By: Charise Morgan-Joseph
On January 10-11, 2019, local Bar Affiliates from across the State once again converged on sunny St. Petersburg, Florida for the Florida Bar YLD’s annual Affiliate Outreach Conference. While enjoying a weekend of fun in the sun at the beachside Tradewinds Island Resort, affiliates were also given an opportunity to present grant proposals for nearly $50,000 in funding for community at profession-based projects. Many affiliates and attorneys were also recognized for their hard work and successful projects in the preceding year.
Large Affiliate of the Year was awarded to the Palm Beach County Bar Association for their Trial College. The program pairs new lawyers with members of the Palm Beach Chapter of the American Board of Trial Advocates (ABOTA) to demonstrate how to take a case from client intake through trial.
It was a close election for Small Affiliate of the Year with the YLD Board of Governors debating three deserving applications! In the end, the award went to the Polk Association for Women Lawyers (PAWL) for its PAWL Hosts Florida Second District Court of Appeal Traveling Oral Arguments.
Member Service Project of the Year was given to the Gwen S. Cherry Women Lawyers Association for their program, The Rainmaker’s Academy. The Academy is designed to provide information, knowledge, and resources to those interested in starting and/or maintaining a successful legal practice. The Academy will have small workshop type session, or series of sessions, with an emphasis on starting a legal business, ethics, advertising, sharing office space, and the nuts and bolts of running a practice. Upon acceptance into the academy, students will be encouraged to take one pro bono case (from a designated list of pro bono organizations) for the year in which they are enrolled into the academy.
Public Service Project of the Year went to the Broward County Bar Association Young Lawyer Section for their YLS Mental Health and Wellness May. The program encouraged a paradigm shift in law firm culture to recognize the importance of mental health.
Award for the Best Written Grant Application was the Florida Association of Women Lawyers (FAWL) for their Support for Lactation Rooms initiative. The movement highlighted the 2019 federal law: Fairness for Breastfeeding Mothers Act of 2019, which requires all public federal buildings, including courthouses, to have a dedicated lactation space.
The President’s award was given to the St. Petersburg Bar Association Young Lawyers Section for the LiFT University Transition Program – the Education to Employment Workshop” which specializes in academic curriculum to provide essential life skills training and resources and confidence needed to enter adulthood for people with neurodiversities such as autism, dyslexia, and ADD. In a moving and memorable presentation, the Bar welcomed Hannah Torop, a young woman empowered by autism to read aloud and present the grant.
The Best Presentation Award went to the Orange County Bar Association (OCBA) Young Law Section for their Give-a-Day Challenge at Great Oaks Village. The Bar association spends a day full of fun, positive, interactive activities with children at a local residential foster community for children removed from their homes due to neglect or abuse.