Family Law Section donation benefits victims of domestic abuse
Contributions to an emergency shelter for victims of domestic abuse that will enable them to bring their pets, a continuing donation to The Florida Bar Foundation, offering scholarships for its family law certification review course, and providing timely CLE programs have been priorities for the Family Law Section.
Immediate past section Chair Amy Hamlin chose the Harbor House of Central Florida’s Paws for Peace Kennel for the section’s annual chair honorarium of $5,000.
The kennel means that victims of domestic violence don’t have to face a wrenching decision on leaving behind beloved pets when they seek protection in Harbor House’s shelter.
“The Paws for Peace Kennel has always been important to me. I first became aware of the kennel probably before 2016 when a really good friend of mine invited me to join her fundraising team,” Hamlin said.
She said for many people pets are part of the family who they turn to in times of sorrow and joy and the inability to bring along a pet can mean abused spouses won’t leave a violent home.
“When Harbor House began collecting funds to build this kennel, I knew immediately that is where my honorarium as chair would go,” Hamlin said.
The section also continued its tradition of making a $50,000 donation to the Foundation, which never regained the level of IOTA funding it had before the Great Recession. A recent uptick in revenues was undercut by dropping interest rates related to the COVID-19 economic impacts.
“So many of us in the Family Law Section and in the Executive Council have a legal aid background or work in legal aid,” Hamlin said. “We are so committed to funding the legal aid organizations that provide for families in need and just don’t have the financial resources for a lawyer.”
On the education front, the section is offering 21 scholarships, worth $725 each, for its January Marital & Family Law Certification Review Course.
The scholarships, according to the section, “will be given to family law attorneys, general magistrates, and hearing officers from around the state, with one of the scholarships designated to a family law practitioner who personifies diversity within the profession. Scholarship recipients will be selected in October.”
The education effort helps “not just families, it helps the legal community and it helps the profession,” said Hamlin.
The scholarship application deadline is September 30. More information about the review course and scholarships can be found on the section’s website, www.familylawfla.org, or by emailing [email protected].
With continuing economic woes leading to more bankruptcies, including for divorcing couples, the section is offering on October 8 the webinar, “Bankruptcy and Divorce: What Every Family Law Practitioner Should Know.”
According to CLE Committee Co-Chairs Trisha Armstrong and Reuben Doupé, the seminar will provide family law practitioners with information on how bankruptcy affects family law matters, including Domestic Support Obligations, how different bankruptcy chapters affect family law, when automatic stays apply, and which court determines when and how debts are dischargeable.
The featured speaker will be retired 11th Circuit Judge Sandy Karlan, now with Miami’s Center for Conflict Resolution. The course will run from noon to 1 p.m., and the cost is $75. More information is available at the section’s website, www.familylawfla.org/event.
