John Patterson

Some 32 years ago, Jane Curran arrived in Florida from Washington, D.C., to serve as The Florida Bar Foundation’s first executive director. Although the Foundation had been incorporated as a nonprofit organization in 1956, it never had any staff until 1982, when Florida’s Interest on Trust Account Program — the nation’s first — began generating revenue.

Having shaped the Foundation over three decades as its executive director, Jane has assumed the role of executive director emeritus, a title recognizing her leadership and legacy at the Foundation. Her new role will allow her to focus on providing policy and strategic consultation to the Foundation’s leadership. While Jane will continue to be a part of the Foundation team, I would like to take this opportunity to highlight just a few of her many achievements as executive director.

Jane has built the Foundation into a national leader and helped spread the IOTA model throughout the country. Florida, and many other states that have followed its example, have benefited from Jane’s work to make the state’s IOTA Program mandatory and to achieve interest rate comparability such that IOTA accounts earn the same interest rates available to similar bank customers. Her forward-thinking approach to grant making has strengthened Florida’s legal services delivery system and helped improve our justice system.

Jane was also the director of the Foundation’s Improvements in the Administration of Justice Grant Program, which has helped launch or fund a number of important projects, such as the Innocence Project of Florida, the Florida Law Related Education Association and its Justice Teaching program, and Florida’s Statewide Plan on Human Trafficking.

The Foundation is deeply grateful to Jane for her contributions to the Foundation, to the national IOLTA movement, and to access to justice statewide and nationally. We at the Foundation — together with all in Florida’s legal aid community — are indebted to Jane for her highly effective leadership.

Orlando attorney Bruce B. Blackwell has been selected to serve as executive director of the Foundation, a role he will perform pro bono on an interim basis from his downtown Orlando office. Bruce is a past president of the Foundation, a recipient of its Medal of Honor Award, and a recipient of the ABA’s 2013 Pro Bono Publico Award. Supporting Bruce in management of day-to-day operations are Lou Ann Powell, the Foundation’s chief financial officer, and Melissa Pershing, director of grant programs.

I know you will join me in congratulating Jane on her exemplary service to The Florida Bar Foundation as executive director. We at the Foundation look forward to having her invaluable assistance and guidance on policy and strategic issues in a time of challenge and opportunity in access to justice.

John Patterson
President, 2013-14