The Florida Bar Foundation launches
North Florida Initiative

October 2011

by Gabrielle Davis

The Florida Bar Foundation is rolling out a series of Fellows campaigns across the state that will educate prospective donors about how the Foundation makes an impact in their communities.

The North Florida Initiative, the most recent Fellows campaign, began in September and is calling on lawyers in counties north of I-4 to become Fellows —core supporters who pledge $1,000 to The Florida Bar Foundation Endowment Trust. The pledge can be paid over five years, or 10 years for nonprofit, government and young lawyers.

The initiative will encourage voluntary bar
association leaders to sharehow the Foundation makes a difference in their communities and to appeal to their colleagues to become Fellows, said Phil Kabler, a Foundation board member
and Fellow and chair of the north Florida Fellows campaign.

“The Florida Bar Foundation funds legal aid organizations throughout the state, including those in north Florida,” said Kabler, an attorney with Kabler Moreno in Gainesville. “Whether it’s a foster child being shuffled from school to school in Panama City or a woman seeking safety from an abusive husband in rural Alachua County, there is at the heart of the matter a civil legal issue that will most likely only be addressed by a legal aid organization financially supported by the Foundation.”

In 2010, Legal Services of North Florida, Northwest Florida Legal Services, North Florida Equal Justice Center, Three Rivers Legal Services and Jacksonville Area Legal Aid closed a combined 23,693 cases involving consumer, family and housing and income law.

In addition to the North Florida Initiative, Jacksonville, as north Florida’s largest urban area, will have its own Fellows campaign. Fellows campaigns are also scheduled or underway in Miami-Dade, Volusia County and within The Florida Bar Young Lawyers Division Board of Governors.

Foundation president Michele Kane Cummings, an attorney with GrayRobinson in Ft. Lauderdale, is hoping for a great response.

“Lawyers know firsthand the barriers that low-income and disadvantaged people encounter when trying to navigate the justice system,” Cummings said.

“These campaigns will spread the word that by becoming a Foundation Fellow, lawyers can play an instrumental role in breaking down these walls and helping make sure the underprivileged have access to civil legal assistance,” Cummings said.