Jacksonville attorney Lynn Drysdale will receive the Jane Elizabeth Curran Distinguished Service Award.

MAITLAND, Fla. – Jacksonville attorney Lynn Drysdale has been selected to receive The Florida Bar Foundation’s Jane Elizabeth Curran Distinguished Service Award.

The award is named for the Foundation’s first executive director in recognition of her contributions to the Foundation, the national IOLTA movement and access to justice. The award recognizes individuals who, over their careers, have achieved meaningful, effective and lasting increases in access to civil justice for the poor in Florida. Drysdale is the first recipient since Curran received the inaugural award in 2015.

“It is truly an honor to be mentioned in the same breath as Jane Curran,” said Drysdale, an attorney at Jacksonville Area Legal Aid. “It is hard to think of anyone in the country who has done more for legal services and our client community than Ms. Curran. She was, and is, an innovator whose development of the first IOTA program in the country has kept legal services afloat. She is an inspiration to us all, and I hope to have done, and continue to do, my part to live up the standards she set.”

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Focusing on consumer protection advocacy, such as abuses in the payday lending industry, Drysdale is nationally recognized for her expertise in foreclosure defense and regularly testifies before the Florida House of Representatives and Senate, speaking on behalf of those in need.

“Lynn Drysdale is an exemplary lawyer who has chosen to dedicate her legal career to the service of others. She is focused, compassionate, and a formidable advocate for those less fortunate,” said Jim Kowalski, president and CEO of Jacksonville Area Legal Aid. “We are very proud of Lynn, and honored the Foundation has chosen her to receive this award, both in recognition of Lynn’s devotion to her work, as she fully exemplifies the best the legal profession has to offer, and as a worthy recipient following the establishment of this award in Jane Curran’s name.”

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JALA Executive Director Jim Kowalski views Lynn Drysdale as “a formidable advocate for those less fortunate.”

Drysdale has testified before the U.S. Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee in its “Review of the Department of Defense’s Report on Predatory Lending Practices Directed at Members of the Armed Forces and Their Dependents” and before the same Senate Committee relating to “Enhanced Consumer Financial Protections, After the Financial Crisis.”

She has testified multiple times at Federal Trade Commission workshops in Washington, D.C., relating to debt collection and also before the Federal Reserve Board at its hearing regarding the Home Ownership Equity Protection Act in Atlanta, Ga. Drysdale has also served as an adjunct consumer law professor at the University of Florida College of Law.

The award, which is sponsored by Holland & Knight, will be presented to Drysdale at the Foundation’s annual dinner during The Florida Bar Annual Convention June 16 at the Hilton Bonnet Creek in Orlando.

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by Rayven Wright

Rayven Wright is an intern from the University of Central Florida’s Office of Experiential Learning assigned to The Florida Bar Foundation.