Twenty-one to receive Florida Bar Pro Bono Service Awards January 16 at Supreme Court Ceremony
The Florida Bar will recognize 21 lawyers for their work on behalf of low-income and disadvantaged clients at a January 16 ceremony at the Supreme Court of Florida.
Established in 1981, The Florida Bar President’s Pro Bono Service Awards are intended to encourage lawyers to volunteer free legal services to the poor by recognizing those who make public service commitments and to raise public awareness of the substantial volunteer services provided by Florida lawyers to those who cannot afford legal fees. Florida Bar President Roland Sanchez-Medina, Jr., will present the 2025 awards.
The awards recognize pro bono service in each of Florida’s 20 judicial circuits as well as service by one Florida Bar member practicing outside the state of Florida. They are presented annually in conjunction with the Tobias Simon Pro Bono Service Award and other service awards, which are given by the chief justice of the Florida Supreme Court.
In the most recent reporting period from July 1, 2023, to June 30, 2024, Florida lawyers provided more than 1.7 million hours of pro bono services to those in need and $11.6 million to legal aid organizations.
Here are the 2025 circuit honorees.
Virginia M. Buchanan, First Judicial Circuit
(Escambia, Okaloosa, Santa Rosa and Walton counties)
Virginia M. Buchanan
Although Virginia Buchanan is one of the most in-demand attorneys in the field of mass torts – with the caseload to prove it – she still manages to volunteer at every pro bono clinic Legal Services of North Florida (LSNF) hosts. She not only provides direct support at these clinics but indirect support as well, bringing a team of volunteers in with her that are invaluable to the success of the clinics. Furthermore, Buchanan serves the legal community through her positions as a member of the American Association for Justice and as a CPAP Litigation Group Leader. She serves on two Florida Bar committees, including the Professional Ethics Committee and the Standing Committee on the Unlicensed Practice of Law. She also received Florida Bar President’s Award for Pro Bono Service for 1st Judicial Circuit, 2014.
Jana E. McConnaughhay, Second Judicial Circuit
(Franklin, Gadsden, Jefferson, Leon, Liberty and Wakulla counties)
Jana E. McConnaughhay
Since July 2022, Jana E. McConnaughhay has given her time and talent as a Guardian ad Litem Volunteer with the Statewide Guardian ad Litem Office. McConnaughhay’s compassionate representation quickly established her as an invaluable member of the Guardian Ad Litem Office’s team. For the children she is charged with defending, she makes herself available as both a legal resource and emotional support. From her first case in which she spent a year and a half working to reunite three children with their mother, to her most recent case, McConnaughhay has consistently been an empathetic and knowledgeable resource for children at their most vulnerable. McConnaughhay, who is board-certified in elder law, is also a dedicated advocate for Florida’s seniors. She served on the Joint Task Force for Elders and the Disabled from 2010 to 2019, and she has been a member of The Florida Bar Elder Law Section for nearly two decades.
William Galione, Third Judicial Circuit
(Columbia, Dixie, Hamilton, Lafayette, Madison, Suwannee and Taylor counties)
William Galione
William Galione understands that issues with access to justice can often be geographical — people living in areas where there is a relative shortage of lawyers are not always able to access legal services that suit their needs or budget. This is why Galione, whose practice is in Gainesville, where there are 1,073 attorneys eligible to practice, has accepted several referrals for cases in the 3rd Judicial Circuit, which only has 190 eligible attorneys. Since 2001, when Galione first began working with Three Rivers Legal Services, he has worked on more than 160 cases on issues ranging from torts to advance directives, consumer issues to housing and wage claims, among others. Galione treats every client with compassion, dignity and respect, and goes above and beyond to meet clients where they are — even going so far as to learn new areas of practice that stretch well beyond the scope of his practice.
Fred Cromwell Isaac, Fourth Judicial Circuit
(Clay, Duval and Nassau counties)
Fred Cromwell Isaac
Fred Cromwell Isaac has provided legal services for the past 50 years, earning a pristine professional reputation among fellow legal professionals and clients alike. Isaac has provided pro bono legal assistance to several hundred clients over the years who could not afford legal representation. Previously, he provided services through Jacksonville Area Legal Aid and the Jacksonville Bar Association; however, at this stage in his career, he provides direct legal services to individuals and nonprofits who could not otherwise afford representation. In the past year, he has provided over 150 hours of pro bono service, representing clients in three probate cases, providing estate planning documents to four clients, two of whom were critically ill and hospitalized; and handling several contract negotiations/disputes. One contract litigation case involved over 100 hours and took over two years to conclude. Isaac wrote off all the fees for the client, who was a veteran.
Wilda P. Pomales, Fifth Judicial Circuit
(Citrus, Hernando, Lake, Marion and Sumter counties)
Wilda P. Pomales
Since she began volunteering with Community Legal Services (CLS) in 2022, Wilda P. Pomales has demonstrated an unwavering commitment to the organization’s mission — Legal Access for All. In the past year, Pomales has dedicated more than 150 hours to pro bono service, serving nearly 50 clients by offering pro se support and conducting thorough reviews of legal forms. Pomales regularly volunteers at CLS’ First Friday Family Law Forms Clinics in both Osceola and Lake counties, as well as at CLS’s virtual and Annual Walk-In clinics. Pomales has also established a Spanish-speaking family law collaborative team, which brings together attorneys, financial neutrals and mental health professionals who accept cases for collaborative dissolutions of marriage, ensuring that Spanish-speaking clients receive the guidance and representation they need. Pomales’ efforts reflect her deep passion for justice and her belief in the transformative power of legal assistance.
Christy Donovan Pemberton, 6th Judicial Circuit
(Pasco and Pinellas counties)
Christy Donovan Pemberton
Christy Donovan Pemberton has demonstrated a professional commitment to providing pro bono service throughout her 30-year legal career, including work with the Guardian ad Litem Office. The office represents abused, abandoned, and neglected children in the court and community, representing their legal interests. Pemberton first worked with the office through the Defending Best Interests (DBI) program, after spending seven years as a foster parent to two sons, whom she and her husband later adopted. This experience provided her with keen insight into the dependency system, children’s need for permanency, and the important role served by the guardian ad litem ultimately led her to provide pro bono appellate representation through the DBI. Since 2020, Pemberton has donated over 130 hours of her time to brief eight cases, representing 10 children. Her briefs are precise, using the record to tell the children’s stories and represent their legal interests.
Carol Ann Tipton Daniels, Seventh Judicial Circuit
(St. Johns, Volusia, Flagler and Putnam counties)
Carol Ann Tipton Daniels
Over the past 15 years, Carol Ann Tipton Daniels has dedicated hundreds of hours to St. Johns County’s most vulnerable populations, providing a consistent source of hope to those who need it the most. Each month, Daniels assists with St. Johns County Legal Aid’s Pro Bono Advice Clinic as well as its Pro Se Forms Class. In addition to this regular commitment, she has accepted individual pro bono cases. Over the course of her 46-year legal career, Daniels has practiced law in California, Massachusetts, Texas, and, since 2009, Florida. She barely let the dust settle on her new legal practice 15 years ago before reaching out to the St. Johns County Legal Aid office, where she jumped right in to help people with family law questions, issues, cases, and pro se forms.
Eric Andrew Atria, Eighth Judicial Circuit
(Alachua, Baker, Bradford, Gilchrist, Levy and Union counties)
Eric Andrew Atria
Eric Andrew Atria has dedicated his entire career to indigent criminal defense. From 2005 when he worked as a public defender to today, when he works as an assistant conflict counsel with the Office of Criminal Conflict and Civil Regional Counsel, Atria has demonstrated an enduring commitment to ensuring that everyone has access to competent counsel. Unsatisfied with merely serving the public in these government roles, Atria began providing pro bono services in 2019, after he received a blanket solicitation email from the Florida Pro Bono Law School Challenge program, which pairs lawyers with law students to work on pro bono cases. The Law School Challenge connected him with legal aid services in multiple circuits in the state, where he subsequently stepped up to help with any sealing/expunge requests they receive. Atria also regularly participates in the Alachua County Driver’s License Clinic, where he helps residents navigate the license reinstatement process.
Nicholas Shannin, Ninth Judicial Circuit
(Orange and Osceola counties)
Nicholas Shannin
Nicholas Shannin has spent the better part of three decades as a paragon of pro bono work and professionalism within the Orange County legal community. Shannin has repeatedly risen to the challenge of serving the clients who turn for help to Legal Aid Society of the Orange County Bar Association (LAS). Shannin has dedicated more than 1,300 hours of service working on 109 cases and representing 98 individual children. He completed 14 pro bono appeals. At least two of his pro bono cases involved 100 or more hours and spanned years of ongoing service. Although LAS has many pro bono attorneys who routinely take case assignments, few go above and beyond like Shannin does. Less than a year after being admitted to The Florida Bar, he signed on to his first case, and he’s been taking pro bono cases ever since.
Stephen R. Senn, 10th Judicial Circuit
(Hardee, Highlands and Polk counties)
Stephen R. Senn
Since June 2019, Stephen R. Senn has dedicated more than 730 hours to pro bono service. Senn’s pro bono services span a range of complex legal matters, but he approaches each with a zealous commitment to ensuring the best possible outcome for the 10th Circuit’s most vulnerable citizens. Senn’s pro bono service includes serving as co-counsel with Florida’s Children First, where he represented a group of siblings who have been adopted into a home separate from their younger sister. He has also represented a defendant who complained that he had received inadequate medical care and a homeowner challenging enforceability of a mortgage on her property. The diverse nature of these cases requires a lawyer who is highly adaptable and capable of conducting thorough research, and Senn has gone above and beyond to ensure that this threshold is met.
Tenikka L. Jones, 11th Judicial Circuit
(Dade County)
Tenikka L. Jones
Over the past decade, Tenikka L. Jones has dedicated more than 800 hours to children’s pro bono cases. She has served on a pro bono basis as attorney ad litem in Juvenile Dependency Court through Dade County’s Put Something Back Program and mentored youth through the Women of Tomorrow Program. Jones’ dedication and commitment to the foster children she represents set her apart. In one case, Jones was assigned to represent a child who was on the cusp of turning 13. Despite the complexities of the issues and length of time involved in handling the case, coupled by the demands of working at a private firm, Jones dedicated hundreds of hours of her time to the case and continued to support and advocate for the youth until she reached age 18. Jones, an experienced commercial litigator, is currently a full-time faculty member at Nova Southeastern University Shepard Broad College of Law.
Whitney C. Glaser, 12th Judicial Circuit
(DeSoto, Manatee and Sarasota counties)
Whitney C. Glaser
Whitney C. Glaser is a dedicated pro bono attorney who helps Legal Aid of Manasota provide estate planning and guardianship legal services to disadvantaged clients in need. Since taking on her first pro bono cases through Legal Aid of Manasota in 2018, she has handled more than 20 cases and donated more than 295 pro bono hours. These 20 cases include one in which Glaser was tasked with helping to prepare estate planning documents for a terminally ill client. Her representation of this client’s interests continued after death, as Glaser went on to handle the probate on behalf of the client’s seven-year-old son. Glaser also volunteers for Lutheran Services Florida (Office of the Public Guardian), where she handles pro bono guardianship matters for indigent wards, and she provides pro bono services to clients in need individually, including pro bono consultations for those navigating the legal system on a pro se basis.
Lisa M. Kilbride, 13th Judicial Circuit
(Hillsborough County)
Lisa M. Kilbride
Since 2013, Lisa M. Kilbride has dedicated more than 2,300 pro bono hours to representing children through Crossroads For Florida Kids Inc. Crossroads cases involve extraordinarily complex dependency, delinquency and criminal proceedings with ups and downs that would shake the resolve of most attorneys — but not Kilbride. Crossroads For Florida Kids Inc. was founded in 2012, and within a year, Kilbride had signed on as a volunteer, taking her first case. The case was extremely challenging and complex, and Kilbride’s representation of this youth lasted four years. But Kilbride rose to every challenge that this case threw at her, and this zealous advocacy of Crossroads’ clients continues to this day. Kilbride was the 2017 recipient of The Florida Bar President’s Pro Bono Service Award and she and her colleagues in the Tampa office of Zuckerman Spaeder received the circuit’s Outstanding Pro Bono Service by a Law Firm Award.
Todd Clifford Brister, 14th Judicial Circuit
(Bay, Calhoun, Gulf, Holmes, Jackson and Washington counties)
Todd Clifford Brister
Todd Clifford Brister’s commitment to pro bono and community service is unmatched — so much so that this is the second time in as many years that he has received the Florida Bar President’s Pro Bono Service Award for the 14th Judicial Circuit. Since 2021, Brister has also served as chair of 14th Judicial Circuit Pro Bono Committee, where he organizes clinics, recruits volunteer attorneys directly and attends every clinic, and making himself available to provide advice while also supervising the clinic operation. When the clinic was on hiatus during the COVID-19 pandemic, he organized planning meetings so the clinic could restart as soon as possible, and he personally handled cases of individuals who might have otherwise been served by the clinic. Brister is also a member of the 14th Judicial Circuit Bench and Bar Professionalism Committee, where he has served since 2017, and has been a member of the Bay County Bar Association since 2010.
Michael Stern, 15th Judicial Circuit
(Palm Beach County)
Michael Stern
Michael Stern’s professional path has been atypical — to say the least. His path has run through a childhood spent in Rome, college in New York, followed by his admission to the New York Bar Association and a successful career in publishing. In 2005, Stern retired and relocated to Palm Beach County. However, retirement was only one more turn in the winding path that had been Stern’s post-law school career. In 2007, at the age of 67, Stern was admitted to The Florida Bar. This is when he contacted the Legal Aid Society of Palm Beach County Inc. and began his second career as a pro bono attorney. For the past 17 years, Stern has dedicated at least 20 hours each week to his work with the Legal Aid Society, where he is known for taking cases Legal Aid might not otherwise have been able to take in-house. The Legal Aid Society estimates Stern has donated 17,000 hours to helping more than 850 clients.
Loriellen Robertson, 16th Judicial Circuit
(Monroe County)
Loriellen Robertson
Loriellen Robertson has dedicated almost her entire career to public service, first as an assistant state attorney, then as a public defender, and then after transitioning to private practice, through her work with the 16th Judicial Circuit Pro Bono Committee. Robertson’s commitment to providing legal service in pro bono clinics sponsored by Legal Services of Greater Miami and hosted by the 16th Circuit Pro Bono Committee helps to ensure that everyone in the community has access to essential legal services. Robertson is a tireless advocate for clients at the clinic who are often facing some of the most challenging circumstances imaginable. These are individuals who come to the clinic for advice on how to get out of unsafe living conditions, abuse survivors and those with complicated long-term health issues.
Robertson rises to each challenge with patience, compassion and professionalism.
Jenelle La Chuisa, 17th Judicial Circuit
(Broward County)
Jenelle La Chuisa
When Ft. Lauderdale Hinshaw & Culbertson partner-in-charge Andrew Gordon needed to select a co-chair for his firm’s Pro Bono and Community Involvement Committee, one attorney came to mind — Jenelle La Chuisa. Her long history of stepping up to the challenge of providing pro bono services made her an obvious choice for this role. In her role as co-chair, La Chuisa facilitates volunteer opportunities for pro bono projects and community events. Even with the added responsibilities of educating, inspiring and organizing her fellow attorneys, La Chuisa continued her own pursuit of service. La Chuisa is a longtime volunteer with the Broward Lawyers Care Legal Aid Hotline, where she answers questions about family law, consumer law, real property law, bankruptcy, housing, and tax/IRS controversies. She and other attorneys from the firm have also given of their time to volunteer through the Florida Rights Restoration Coalition, helping felons restore their voting rights.
Michael Kahn, 18th Judicial Circuit
(Brevard and Seminole counties)
Michael Kahn
Michael Kahn’s contributions to the indigent community and beyond have been immeasurable. He has represented the teachers in Brevard County for approximately 40 years and has devoted countless hours of free legal guidance to ensure legal assistance is available to those who otherwise could not afford it. In addition to providing direct pro bono services, Kahn helped found the Brevard Bar Foundation, in his words, “purely to do good” and in the hopes that the foundation will live on as his legacy to the community. Since 2007, he has served on the Brevard Bar Foundation Board of Directors, including serving two terms as president and thereafter as treasurer, a role he currently maintains. Under his leadership, the Brevard Bar Foundation has evolved into an organization that donates to local charities, sponsors Brevard County Legal Aid and funds grants for the Brevard County Law Library, the Law Day Program, Florida High School Mock Trial Competition, and hundreds of other organizations.
Jane L. Cornett, 19th Judicial Circuit
(Indian River, Martin, Okeechobee and St. Lucie counties)
Jane L. Cornett
Jane L. Cornett has been a dedicated volunteer in the 19th Circuit legal community for several decades, including serving as president for both the Martin County Bar Association (MCBA) and its Legal Aid Society. Her commitment to serving the community extends beyond the legal profession, as she has served numerous leadership roles in local organizations. These include serving as director and president for the Council on Aging of Martin County and as a founder and past president for Big Brothers/Big Sisters of Martin County. In 2023, she earned the George W. Bush Jr. MCBA Professionalism Award, which recognizes an attorney who has demonstrated or promoted outstanding professionalism in Martin County, as defined by exemplary ethical conduct, character and integrity, respect for the legal system and all of its participants, commitment to maintaining the highest levels of professional competence, courtesy and civility, and commitment to serving clients, the community and the public good.
Maria Rita Alaimo, 20th Judicial Circuit
(Charlotte, Collier, Glades, Hendry and Lee counties)
Maria Rita Alaimo
Helping those who can’t fully advocate on their own is at the core of the Lee County Legal Aid Society’s mission – and is at the heart of Fort Myers attorney Maria Rita Alaimo’s own personal commitment to the organization and those it serves. Most weeks, you can find her staffing the weekly self-help Zoom calls at which both staff attorneys and volunteers provide limited legal advice to the public, as part of a partnership with the Lee County Clerk of Court’s office. Alaimo also serves as vice president of the Lee County Legal Aid Society’s Board of Directors and president of the Lee County Association for Women Lawyers, where she has helped implement one of the most significant efforts in the organization’s history – a coordinated effort to provide free civil legal aid to displaced immigrants under age 18 who are in foster care or require other legal support as a result of being abused, neglected or abandoned.
Jennifer Kathleen Little, Out of State
(Out of state)
Jennifer Kathleen Little
As part of the Statewide Guardian ad Litem Office’s multidisciplinary team, Jennifer Kathleen Little has dedicated 200 volunteer hours to helping Florida’s most vulnerable children. Little started volunteering with the Office as guardian ad litem in 2020. Despite the challenges resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic, Little jumped right in. In 2021, Little was assigned a sibling group of three young siblings, all of whom are autistic and have special needs. Little has collaborated seamlessly with a fellow guardian ad litem volunteer and retired pediatric nurse to ensure the children receive the specialized services they require. Little and her team have gone above and beyond to provide support and encouragement to the children’s caregivers, who often work around-the-clock in support of their clients. This holistic approach to advocating for the children is deeply beneficial to their well-being and demonstrates Little’s deep and unabating commitment to serving her clients.
This year’s awards ceremony, which also honors Voluntary Bar, Law Firm, Young Lawyers Division, Distinguished Judicial Service, and Distinguished Federal Judicial Service pro bono efforts, takes place at the Florida Supreme Court on Thursday, January 16, at 3:30 p.m. Watch it live on Facebook, WFSU: Gavel to Gavel and the Florida Channel.
