• Circuit Court Judges David Gooding and Waddell Wallace are holding their “Home for the Holidays” proceedings Dec. 21 at 1 p.m. in Courtroom 4 of the County Courthouse. Each month, Gooding and Wallace hold a special sessiion of court where dozens of kids and their adoptive families go through the formal adoption ceremony. Gooding says the December session should be a little more special than usual.
• Jacksonville Area Legal Aid attorney Lynn Drysdale was on the speaking trail last week. Drysdale was in Washington, D.C. at the request of the National Association of Consumer Advocates which had its annual meeting in the capital. On a different visit, Drysdale also addressed the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing & Urban Affairs about payday loans and the exorbitant interest rates local members of the military are being charged.
• Deborah Halvorsen has joined the O’Hara Law Firm as a shareholder. The firm is on Beach Boulevard and principals are by Steve and Jeri O’Hara.
• Florida Coastal School of Law student Sharon Caserta has been selected as a recipient of a 2006-08 Florida Bar Foundation Equal Justice Works Fellowship. The highly-competitive two-year fellowships are awarded to attorneys who work on legal aid projects of their own design including affordable housing, welfare-to-work, domestic violence, environmental practice and family preservation. Caserta is representing JALA and is doing her project on disability rights.
• Karen Koster Burr has joined the law firm of Brennan, Manna & Diamond and will establish the firm’s intellectual property group. Koster Burr was formerly in-house counsel of CSX Transportation and founder of Atlantic Beach Law and The Koster Burr Firm.