When the pain began, Archie Green knew he needed to see a medical professional. Though the 40-year-old man was a prisoner of the Florida Department of Corrections (FDOC), he still expected to receive some kind of treatment for increasingly distressing symptoms. Feeling a knot bulging from his groin, Green asked
The Steven M. Goldstein Award for Excellence was created to honor a former member of the Foundation board who, as a legal services attorney and Florida State University College of Law professor, was devoted to defending the rights of the downtrodden, the unpopular and the disadvantaged. The Goldstein Award, given
Two lawyers received The Florida Bar Foundation’s Jane Elizabeth Curran Distinguished Service Award June 14 at the Foundation’s annual reception and dinner. The award, named for the Foundation’s first executive director, recognizes individuals who, over their careers, have achieved meaningful, effective and lasting increases in access to civil justice for
Tallahassee pediatric cardiologist Louis B. St. Petery received the 2018 Medal of Honor Award in the non-lawyer category at the Foundation’s 42nd annual reception and dinner June 14. St. Petery’s leadership and legislative advocacy on behalf of children on Medicaid have led to funding increases and substantial changes to the
Like you, I am passionate about increasing access to justice for our most vulnerable neighbors, co-workers and loved ones. When I first began my legal career, I received funding from the Foundation to work at a clinic at Legal Services of Greater Miami. I later went on to volunteer for
Howard Talenfeld, managing partner of Talenfeld Law and founding president of Florida’s Children First, received The Florida Bar Foundation’s 2018 Medal of Honor Award for a Lawyer at the Foundation’s annual reception and dinner June 14 in Orlando. Talenfeld’s legislative efforts have significantly improved services for dependent children with special
The Florida Bar Foundation has received a $500,000 cy pres award from a class action settlement in a case involving rental fees for propane tanks. Jeffrey M. Liggio of Liggio Law in West Palm Beach represented the class against Heritage Operating L.P., now AmeriGas, through more than 12 years of
In February, Cornell Law School contacted the Foundation with an unusual request. Their law students wanted to come to Florida for spring break, but not for fun and sun. Instead, they wanted to work for legal aid organizations as part of the school’s Spring Break Service Trip program. The Foundation
In April in Orlando, students from Boone High School’s Law Magnet Program spent a morning being “speed mentored.” Law students from Florida A&M University College of Law and lawyers from the American Bar Association’s Business Law Section and the Foundation volunteered to mentor the students, answering questions about law school
On May 15, the Foundation facilitated Everyone Counts, an initiative to take a census-like count of self-represented litigants on a single day in the Miami-Dade court system. First conducted March 20, 2017, Everyone Counts found that 63 percent of litigants were self-represented that day, and that domestic violence court had
If you are reading this newsletter, then you are a friend of The Florida Bar Foundation and I would like to thank you for your ongoing commitment to promoting access to justice in Florida. It is only through the collaborative support of partners like you that we are able to
by Nancy Kinnally Krystin Montersil, a 2017-19 Equal Justice Works Fellow, is working on a project at Catholic Legal Services, Archdiocese of Miami, to address a specific problem faced by undocumented immigrants with U.S.-born children. She is creating training materials for pro bono attorneys and organizing pro se clinics to
