Chief Judge Karen Jennemann of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court Middle District of Florida told members of the Jacksonville Bankruptcy Bar Association that she has several goals for her term, including an emphasis on civility, cooperation, collaboration and communication.
“What we do is very important,” she said of the practice of bankruptcy law.
“Lawyers have power. We give people in financial distress relief,” she told the Bar members meeting Jan. 25 at The River Club.
Jennemann was appointed to the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Middle District of Florida in November 1993. She succeeded Judge Paul Glenn of the court’s Jacksonville Division as chief judge last fall. Glenn served as the chief judge from 2003-11.
Jennemann, who is in the district’s Orlando Division, is one of the eight bankruptcy court judges in the four divisions of the Middle District – Orlando, Jacksonville, Tampa and Fort Myers.
The Middle District covers 35 of the state’s 67 counties. Glenn and Judge Jerry Funk serve in the Jacksonville Division, which encompasses 16 counties. Both attended the Jacksonville Bankruptcy Bar Association program.
Before her appointment to the court, Jennemann was a shareholder in Jacksonville law firm of Mahoney Adams & Criser, where she specialized in bankruptcy law, and was an associate at the Jacksonville-based Smith Hulsey & Busey firm.
She also served as a law clerk to Judge Robert Doumar, of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, Norfolk Division. She received her J.D. degree from the Marshall-Wythe School of Law at The College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Va., a master’s degree in liberal studies from Rollins College and an undergraduate degree from Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff, Ariz.
Jennemann told the Jacksonville Bankruptcy Bar Association members that she had several goals, including greater uniformity in districtwide procedures, improved communication and training.
“We need your help,” she told the group.
She said attorney input is needed as she proceeds. “We will put small groups together to talk procedure by procedure,” she said.
Jennemann asked the lawyers to talk to other Bar associations and court divisions.
She also intends to distribute a quarterly newsletter.
Jennemann said there are almost 6,500 bankruptcy attorneys in the Middle District, but that just a fraction are Bar members.
The Jacksonville Bankruptcy Bar Association consists of about 160 members.
Jennemann asked the Bar members to help integrate new attorneys.
“I do see us working together,” she said.
The Middle District of Florida has been one of the busiest in the country. Reflecting a nationwide trend, filings dropped 20 percent last year after a record 2010. Filings fell 17 percent in the Jacksonville Division.
Judge William Van Nortwick of Florida’s First District Court of Appeal also spoke with the bankruptcy attorneys, asking them to offer pro bono legal services. He has been active on The Florida Bar Standing Committee on Pro Bono Legal Services among his many professional activities.
He said the committee commissioned a study that concluded 40 percent of attorneys offered pro bono services, 25 percent were opposed to doing so and 35 percent didn’t participate for reasons that included a lack of time or either discouragement or a lack of encouragement by their employers or law firms.
Van Nortwick said goals are to work with the 35 percent not participating but willing to do so.
He indicated that those who offer pro bono services are fulfilled by it.
“Pro bono connects them to the reason they went to law school,” he said.
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