Pro Bono Legal Services Committee creates a judicial advisory council
The council is charged with 'sharing ideas for pro bono programs and projects that council members learn of in their geographic and judicial office communities'
Judge Pat Seitz chairs a 12-member judicial panel that will advise the Pro Bono Legal Services Committee.
Determined to gain a broader perspective, the Pro Bono Legal Services Committee has recruited an “all-star” judicial advisory council.
The 12-member panel is chaired by U.S. Senior Judge Patricia Seitz of the Southern District of Florida, a former Florida Bar president, said committee Co-Chair Kathleen McLeroy.
The JAC began considering proposals for addressing unmet legal needs at its first meeting on August 28, McLeroy said.
“They are sort of in the information gathering stage at this point,” she said. “One of the areas that they are looking at is the domestic violence courts and the lack of representation, both at the trial and appellate level, of victims.”
The council is expected to present its first report to the committee in October.
Appointed by the Bar president, the Pro Bono Legal Services Committee is made up of judges and lawyers, and Florida Bar Foundation and legal aid representatives.
Judge Catherine Peek McEwen
McLeroy, a Carlton Fields shareholder from Tampa, was speaking with her co-chair, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Catherine Peek McEwen, who serves in the Middle District in Tampa, when the idea took root.
The committee has long had judicial members and a judicial co-chair, McLeroy said. Why not mine the experience of an even wider pool of judges?
The committee approved the JAC proposal in June.
The JAC’s mission is to be the committee’s “eyes and ears in the trenches by detecting needs for pro bono service from the perspective of the judiciary,” McLeroy said.
The council is charged with “sharing ideas for pro bono programs and projects that council members learn of in their geographic and judicial office communities,” McLeroy said.
The council is geographically diverse and includes state and federal judges from all levels. U.S. Bankruptcy Chief Judge Laurel Isicoff, who serves in the Southern District in Miami, is a committee member and a JAC liaison.
McLeroy said she’s encouraged that so many judges were eager to serve.
“We’ve got a really good group,” she said. “They’re sort of the all-stars. It looks like they’ve hit the ground running.”
