Business Law Section makes $50,000 gift to the Foundation

Nagin headshot

by Nancy Kinnally
July 2014

stephen-naginMAITLAND, Fla. —The Florida Bar Business Law Section has made a $50,000 gift to The Florida Bar Foundation in an effort to help the Foundation weather the financial crisis resulting from the continued slump in revenue from Florida’s Interest on Trust Accounts Program.

“We see it as being in the best interest of all Floridians, including the business community, for people at all levels of our society to have access to our courts,” said 2013-14 Business Law Section Chair Stephen Nagin of Peretz Chesel Herrmann in Miami. “And we see the Foundation as an essential institution in making sure that happens, not only through support of Florida’s legal aid organizations but also in implementing positive change within our justice system in terms of fairness, effectiveness and efficiency.”

In recent years a number of Bar sections and divisions have donated funds from their reserves to the Foundation, which has helped soften the Foundation’s cuts in grants to legal aid organizations throughout the state as the Foundation’s once-healthy reserve has begun nearing depletion.

“This generous gift from the Business Law Section is just one more example of the steadfast support Florida lawyers have shown during these challenging times,” said 2013-14 Florida Bar Foundation President John Patterson. “We thank the Section’s leadership and members. We can’t say enough about the outpouring we have received from The Florida Bar, its sections and divisions, and from Bar members all over the state.”