• Paul Regensdorf has joined Holland & Knight’s Jacksonville office as a partner in the Litigation Group. He was previously a shareholder with the firm of Stearns Weaver Miller. Regensdorf, who has been trying cases in Florida and throughout the country for more than 30 years, is vice chair of The Florida Bar Appellate Court Rules Committee and is one of four attorneys on the Supreme Court’s Florida Courts Technology Commission. He received his B.A. from Florida State University and his J.D. from the Vanderbilt University Law School.
• Seven attorneys from the Fourth Judicial Circuit will be among 134 attorneys honored by The Florida Bar on Friday for 50 years of service to the practice of law. Four are from Jacksonville: Samuel Jacobson, U.S. District Judge John H. Moore II, James Moseley and Circuit Judge Bernard Nachman. Others from the circuit are Robert Westover Niehaus, Fernandina Beach; Henry Simmons, Orange Park; and David Roemer, • Seven attorneys from the Fourth Judicial Circuit will be among 134 attorneys honored by The Florida Bar on Friday for 50 years of service to the practice of law. Four are from Jacksonville: Samuel Jacobson, U.S. District Judge John H. Moore II, James Moseley and Circuit Judge Bernard Nachman. Others from the circuit are Robert Westover Niehaus, Fernandina Beach; Henry Simmons, Orange Park; and David Roemer, Palmetto Bay.
• The Farah & Farah law firm donated $6,000 to the Southern Legal Counsel. The funds will be used for operation of the SLC and to improve the adequacy of education in Florida through advocacy. “The SLC is so important because it provides a voice to those who otherwise wouldn’t have one,” said attorney and founding partner Eddie Farah. The SLC, headquartered in Gainesville, is a statewide nonprofit law firm that assists those with public interest issues who would otherwise not have access to the justice system.
• For the first time since March 2009, Duval County’s unemployment rate dropped below 10 percent in May. While the five-county area’s rate has been below 10 percent for two months, Duval remained in double digits. According to state numbers adjusted by University of North Florida economics professor Paul Mason, the unemployment rate fell to 9.63 percent in May from 10.41 percent in April and 10.66 percent in May 2010.
• Regarding area employment, both the size of the work force and the number of people employed rose, which UNF’s Mason said “is obviously a positive sign.” While the Duval rate has fallen four months in a row, “it is still twice what we would consider full employment and falling much more slowly than in previous recoveries.”
• And more about employment: Duval County’s work force rose by 5,242 in May from April to 445,834. The number of people employed rose by 4,797 to 400,026, while the number of people unemployed rose by 445 to 45,808.
• “Ax Handle Saturday - 50 Years Later,” the WJCT TV-7 documentary about the civil rights movement in Jacksonville in 1960, took top honors June 11 at the 17th annual 2011 Sunshine State Awards. The South Florida Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists, which presents the awards, named the documentary Florida’s top public affairs program in broadcast. The production was sponsored by the Jacksonville Historical Society with funding from the Florida Humanities Council.
• Misty Skipper, spokeswoman for Mayor John Peyton, left her position Friday and is taking some time off this week before joining the Dalton Agency next Monday as its director of public affairs. She will work with Michael Munz and Jim Dalton to provide community relations, strategic communications, public relations, government affairs and media relations support for clients. “I will have a particular focus on helping the agency to expand its government affairs and litigation, financial and crisis communications portfolio,” she wrote in an email. Skipper worked with Peyton for six years. Peyton leaves office June 30.