• Attorney Paul Shorstein and Jeremy Lasnetski of the State Attorney’s Office will both leave their current firms and create their own private practice in the San Jose area within the next couple of weeks. Shorstein, son of State Attorney Harry Shorstein, is currently with Pajcic & Pajcic. He said the firm will concentrate on criminal defense, family law and personal injury.
• There will soon be more night life Downtown. A lease was signed last week for the space on East Bay Street next door to Nicky G’s Pizza. It will be called “Ivy Bar” and the concept is described by co-owners Lee Spell and Chris MacHatton as “upscale but cozy.” They have retained the services of architect John Zona, the club’s neighbor two doors west, to design the interior. Spell said they chose the location because, “It will help connect the Landing and the Mark’s, Dive Bar and TSI block.”
• The 16th Annual National Association of Letter Carriers Stamp Out Hunger Food drive was held last Saturday. People all over the country left non-perishable food items next to their mailboxes for the U.S. Postal Service to pick up and deliver to food banks. The Second Harvest Food Bank of North Florida, which serves 515 community programs, received a record amount of food this year with a total of 283,000 pounds donated. That’s a 40-percent increase compared to last year’s drive. Second Harvest Director Patrick Colley said needs are up 32 percent so far this year and having the large increase “really helps us keep pace.”
• John Whitman, a partner with Milton, Leach, Whitman, D’Andrea & Milton, has been granted membership into the International Society of Barristers. The organization is an honor society of trial lawyers chosen by their peers on the basis of excellence and integrity in advocacy.
• Producer Michael Hausman walked into the press conference at the Florida Theatre before the premier of the HBO Film “Recount” wearing a Jacksonville Jaguars cap autographed by Maurice Jones Drew. Even before he talked about his new film, Hausman said he loved going to Jaguars games while the production was here and if he comes back to Jacksonville for another film, “I’ll try to make it during football season.”
• Hausman wasn’t the only one involved in “Recount” who had good things to say about their time in Jacksonville. Director Jay Roach and Danny Strong, who wrote the script for the film, said Uncommon Grounds coffee shop in San Marco was their “favorite hangout” while co-star Bruce McGill commented, “They treated me exceedingly well at the Plaza III Steakhouse.”
• Dreams Come True will bid adieu to its board chair Laine Silverfield June 4 during a retirement party. It’s from 1-4 p.m. at the Dreams Come True offices on Southpoint Parkway.
“An expert is somebody who is more than 50 miles from home, has no responsibility for implementing the advice he gives, and shows slides.”
– Edwin Meese, former White House counsel