Jacksonville Bar jumps to help Katrina victims
• Members of the Jacksonville Bar Association have quickly teamed up to collect funds for the American Red Cross and its daunting task of serving the hurricane ravaged Gulf Coast. The Bar raised more than $17,000 in less than 36 hours after JBA president Alan Pickert put out a notice that the Bar would be collecting funds. “Once again, this really shows the generosity of our legal community in Jacksonville,” Pickert said, adding that the JBA will continue to collect funds until this Wednesday’s Bar luncheon at the Omni. Pickert said donations can be dropped off at his office on East Bay Street, the JBA office on the Southbank, Chief Judge Donald Moran’s chambers at the courthouse, or they can be brought to the JBA luncheon Wednesday. After the meeting, Pickert said the funds will be turned over to the Red Cross. Some JBA members are also gathering supplies such as bottled water but Pickert said the Red Cross prefers cash donations.
Hispanic Bar celebrates first year
• The Hispanic Bar Association of Northeast Florida is holding a luncheon program in honor of its first anniversary. The event will be held during Hispanic Heritage month on Oct. 11 in the Chief Judge’s chambers in the Duval County Courthouse. The program, titled “Demystifying the JNC Process: How to Become a Judge in the Fourth Judicial Circuit,” will feature a panel discussion tentatively including Judges Roberto Arias and McRae Mathis. Also invited to sit on the panel are fourth judicial circuit judicial nominating committee chair Mary Bland Love and JNC committee members Angela Corey and Peter Sleiman. For more information about the event, call bar president Paola Parra at 398-9002.
Top five at Foley and Lardner
• Five attorneys at Foley and Lardner’s Jacksonville office have been selected for inclusion in the 2006 edition of The Best Lawyers in America, an often quoted and widely renowned referral list of practicing attorneys. The attorneys named are Charles E. Commander III, Gardner F. Davis, Kevin E. Hyde, Chauncey W. Lever Jr. and Emerson M. Lotzia. For Commander, this year marks his twentieth consecutive year on the list.
Legal community turns out to support women Woody Wilner with wife Ginny Steiger, Amy Cronin, Greg Maxwell, Karen and Steve Browning and Sean Cronin at the Women’s Center of Jacksonville’s 10th annual fundraiser. Wilner’s firm, Spohrer, Wilner, Maxwell and Matthews, was one of the top sponsors for the August 26 event at the Times-Union Center, which raised money through a silent auction and raffle. Some of the items available included Skybox tickets to a Jaguars game, a plane ride in a 1951 Royal Canadian and a weekend in a North Carolina cabin.