At the July 29 Jacksonville Bar Association virtual membership meeting, the attorneys and guests heard some advice about dealing with the stress that can be associated with practicing law and witnessed the induction of the group’s leadership for the new Bar year.
JBA President Michelle Barnett said she planned to schedule attorney David Sacks to speak at a meeting later in her term of office, but decided to invite him now, in view of the COVID-19 challenges faced by attorneys and their clients.
“Everyone feels they are in a state of flux. Will our lives ever get back to normal?” Barnett said.
In addition to his employment law practice, Sacks conducts workshops about what he called “mindfulness.”
He said the common definition of the term is keeping your mind on what you’re doing. In other words, paying attention.
“For me, it’s paying attention, moment by moment, without judgment. It takes practice to bring it into our lives,” Sacks said.
Life can make it difficult to focus on concentration.
“We’re bombarded with information. We are multitasking. That’s antithetical to paying attention to one thing at a time,” Sacks said.
He conducted a 60-second guided meditation by asking the online participants to close their eyes and concentrate only on their breathing.
“The only moment we really have is now. It’s the journey as opposed to the destination,” Sacks said.
The 2020-21 JBA board of governors was sworn into office by Circuit Judge Virginia Norton, raising their right hands in virtual locations:
• President: Michelle Bedoya Barnett
• President-elect: Michael Fox Orr
• Treasurer: Fraz Ahmed
• Secretary: Blane McCarthy
• Brian Coughlin
• Ashlea Edwards
• Christian George
• Jamie Karpman
• Adina Pollan
• Shannon Schott
• Asghar Syed
• Cyndy Trimmer
• Lyndsay Tygart
“That was the most efficient swearing-in in history,” Barnett said.
William Hilton III joined Bachara Construction Law Group.
Hilton began his professional life as a project engineer and project manager for large construction firms in Maryland before pursuing a law degree.
Before joining the Bachara firm, he served in senior legal roles with several corporations, most recently as underwriting counsel with Fidelity National Title Group in Franklin, Tennessee.
In addition to a bachelor’s in civil engineering from Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University, Hilton has a J.D. from Florida Coastal School of Law.
