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As to the first prong, in November 2009, the Section hosted a Joint ABA-APS Welcome Reception and heavily participated in the ABA Appellate Judges Education Institute Summit ("AJEIS"), under the leadership of our Programs Chair, June Hoffman, and our Joint ABA-APS Liaison Co-Chairs, Harvey Sepler and Siobhan Shea. In November, more than 300 appellate judges, staff attorneys, and appellate practitioners from around the country met in Orlando, Florida, for the Summit. The ABA's Appellate Judges' Conference, the Council of Appellate Staff Attorneys, and the Council of Appellate Lawyers developed the annual four-day summit. Our Fourth District Court of Appeal Judge Martha Warner chaired the ABA Appellate Judges Conference. The Section hosted a Joint "AJEIS-Florida APS Welcome Reception" to 325 attendees, including state and federal appellate judges from Arkansas, Arizona, California, Colorado, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Florida, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Texas, Virginia, Washington, the Sixth, Seventh, Ninth, and Eleventh Circuit Courts of Appeals, and appellate judges and justices traveling as far as Guam, Trinidad and Tobago. Our Section also had a strong showing at the Summit, both in attendance and in speaker presentations from our Section members, our Florida District Court of Appeal Judges and Florida Supreme Court Justices, including five of Florida's seven Supreme Court justices, and most of Florida's District Court of Appeal judges, including all 12 judges from the Fourth District, 11 of the 14 judges from the Second District, and more than half of the judges from the First, Third and Fifth Districts.
Building on that outreach momentum, the Section is currently working with the Florida Appellate Judges Conference to advance a similar format to promote greater appellate educational efforts with the Florida appellate judges for the coming 2010-11 year.
Also to that end, the Florida appellate judges have been active in the Section, most notably in the area of continuing appellate legal education. Under the leadership of Henry Gyden, chair of the Appellate Telephone Seminar Series subcommittee, we have hosted Seminars every month this year, and in addition, we have been enormously grateful for the regular participation of our Florida appellate judges in our continuing appellate legal education seminars, which Ceci Berman chairs, and Telephone Seminars this educational year for our Members, including CLEs on Appellate Ethics, Appeals of Post-Judgment Orders, Appeals of Orders Denying the Workers' Compensation Immunity Defense, other Workers Compensation Appeals Issues, Pass-Through Jurisdiction of Florida's Appellate Courts, Premature Appeals and Abandonment of Post-Trial Motions, Federal Appellate Issues, Federal and State Criminal Appeals, Preservation of Error, Better Appellate Brief Writing and Oral Arguments.
Last July, recently retired Florida Supreme Court Justice Raoul G. Cantero, III, spoke on Ethics in Appellate Practice. In August, Judge William D. Palmer of the Fifth District Court of Appeal, who serves as Chair of the Supreme Court Committee on Alternative Dispute Resolution Rules and Policy, discussed the proposed changes on Appellate Mediation in Florida, as well as providing information on the appellate mediation program in effect in the Fifth District since 2001.
In October 2009, Deputy Chief Judge of Compensation Claims David W. Langham, Judge of Compensation Claims John J. Lazzara, Tallahassee District, Judge of Compensation Claims, Kathryn Pecko, Fort Lauderdale District, Judge of Compensation Claims Thomas W. Sculco, Orlando District, and Judge Charles Kahn and Judge Peter Webster, First District Court of Appeal, spoke in Tampa on The Art of Appellate Advocacy in Workers' Compensation, as well as via a live Webcast.
In February 2010, Chief Judge Paul Hawkes of the First District Court of Appeal spoke on Updates at the First District Court of Appeal. Also in February 2010, Chief Judge Hawkes of the First District spoke on the first of a two-part series on electronic filing in Florida's Courts, with an emphasis on e-filing in the First District Court of Appeal. And in February, our Section produced its Advanced Appellate Practice Certification Review Course for all Section members.
In March, Tom Hall, Clerk of the Florida Supreme Court, spoke on Florida Supreme Court Jurisdiction. Also in March, 2010, we had the participation and instruction from almost the entire Fifth District Court of Appeal, Chief Judge David Monaco, Judge Jay Cohen, Judge Kerry Evander, Judge Alan Lawson, Judge Richard Orfinger, Judge William Palmer, Judge Thomas Sawaya, Retired Judge Robert Pleus, Jr., and the Clerk of the Fifth District Court of Appeal, Hon. Susan, Wright, who taught us about Practice Before the Fifth District Court of Appeal.
In April, Judge Judith Kreeger and Clerk of the Florida Supreme Court, Tom Hall spoke on the second of the two-part efiling series regarding developments in a state-wide portal on e-filing.
Following that, in May, Judge Judith Kreeger and Clerk of the Florida Supreme Court, Tom Hall, spoke on the second of the two-part efiling series regarding developments in a state-wide portal on e-filing. We also had the participation of Florida appellate judges from around the State teaching us about The Art of Objecting: A Trial Lawyer's Guide to Preserving Error for Appeal, including, in order of speaker appearance, Chief Judge David Monaco, Fifth District Court of Appeal, Judge Melanie May, Fourth District, Judge Edward LaRose, Second District, Judge Mark Polen, Fourth District, Judge Bradford Thomas, First District, and Judge Alan Lawson, Fifth District. Also in May, Former Supreme Court Justices Charles Wells and Raoul Cantero educated us about Practice Before the Supreme Court and about Discretionary Review Proceedings.
In June, the Florida Supreme Court Justices have approved a revised format to our Annual Discussion with the Florida Supreme Court, and the Justices will be educating us on issues concerning (1) the future of court funding; (2) the status of efiling for the appellate courts and the court system in general; (3) how can we improve or streamline the process of amending the rules of procedure; (4) recent trends in lawyer discipline; and (5) recent trends in death penalty appeals. We are looking forward to the Annual Discussion with the Supreme Court and the Dessert Reception and Awards at the Annual Meeting of The Florida Bar.
The Appellate Practice Section has energized its CLEs. Under the leadership of CLE Chair, Ceci Berman, and her subcommittee chair, Henry Gyden, the Section is improving its CLEs and Appellate Telephone Seminars through better use of technology, moving toward more cutting edge topics, in addition to our customary, vital topics on appellate practice. We are reaching out more to the District Courts of Appeal regarding topics and speakers to keep our CLEs interesting, appellate-appropriate and timely.
The Appellate Practice Section has also reinvigorated its Appellate Pro Bono Committee. Under the leadership of Pro Bono Committee Chair, Bryan Gowdy, the Pro Bono Committee has expanded its network of appellate lawyers willing to undertake pro bono representation in all the District Courts and the Supreme Court. These appellate lawyers represent a diverse array of appellate expertise, from across the state. The clerks of all the appellate courts, were contacted to inform them of the availability of these volunteers for pro bono appellate representation, and have increasingly directed more pro bono appeals to our Committee. The Pro Bono Committee is also exploring working with a pro bono clinic at Florida law schools.
The Appellate Practice Section has further renovated our website. Under the leadership of Website Committee Chair, Jonathan Streisfeld, we are successfully expanding ways of providing electronic access to the Section's information and CLE. We successfully completed our second CLE webinar, and our monthly telephonic CLEs are more expansive now and continue to be a way of providing continuing appellate legal education to lawyers and judges throughout the state. To reduce printing costs and make the Guide more accessible and up to date, we are producing the Appellate Practice Guide online, under the Editorship of Rebecca Creed. The Section saves substantial printing expenses by making The Record, our primary publication, entirely electronic. The Record, along with the Guide, is also online through our website, as is the Section's Pro Se Appellate Handbook, which our volunteers continue to update, and which is translated into Spanish and Creole with grant assistance from the Florida Bar Foundation. We are also exploring production all of our CLE materials electronically, rather than hardcopy printing to save costs and be more eco-friendly.
Consistent with the Section's own cost saving measures, we have also adopted a resolution to restore plans for statewide electronic filings in appeals. To that end, the Section is also working on a proposal with the Chief Judge of each of the five District Courts of Appeal and with local law schools, to increase the use of videoconferencing for meetings and for inexpensive alternatives to hold our live CLEs.
The Appellate Practice Section has called upon its members to take action in the current budget cuts and freezes directed to "elected officials," which predominantly affect our judges, budgets and pensions. In March, the Section, after researching this issue through The Bar and the Office of State Court Administrators (OSCA), circulated contact information of Florida House and Senate Leadership for individual Section members to reach out to our Legislature regarding further reductions to judicial salaries and benefits.
We also voted as a Section to support the Florida Law Related Education's Moot Court program, both with funding and volunteer appellate lawyers to serve as judges. We continue to support that each year. We are working with the Florida High School Moot Court Competition, specifically Annette Boyd-Pitts, and with the Young Lawyers Division to expand and participate with an even more supportive, collaborative role in their respective Moot Court Competitions.
With continued tightened state court budgets, the Section has further encouraged the continued participation of our judicial representatives and government lawyers. To continue the participation of judges after the courts' budget cuts and freezes on travel, the Section voted to allow a limited stipend for judges to attend The Florida Bar's Annual Meeting. The Section also approved scholarships for government and legal aid attorneys to attend the Advanced Appellate Advocacy CLE and reduced rates for other CLE. The Section also provides further support with attendance by telephone with the use of better technology.
To that end, the Section had its fourth Appellate Practice Section Retreat using a different, more cost-effective format. As a cost-saving measure and to address current economic constraints, the Appellate Practice Section divided our tri-annual retreat into a two part mini-retreat coinciding with our regular meetings, for which Hala Sandridge served as our Retreat Committee Chair. Our goal was to encourage our appellate practitioners and judiciary to engage in vision-building for the future of our Section without the time and costs attendant to a stand-alone retreat. On September 10, 2009, we held Part I of the Mini-Retreat at the midyear meeting in Tampa. It was an incredible success, with a great mix of appellate judges and appellate practitioners. After a delicious buffet working-lunch, three prior Section chairs facilitated a discussion of the hottest issues facing our Section: (1) Section Leadership and Goals; (2) Section Finances; and (3) Technology and E-filing. A lively discussion ensued, from which we obtained detailed feedback from the judiciary and attorneys about these specific issues. On January 21, 2010, Part II of the Mini-Retreat continued at the Bar's Mid-Year meeting in Orlando. We had an amazing turnout of Section members and each attendee received CLE credit. During another Italian working-lunch buffet, we had three break-out groups to vet these ideas generated from the previous Mini-Retreat Part I. We assigned information gathering tasks to be reported at the June Annual Meeting for further action.
The Section is also reaching out to younger members and engaging in targeted efforts to reinvigorate its membership. The Section has completed and obtained approval for a bylaw change. The change now allows law students and law professors to join the Section's Affiliate Membership. To implement the bylaws amendment, the Section has established liaisons for the Florida Law Schools, as well as liaisons to each of the Sections, which have been established over the course of this year to promote networking and communication among with the other sections. The Section is further evaluating its bylaws to improve clarity in procedures for meeting and voting electronically.
It has been a great honor and wonderful learning experience to serve as Chair of the Appellate Practice Section. Though far too many names to list, I must thank the Section members who have actively participated to make this year, despite significant economic hurdles, an incredible success. I would like to also recognize our Section Liaison, Valerie Yarbrough for all her hard work this year. I have had the benefit of a great team of seasoned appellate lawyers and jurists on my Board: Past Chair Siobhan Shea, Chair-Elect Raoul Cantero, Vice Chair Matt Conigliaro, Secretary Treasurer Jack Reiter and Editor of The Record, Alina Alonso. I am especially proud of the commitment the Board has demonstrated to The Bar, to the administration of justice, and to the advancement of appellate practice in our State. I know I leave the Section in very able hands.
Respectfully submitted,
Dorothy F. Easley
Chair 2009-10, Appellate Practice Section
Easley Appellate Practice PLLC
4000 Ponce de León Blvd., Suite 470
Miami, Florida 33146
easleyappellate@gmail.com
www.easleyappellate.com
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