-elect in June 2009 when Jesse Diner of Fort Lauderdale becomes president. Additionally, 20 Board of Governors members were elected or re-elected without opposition; two new members were elected; and there is one contested race in the 17th Circuit.

LRS needs volunteers for foreclosure panel -- The Florida Bar Lawyer Referral Service is recruiting lawyers to the program to help meet the demands of the current mortgage foreclosure crisis. The Bar's LRS currently has 192 lawyers on the Mortgage Foreclosure Panel and, of those, 99 also served on the Low Fee Panel. To obtain a membership application, contact Karen Kelly, director of the LRS program at (800) 342-8060, ext. 5810 or kkelly@flabar.org.

Supreme Court petition filed for adoption law and education law specialties -- On Oct. 22 The Florida Bar filed a petition with the Florida Supreme Court to add two new areas of board certification for education law and adoption law, both within Chapter 6 of the Rules Regulating The Florida Bar. The Education Law Substantive Committee initially proposed the education law concept to the BLSE in January 2006. The Family Law Section Executive Council proposed the adoption law specialty to the BLSE in 2007.

Certification logos now online -- The certification program now offers individual logos for each of Florida's 22 specialty areas. Download the logos from The Florida Bar's Web site or the certification program Web page at www.FloridaBar.org/certification. Contact BLSE consultant Lisa Garcia at (850) 561-5769 or lgarcia@flabar.org.

Judicial Vacancies

The Florida Supreme Court JNC announces a call for a broad and well qualified pool of applicants to fill the vacancy created by the retirement of Justice Charles T. Wells. The submission deadline is Tuesday, Jan. 20.

Applications for the Seventeenth Judicial County Court must be received before 5 p.m. on Monday, Jan. 19.

Applications to fill the vacancy on the Fourth District Court of Appeal created by the resignation of Judge Larry Klein are due no later than 5 p.m., Tuesday, Jan. 20.

THE AMERICAN BAR ASSOCIATION

Register for the ABA BLI -- The 2009 Bar Leadership Institute, sponsored by the ABA Standing Committee on Bar Activities and Services and the Division for Bar Services, will be held March 12-14, 2009 in Chicago, Illinois. Scholarships are also being offered to help small bar associations with limited financial resources send their leaders to the BLI. The scholarship consists of a registration waiver and a $500 reimbursement of meeting and travel expenses. The registration waiver covers the general BLI as well as the individual and group consultation sessions conducted during the optional Saturday programming. Registration forms, a detailed agenda and the scholarship application and guidelines are available on the BLI Web site. For more information, contact Karyn Linn at (312) 988-5350 or linnk@staff.abanet.org.

Miami lawyers needed to judge ABA Moot Court Competition -- The American Bar Association Law Student Division and its National Appellate Advocacy Competition Subcommittee is looking for lawyers to participate as an oral argument judge for the 2008-09 Miami Regional National Appellate Advocacy Competition (NAAC). This moot court competition will be held March 12 - 14 at the Criminal Court: Richard E. Gerstein Justice Building. Judges will have the opportunity to interact with teams from law schools in 15 states. Judges may earn CLE credit if their state CLE Board provides for credit via judging competitions. For more information, contact Peggy Pissarreck at (312) 988-5621 or at naac@staff.abanet.org.

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Maria Simmons Johnson
Voluntary Bar Liaison
The Florida Bar
850/561-5648
850/561-5733(fax)

[Revised: 10-20-2009]