FLABOTA’s 26th Annual Convention Spotlights Justice Renatha Francis
Justice Renatha Francis will participate in a noon “fireside chat” with Second DCA Judge Nelly Khouzam on Friday, July 26, at FLABOTA’s 26th Annual Convention this month in Boca Raton.
Florida Supreme Court Justice Renatha Francis, an expert on the ethical use of AI and one of the authors of Florida’s sweeping civil justice reforms, will highlight FLABOTA’s 26th Annual Convention next week in Boca Raton.
Jeff Adelman, president of the Florida Chapter of the American Board of Trial Advocates, said registration for the July 25-28 event is available at: www.flabota.org.
Guest speakers will address the latest issues impacting Florida’s civil trial bar, Adelman said.
“It is an impressive lineup,” Adelman said. “We really tried to get stuff that was going to be practical for people in litigation.”
The first Jamaican-American to serve on the Florida Supreme Court, Justice Francis will participate in a noon “fireside chat” with Second DCA Judge Nelly Khouzam on Friday, July 26.
Appointed by Gov. Ron DeSantis in 2022, Francis previously served as a circuit judge in Palm Beach and Miami-Dade counties. Prior to that, she was of counsel with Shutts & Bowen, where she represented corporate clients as part of the Mass Litigation and Class Action Practice Group.
Earlier in the day, Civil Procedure Rules Committee Vice Chair Maegan Peek Luka will deliver an update on civil justice reforms the Supreme Court approved May 24 in Case No. SC2023-0962.
Scheduled to take effect January 1, 2025, the proposed amendments grew out of a sweeping proposal by a Judicial Management Council workgroup that Chief Justice Charles Canady formed in 2019. They are part of the Supreme Court’s “phased approach” to speeding the resolution of civil cases.
Also on Friday, Nova Southeastern University Law Professor Jon Garon, a former law school dean and former director of the university’s Intellectual Property, Cybersecurity, and Technology Law program, will present “Artificial Intelligence: How and When We Should Use It.”
Rep. Mike Beltran will discuss his proposal to require the state to assign a law clerk to every circuit judge.
The same day, Republican Rep. Mike Beltran, a Riverview attorney, will discuss his proposal to require the state to assign a law clerk to every circuit judge.
Beltran’s HB 617, and SB 1204, an identical companion by Republican Sen. Erin Grall, a Ft. Pierce attorney, failed to get a hearing before lawmakers adjourned March 8.
In an ABOTA Ft. Lauderdale podcast five months ago, Beltran urged Florida lawyers to lobby Gov. Ron DeSantis and their local legislators to support the proposed legislation.
“It’s very apparent to me that judges need more resources, and one way is by having more judges, and I’ve fought for that as well. The other way is by giving the existing judges more resources so they can be more efficient,” Beltran said.
