For months ago on Sept. 22, I wrote an article about the newly commissioned Diversity Committee of the Jacksonville Bar Association.
Interestingly the week before, Wall Street had its worst financial debacle since the Crash of October 1929. In the beginning of the week, Bank of America broke off talks of buying Lehman Brothers and bought Merrill Lunch instead, which led to Lehman Brothers, a 158 year old investment bank, filing for bankruptcy protection. American International Group (AIG), the nation’s largest insurer, had trouble raising capital and rumors began to circulate about its viability. By Tuesday, the U.S. government stepped in with an $85 billion bailout of AIG and taxpayers now own 80 percent of the company. Washington Mutual was not as lucky, being unable to find a white knight like Lehman, and also filed for bankruptcy protection. By the end of the week U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson was proposing a $700 billion government bailout plan.
On the political scene, both political parties had promised “change” from their respective presidential and vice presidential candidates. Sarah Palin both electrified and polarized the Republican Party as the first female vice-presidential candidate for the Republican Party. Senator Barack Obama was the first African-American nominee of any major political party.
This past week we all watched history in the making with the swearing in of Barack Hussein Obama as the first African-American president of the United States. President Obama presented a message of hope and change by his future administration, but his message was also significant because he not only represents the diversity of the people of this country, but points out that the greatness of America is in large measure attributable to the diversity of her citizens. Financial institutions always talk about, promote and recommend diversity of their customers’ investment portfolios and hopefully, after the financial debacle of 2008, they will heed their own advice. It is from these successes and failures of America, both political and corporate, that the Florida Bar and Jacksonville Bar have implemented their Diversity Initiatives.
In the late 1990s, under the leadership of then Florida Bar President Howard Coker, the Florida Bar recognized the need for diversity among its leaders and created the Diversity Committee, which included several prominent members of the state judiciary and legal community, to encourage an awareness of diversity within the Florida Bar. Through its natural evolution, the Diversity Committee and future Bar presidents recognized that diversity awareness must not only come from the Florida Bar, but should be recognized, embraced, encouraged and celebrated at the local Bar level, thus the importance of grassroots.
Our current Jacksonville Bar President, Joe Camerlengo, has personally spearheaded the creation of the Jacksonville Bar Association’s Diversity Committee by recruiting leaders of the various Bar organizations such as the Asian-American Bar Association, the D.W. Perkins Bar Association, the Hispanic Bar Association of Northeast Florida, the Christian Legal Society, Jacksonville Area Legal Aid and the Jacksonville Women’s Lawyers’ Association, along with prominent members of the Jacksonville legal community and the Florida Coastal School of Law to present a Diversity Symposium.
Under the leadership of President Camerlengo and as a result of the joint efforts of all of the committee members and various Bar organizations, the First Annual Jacksonville Bar Symposium will now be held on Feb. 20 at the Florida Coastal School of Law from 12:30 pm to 4:30 pm. The featured speaker will be Florida Supreme Court Justice Barbara Pariente, who has served on the Florida Supreme Court since 1997, after 18 years of private practice as an AV rated and Board Certified Civil Trial Attorney in West Palm Beach. Justice Pariente served as chief justice from 2004 to 2006. Justice Pariente has been a tireless advocate for diversity and she has written and spoken frequently on issues affecting women trial attorneys and on Professionalism.
Casey Black, Ch. 4 morning news anchor, will serve as moderator for this Diversity Symposium. Coker, who is the current Chairman of the Judicial Nominating Committee, will introduce Justice Pariente. The panels will consist of several local, state and federal judges, along with prominent local attorneys and issues as identified by the Florida Bar’s Diversity video, The Changing Faces of Justice. By attending and participating in these spirited and candid discussions of Diversity, all members of the Florida Bar will receive at least two hours of Ethics CLE credit.
We invite and challenge all members of the Jacksonville Bar Association to seize the energy and attend this Diversity Symposium. As President Obama stated at his inauguration, “...a new era of responsibility begins...” and he challenged the American people to “...pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off and begin again the work of remaking America.” I suggest to you that our strength as attorneys, a Bar organization, and yes, as a country, ultimately comes from the diversity of our members. Won’t you come join us on Feb. 20? Let’s get to work and together, “Yes, we can!” make a difference as we embrace and celebrate, “Diversity in the Jacksonville Bar Association.”