by Kent Jennings Brockwell
Staff Writer
If you have trouble reaching your attorney this week, you might want to try calling Orlando.
The Florida Bar’s annual meeting begins Wednesday at the Orlando World Center Marriott and several attorneys from Jacksonville will definitely be in attendance.
Organizers said about 1,200 attorneys from around the state and more than 50 from Jacksonville are expected for the June 22-25 annual meeting.
Jacksonville will be well represented at the annual meeting this year because several local bar members are joining the leadership ranks of the Florida Bar.
Local criminal defense attorney Hank Coxe is taking the biggest honor. Coxe is being sworn in as president-elect for The Florida Bar.
Jake Schickel, a partner at Coker, Myers, Schickel, Sorenson and Green, is also being sworn in for his term on the board of governors. Schickel will be joining the board with Jacksonville attorney Grier Wells, who is beginning the second year of his second term.
The ceremony for Coxe, Schickel and Wells will be held during the general assembly meeting at 10 a.m. on Friday June 24. U.S. Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy will be the keynote speaker for that event.
Diane Gill, executive director of the Jacksonville Bar Association, is also taking on a big leadership position at the annual meeting. Gill is being inaugurated as the president of the Florida Council of Bar Executives. Her inauguration will take place at the Florida Council of Bar Executives on Friday.
Recently retired public defender Lou Frost Jr. will also be in Orlando for the festivities. He has been chosen to receive the Florida Bar’s Criminal Law Section’s Selig Golden Award at the section’s annual awards luncheon Friday.
Another high point of this year’s meeting will be the Judicial Luncheon on Thursday June 23 at 12:30 p.m. Florida Chief Justice Barbara Pariente will be the keynote speaker and will give a State of the Judiciary address. Pulitzer Prize winning humor columnist Dave Barry will also be speaking at that luncheon.
Several Jacksonville attorneys will also be lecturing at some of the more than 20 CLE seminars and workshops scheduled throughout the week. Lynn Drysdale of Jacksonville Area Legal Aid will be speaking Thursday afternoon at a predatory lending CLE and Randolph Coleman of the Coleman Law Firm will offer a lecture on animal law Friday morning.
This year’s annual meeting will also offer plenty of chances for attorneys to catch up on their continuing legal education requirement. Besides predatory lending and animal law, this year’s CLE topics range from first amendment issues to anger management.