by Michele Newbern Gillis
Staff Writer
The main objective for the Law Week Committee of the Jacksonville Bar Association is to make the community more aware of how important the legal system is to their freedom.
“We want to make the public more aware that we have a democracy and our freedom is based on the constitution,” said Joel Toomey, chair of the committee. “It’s not just something that you learn about in grade or high school, it actually governs our society and it is the reason we are a free country.”
Law Day is a proclamation by Congress and, according to Toomey, it is basically to celebrate law and to make the public aware of the importance of the rule of law in society.
“We have freedom because of the rule of law,” said Toomey. “It started out as Law Day, but there are so many different things to do that you can’t fit it in all in one day, so we extended it to a week. To recognize that there are a number of events, we call it Law Week. Our section plans all the activities that revolve around Law Day. We have a national speaker at the bar luncheon and plan different activities with schools and the community in general during the week.”
The national theme for this year’s Law Day is “Celebrate Your Freedom: Independent Courts Protect Our Liberties.”
Law Day is May 1, but the committee starts planning the event in November.
“We try to have everything done within a few weeks of Law Day,” said Toomey. “We have to be flexible because we have to coordinate with schools, book a national speaker for the luncheon, organize and plan the events and coordinate the Naturalization Ceremony, [where immigrants become citizens]”
An example of an event that will take place during the week is a mock trial competition where middle and high school students divide into teams and present a case as they would in a real trial. Another is the poster competition for grade school students. The posters are on display in the Duval County Courthouse before and during Law Week.
“We also have lawyers go out to the schools and talk about the profession of law,” said Toomey. “This year we are also going to have a trial demonstration that will use an actual trial and trial participants to show how a trial actually works.”
There are about 20 members on the committee and Toomey said they meet about once a month until Law Week. Toomey’s job is to coordinate all the different committees that are formed for each event.
If you would like to participate in Law Week activities, please call Joel Toomey at 399-1609.