Fifty groups are registered to compete Saturday for bragging rights in the 10th annual Jacksonville Bar Association Young Lawyers Section Charity Chili Cook-Off.
Cooking teams from law firms and voluntary Bar associations, public defenders and state attorneys will set up their ad hoc kitchens at the Riverside Arts Market at 715 Riverside Ave. under the Fuller Warren Bridge.
Teams will begin serving free samples to the public at 11 a.m.
A panel of about 20 circuit, county and federal judges also will taste the myriad chili concoctions and award prizes for spiciest, meatiest and best chili.
The public will vote for the “Crowd Favorite” award.
The awards ceremony is scheduled at 2:30 p.m.
Proceeds from team registration fees, sponsorships and donations made at the event will benefit the Jacksonville office of Best Buddies Florida, a nonprofit that provides programs for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
“Our goal is to raise $15,000 to sponsor Best Buddies chapters at two schools,” said Amanda Thomas, chair of the 2019 chili cook-off committee and an associate attorney at Driver, McAfee, Hawthorne & Diebenow.
“The public can help by donating. Even $1 would help,” she said.
Gunster, Yoakley & Stewart added Michael Tanner as a shareholder and member of the litigation practice in the Jacksonville office.
Tanner, a board-certified business and civil trial litigator, has more than 30 years of legal experience and leadership, including for the past eight years representing the 4th Judicial Circuit on The Florida Bar Board of Governors.
He has served as president of the American Board of Trial Advocates and chair of the Florida Bar Board of Legal Specialization and Education.
In 2012, Tanner was inducted as a fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers and received the Justice Harry Lee Anstead Award in 2010, recognition as The Florida Bar Board Certified Lawyer of the Year.
He will continue his focus on business trials and litigation, appellate for both state and federal courts, election law, anti-trust lawsuits, class action lawsuits and professional malpractice.
Dale and Jacqueline Carson purchased the building at 411 E. Monroe St.
A mortgage issued by FirstAtlantic Bank for $880,301 was recorded Feb. 11.
Dale Carson Law has been in Suite 1101 in the Blackstone Building at 233 E. Bay St. since 2007, but has outgrown the space and “we are moving,” said attorney Chris Carson, son of the firm’s founder.
He said the firm will move into “about three times the space as at the Blackstone” at the new location, but that won’t happen until interior renovation is complete later this year.
“The building needs quite a bit of work,” Carson said.
Fourth Judicial Circuit Chief Judge Mark Mahon was re-elected last week by his colleagues on the bench to serve another two-year term beginning July 1 through June 30, 2021.
He was first elected chief judge in January 2015.
Mahon graduated from Florida State University in 1978 with a degree in business and from Florida State University College of Law in 1981.
An assistant state attorney from 1981 to 1984, he then practiced with his father, Lacy Mahon Jr., and in 2000 was elected to the Florida House of Representatives.
In 2007, Mahon left private practice and the Legislature when he was appointed to the circuit bench by Gov. Charlie Crist.
Members of the public are invited to apply by March 22 for one three-year term beginning Nov. 1 on the Florida Board of Bar Examiners.
The Board ensures that applicants seeking admission to The Florida Bar have met the requirements with regard to character and fitness, education and technical competence before recommending to the Supreme Court an applicant’s admission to the Bar.
A public member volunteer should possess education or work-related experience such as educational testing, accounting, statistical analysis, medicine, psychology or related sciences. A bachelor’s degree is required. Lawyers are not eligible for the public seat.
Board members must be able to attend approximately 10 meetings a year in various Florida locations, with travel and subsistence expenses reimbursed.
Board members should plan to devote the equivalent of three to four days’ work a month, or up to 350 or more hours per year, on board business, depending on committee assignments.
The application may be downloaded at floridabarexam.org.
Christopher Walker, partner-in-charge of Lippes Mathias Wexler Friedman’s Ponte Vedra Beach office, is participating in “Delivering Scalable and Sustainable Affordable Housing” presented March 6 by Urban Land Institute North Florida’s Revitalization & Affordable Housing Task Force.
The goal is to bring awareness to Urban Land Institute members about the development of affordable housing and revitalization initiatives and to recruit current developments to Urban Land Institute to help in their success.
