by Joe Wilhelm Jr.
Staff Writer
The annual swearing in of officers for the Jacksonville Bar Association took on a military feel Thursday as many retired and active members of the U.S. Armed Forces attended the meeting.
Joe Camerlengo of Camerlengo & Brockwell was sworn in as the new president of the local bar association and his office will be officially open on July 1.
“We have several great initiatives going on and I want to keep up the great work of past presidents,” said Camerlengo. “One new program I plan on introducing will do more to improve the education of our young community through mentoring students at John E. Ford Elementary School.”
He plans to be in the Bar’s new office in the Aetna Building on the Southbank every Tuesday to be available for Bar Association business. Camerlengo also plans to develop a closer relationship between himself and President-Elect Dan Bean of Holland & Knight to make the year-to-year transition smoother. He plans on including Bean on more of the decision-making process to help the association reach its long-term goals.
Giselle Carson of Marks Gray, Mike Freed of Brennan, Manna & Diamond, Courtney Grimm, Bedell, Dittmar, DeVault, Pillans & Coxe, and Troy Smith, of Holland & Knight, were re-elected to the board of governors. Tad Delegal, of Delegal Law Offices and Mike McCoy, of Marks Gray, will serve their first terms on the board. The four remaining members of the board of governors are Geddes Anderson of Murphy & Anderson, Tammy Butler, of CSX Transportation, Ray Driver, of Driver, McAfee, Griggs, & Peek, and Braxton Gillam, of Milam, Howard, Nicandri, Dees & Gillam.
“I am very confident that we are turning things over to very capable hands,” said Caroline Emery, who will step down as JBA president June 30.
Emery was pleased to have revitalized some committees and sections during her time as president.
Shortly after Emery’s farewell remarks, 24 new members were voted into the Bar Association. The new group pushes the association’s membership to 2,065.
The new members are: Andrew Beasley, Michael Bittner, Connie Byrd, Andrew Daw, Dayna Duncan, Eric Frenck, Neil Gornto, Heather Gwinn, Kevin Hemphill, Julia Herron, Chris Hodge, Ann Licandro, Timothy Martin, Kathryn Murk, Donny Owens, Gregory D. Prysock, Michele Rollins, Avery Sander, Jason Snyder, Fred Stapp, Phillip Vogelsang, Diidri Wells, Daniel Weston and Vanessa Williams.
Howard McGillin, chair of the Florida Bar Military Affairs Committee, was the first guest speaker of the afternoon. He presented the Florida Bar’s initiative to better educate its members on how to identify people with military related legal issues.
“Some problems are a quick fix if a lawyer knows it’s a military legal issue,” said McGillin. “We need to train people to ask the right questions, so we can identify people with these specific problems.”
The military theme continued as Maj. Gen. Douglas Burnett talked to the crowd about the Florida National Guard’s readiness for the upcoming hurricane season.
“We have more National Guardsmen home this summer than we’ve ever had before,” said Burnett. “We’ve got the right leader (Gov. Charlie Crist), the right team and the right equipment. We’ll get it done if needed.”