Staff Writer
It’s all about opportunities.
The Jacksonville Historic Naval Ship Association is pursuing an opportunity to bring the decommissioned USS Charles F. Adams to port in Jacksonville as a floating museum.
Attorneys at Holland & Knight are looking for opportunities to provide pro bono help to the community in an effort to reach 100 percent participation by its firm.
The two opportunities converged and now they are on a path to the same goal, bringing a new attraction to Downtown Jacksonville.
Attorney Chris Commander is a partner at Holland & Knight and practices in its mergers and acquisitions group. His focus is mergers and acquisitions, corporate finance and real estate areas.
“It’s tough to find pro bono opportunities in those areas,” said Commander. “So when Dan (Bean) approached me with this, I was glad to help out.”
Commander donated pro bono hours to work with the City’s Office of General Counsel regarding the submerged land agreement, easement acquisition and land use agreements for the project.
“It’s been an interesting project and, because I have kids, I can see how it benefits the community both in tourism and education,” said Commander.
Bean, president of The Jacksonville Bar Association in 2009-10, stepped on the ship as an 18-year-old midshipman at the beginning of his Navy career, so it wasn’t difficult for him to decide to get involved with the project.
“This would be a great asset for Downtown,” said Bean, a partner who practices in the field of public-private partnerships. “If we could open some doors for children to experience war ships at an early age, maybe they would be more amenable to military service.”
Bean has given his time to represent the Jacksonville Historic Naval Ship Association’s interests in talks with government officials. The City Council is now reviewing Ordinance 2010-675, which provides the City of Jacksonville’s formal support and help with efforts of the Jacksonville Historic Naval Ship Association to coordinate local, state and federal authorities to bring the USS Charles F. Adams to Downtown as a floating museum, immediately east of the Acosta Bridge on Jacksonville’s Southbank. The association is not asking for any monetary support from the City. All it asks from the City is the permission to moor the ship near the Acosta Bridge.
Suzanne Judas is the firm’s Jacksonville office pro bono and community services partner, and she helped coordinate the pro bono efforts as the office surges to 95 percent participation throughout the last year.
“We challenged the office to take the Florida Supreme Court’s ONE challenge, for every attorney to take on one pro bono case during the year,” said Judas. “We are almost at 95 percent. We try to match people with the opportunity and provide them with the help they need to succeed.”
The City Council Rules Committee will discuss the issue of bringing the USS Charles F. Adams to Jacksonville at its meeting Tuesday, which begins with an agenda meeting at 9:30 a.m. and the regular meeting at 10 a.m.
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