by Rachel Witkowski
Staff Writer
The Jacksonville Bar Association president serves a one-year term but for the Bar’s staff, they’re in for life — or at least 40 hours a week.
All the luncheons, monthly board meetings, CLE seminars and community events of the Bar are organized by a handful of people in a few rooms at Riverplace Tower who work full time to help keep the Bar running smoothly.
They are the peace keepers between clients with small disputes and their attorneys. They are the support service for nearly 2,000 members as well as clients. They, along with Bar volunteers, helped provide about 500 senior citizens in Jacksonville a gift for Christmas last year through the Meals on Wheels “Holiday Project”. The list goes on and on, and this year, they’re adding more.
Right now isn’t the busiest time for the Bar office, but executive director Diane Gill is using the time to collect membership dues and prepare for the Aug. 24 Bar retreat where the year’s events will begin to unfold. The retreat is actually a lunch at Epping Forest where the board will plan, adjust and create events through June 2007. The lunch will kick off a busy year for Gill and the staff who are the hands-on engine behind the Bar.
“The Bar office runs the day-to-day things and the stuff that needs special attention of the president or the board comes through me,” said Bar President Kelly Mathis.
Duties such as the lawyer referral service for clients who are seeking legal council and lack monetary resources, and resolving small client disputes with lawyers in the area are daily activities in the office. They are expecting to have at least two major live, all-day CLE seminars and 2-5 half-day seminars, according to Gill.
“Most of my day is dedicated to dealing with people,” she said. “The good thing about this job is that we do a lot of activities.”
The staff of five full-time and two part-time employees also gathers volunteers throughout the year who are usually attorneys or law school students to help with community projects like assisting the I.M. Sulzbacher Center or HabiJax. But the busiest time for the Bar office is in May during Law Week, or what Gill calls “Law Month” because the event can run throughout the month. May 1 is officially Law Day as designated by the American Bar Association.
“It takes so many volunteers and staff to deliver Law Week to the public,” said Gill, who added it usually takes several hundred people. “There’s a committee of 25 people during Law Week and each of them has a group of people.”
Gill also works with the education system to create an art contest at elementary schools and bring speakers into the classrooms during Law Week, specifically many county and circuit court judges. During that time, they organize a naturalization ceremony and have speakers for the senior citizen community and the general public. Nearly 1,000 people will attend and Gill will start planning in late September or early October, she said.
“Our Bar is so lucky to have Diane,” said Mathis. “The reality is, she runs it — I don’t.”
Mathis will meet with Gill and the board during the retreat to discuss any new plans or to bring back old events like the HabiJax Bar team, initially started by former Bar President Hank Coxe, who helped build homes for about six years. Mathis chaired the team for several years.
“I think it’s time to restart that. I was a big supporter of it,” he said. “It’s great to get groups of lawyers out there and work together for the community.”
There are two main goals that Mathis said he has during his term as president: to place an emphasis on the Jacksonville Bar Foundation and to create an even better social environment among the lawyers.
Mathis wants to focus more on getting people to contribute to a cause and then make an overall donation to an organization, rather than make a single contribution from the Bar, he said.
“My overall focus is to make everyone (members of the Bar) get to know each other and to have collegiality because that directly impacts the professionalism that we show to each other,” he said.
Both Mathis and Gill expressed an interest in recreating a black tie event, which hasn’t been held the last two years. The Bar has previously hosted a formal ball and Las Vegas Casino night for its members.
“You dress up, you get to meet the spouses,” said Mathis. “Part of it is just having an event to get to know each other.”
Though Mathis has plenty of ideas for the coming year, he said he will limit his plans to just a couple events for the sake of the Bar’s staff. But Gill, who has been executive director of the Bar for 14 years, has enough experience to organize the Bar and its president.
“I told her, I need her to help me stay on track,” said Mathis. “But I’ve never heard her say ‘That’s too much for me.’”