Trial Lawyers Section to host inaugural membership retreat with top legal minds and AI insights
State and federal judges, President-elect Rosalyn Sia Baker-Barnes, and other experts will headline a new Trial Lawyers Section seminar next month in Lake Beuna Vista, where topics will range from AI to the Supreme Court’s comprehensive civil procedure reforms.
Whitney Untiedt: “We’re super excited to be bringing in speakers who are at the top of their game and recognized across the state, some nationally, for their expertise.”
Chair Whitney Untiedt says the first annual “TLS Membership Retreat” marks a new chapter for a section long identified with the Advanced Trial Advocacy Course and Chester Bedell Mock Trial Competition.
“This is something that’s been on the Trial Lawyers Section radar for quite some time,” she said. “We’re super excited to be bringing in speakers who are at the top of their game and recognized across the state, some nationally, for their expertise.”
Registration for the October 31-November 3 event at the Dolphin & Swan Resorts — and information about multi-level sponsorship packages, a schedule, and CLE approved courses — are available here: TLS Membership Retreat
TLS will continue sponsoring the week-long Advanced Trial Advocacy Course; the annual Chester Bedell Mock Trial Competition; the yearly Teachers Law Symposium, a community outreach to public school civics teachers; and other initiatives, Untiedt assures.
But she says TLS Executive Council Chair Geddes Anderson, Jr., and other section leaders wanted to create a more accessible “value add” for section and Bar members that also advances the section’s mission to enhance legal practice.
“While the ATA is fabulous and unparallelled, not everybody can take a week out of their year to come to a training. The Advanced Trial Advocacy Course is something that you do maybe once, maybe twice over the course of your career. We really envisioned the retreat as something that folks come back to every year.”
The TLS Member Retreat packs more than a dozen presenters, plenary sessions, and breakout sessions into a short period of time. It will also feature Halloween themed, family friendly activities. The idea is to offer networking opportunities and to promote the free exchange of ideas, Untiedt said.
“We wanted this to be not just something where folks come in for a day, and they sit through something, and they listen, and they leave. We really envisioned this as a true retreat.”
Some of the highlights include:
- Untiedt will moderate a plenary session, “View from the Bench: Best Practices in Trial Advocacy” with U.S. Magistrate Judge Nicholas Mizell of Florida’s Middle District; 11th Circuit Judge Beatrice Butchko Sanchez; 13th Circuit Judge Emily Peacock; and 10th Circuit Judge James Yancey.
- A plenary session, “Artificial Intelligence in the Law and Legal Practice,” presented by Tallahassee attorney Richard Greenberg, with Rumberger Kirk Caldwell.
- A plenary session, “Florida Civil Procedure Update,” presented by Jaime Austerich, with Shumaker, Loop & Kendrick.
- Florida Bar Board of Governors member Jeremy Branning, a Pensacola attorney with Clark Partington, will present a breakout session, “Florida Discovery Update.”
Untiedt is especially looking forward to a breakout session by President-elect Baker-Barnes, a veteran West Palm Beach lawyer with Searcy, Denney, Scarola, Barnhart & Shipley.
“The president-elect of The Florida Bar taking a full day out of her jam-packed schedule to come and give a session on cross-examination; I don’t think it gets better than that.”
