John Patterson

When most of us think of legal aid, we think of public interest lawyers helping individual clients resolve civil legal problems on a case-by-case basis.

In reality, legal aid goes well beyond helping one client at a time. The expertise and collaboration that has developed among the lawyers at the Foundation’s 30-plus legal aid grantees enables them to bring about systemic change that affects Floridians by the thousands.

Take for example the work of Florida Legal Services and Legal Services of Greater Miami on behalf of autistic Florida children on Medicaid. These children were being denied coverage for applied behavior analysis (ABA) therapy, the only effective, evidence-based treatment for their condition, and the best chance they have for leading relatively independent lives. But thanks to a few dedicated and extremely talented lawyers from these two legal aid organizations and one pro bono attorney, now more than 8,000 Florida children are guaranteed coverage for ABA therapy. The Foundation was proud to recognize their work with the inaugural Paul Doyle Children’s Advocacy Award.

Another Foundation grantee, Florida’s Children First, led the way for a group of Florida foster youth to advocate for legislation that is making life better for nearly 19,000 Florida children in foster care.

Through these two efforts alone, which you can read more about in this issue, almost 27,000 children’s lives have been made better, all by a handful of people working with support from The Florida Bar Foundation and others.

While I am proud of the Foundation’s impact on clients young and old, I am always particularly mindful of the importance of the work our grantees do on behalf of children. So, I am also especially grateful to those who support this work, including all of those who give to Children’s Legal Services on their Florida Bar annual fee statement or through our end-of-year campaign. This year, I extend my thanks also to Akerman LLP for its gift of $10,000 to Children’s Legal Services in memory of Jim Foster, a highly respected member of their firm.

This year my firm, Shutts & Bowen LLP, joined with the law firms of Carey, O’Malley, Whitaker & Mueller PA, Carlton Fields, Fowler White Boggs PA, GrayRobinson, Hill Ward Henderson, and Holland & Knight LLP, to underwrite an ad in Florida Trend urging readers to contribute to Children’s Legal Services by giving online. I would like to close by extending that invitation to you with a guarantee that 100 percent of your contribution will go toward helping Florida children in need of legal help, whether as individuals or by the thousands.

John Patterson
President, 2013-14