• The law firm GrayRobinson was recently recognized by Thompson Financial as one of the nation’s top underwriter’s counsels. The firm is based in Tampa, but has offices all over the state including a relatively new office in Jacksonville.
• It took a couple of months, but the Jacksonville Bar Association and Florida Coastal School of Law have tallied the number of senior citizens they helped over Christmas and the number is a little over 500. Gifts gathered by attorneys, students and family were hand-delivered to seniors throughout the community. Bar President Alan Pickert said the project couldn’t have happened without Bar Executive Director Diane Gill, her staff and project committee chair Michael Bowlus.
• The 5th Annual Ray Ehrlich Trial Advocacy Seminar is April at the Radisson. Speakers include professor Charles Erhardt on developments in law evidence, Roger Dodd on cross examination and Henry Trawick on dispotive motions and a judicial panel of federal and state judges. For more information, contact the Jacksonville Bar Association at [email protected].
• One billion dollars. That’s a 1 with nine zeros. That’s the milestone in closings that Prudential Network Realty recently achieved. No word on how many houses constitute $1 billion worth of closings.
• Big fan of Scrabble? The City’s Learn to Read program has a night out for you. The 8th annual Scrabble Soiree will be March 16 from 6-8 p.m. at St. John’s Cathedral, downtown. The competition is looking for teams and tillers, and for a donation of $500 you and a team of 5-7 players can spell words forward, diagonally, or down. All proceeds benefit Learn to Read.
• Jacksonville Day has been moved to March 30 and a couple of City Council members are hot about it. Council members Sharon Copeland and Suzanne Jenkins have both expressed their thoughts to the Chamber. Jenkins said she has been put on a waiting list for a hotel room after canceling her room originally booked for March 21 and 22. “I can tell you I will not be going if I don’t get my accommodations confirmed for the changed dates,” wrote Jenkins in an e-mail to Amy Tuck Whitman, the Chamber’s director of government affairs. Copeland called the change “extremely discouraging.”
• The folks at Park Lane Condominiums Association are not happy about the planned continuation of the Northbank Riverwalk that will eventually stretch to Memorial Park in Riverside. The group has made their concerns known to the mayor’s office and feels that continuing the Riverwalk would have an adverse effect on the historic buildings along the river.
• Longtime PGA Tour player Gary Player will be honored by the World Golf Hall of Fame during a March 20 reception to mark the opening of an exhibit in his honor. Player, who is from South Africa, is the “global ambassador” for the Hall of Fame.
• The rumor floating around that this season may be the last for the Jacksonville Barracudas hockey club isn’t true. According to SMG director Bob Downey, the Barracudas have another season left on their contract. A group is interested in bringing an arena football team to town, but the two seasons don’t overlap.
• The Mayor’s Commission on the Status of Women has selected five Young Women of vision to honor at its 20th anniversary Women’s History Month Breakfast. Christina Joan Gregson, Lauren M. Grissett, Leslie Nicole Lowe, Tatiana Melnik and Emily Kathryn Michael will be recognized at the event March 8 from 7:30-9:15 a.m. in the University of North Florida University Center.
• Jacksonville will host a conference for the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies beginning March 22 at the Hyatt. The events will offer training workshops, exhibitors and town hall meetings.
• Florida Trend Magazine is notifying winners of its 2006 Florida Legal Elite. The list is a peer reviewed process that, according to the Florida Trend, “results in a select group comprising the top two percent of lawyers practicing in Florida.” Word is one Jacksonville attorney made the list, but no names yet. The list isn’t made public until July.