The Florida Bar’s COVID-19 Pandemic Recovery Task Force has officially convened. The Task Force’s first virtual meeting was held on July 15th.  At the outset, Task Force Chair and Florida Bar President-Elect Michael Tanner laid out the Task Force’s primary objective—to suggest realistic, tangible initiatives to benefit Bar members affected by this unprecedented pandemic.

At its July meeting a few days later, the YLD Board of Governors discussed suggesting such realistic and tangible measures beneficial to Young Lawyers.  Unsurprisingly, in many instances, it is Young Lawyers who are disproportionately bearing the brunt of the negative effects of this virus.  Among the ideas formally presented on behalf of the YLD are: providing COVID-19 specific #StigmaFreeYLD videos to confront the stresses of maintaining practices, child care, and coping with the psychological effects of social distancing; potential discounts or waivers of Florida Bar dues and/or CLE fees for Young Lawyers who can demonstrate job loss or unemployment due to COVID-19; and addressing the steep mandatory costs of teleconferencing services like CourtCall, which are becoming quite taxing during this new normal.  The Task Force will meet again in August to discuss these and other suggestions from Task Force members.

Also, in August, Florida Bar President Dori Foster-Morales will be holding virtual town hall meetings in all 20 Judicial Circuits to discuss the coronavirus issues of primary concern to each bench and bar.  This will ensure that the recovery measures proposed by the Task Force and adopted by the Bar are tailored to the specific needs of members all over the state.  Schedules and registration information for the town halls are available at www.floridabar.org/virtualtownhalls.