Around Florida

TAMPA BAY, Fla. — U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Catherine Peek McEwen was honored with the J. Ben Watkins Award at the Stetson Law Review Banquet in St. Petersburg.

Judge McEwen’s distinguished legal career includes being named the first female judge to serve in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court’s Tampa Division. A 1982 Stetson Law graduate, Judge McEwen is frequently an advocate for people who cannot afford legal representation. She helped create a video for the Bankruptcy Pro Bono Pro Se Assistance Project with a grant from The Florida Bar Foundation. Working with the project, the bankruptcy court, Tampa Bay Bankruptcy Bar Association and Bay Area Legal Services volunteered time to assist people in bankruptcy matters.

The Watkins Award is presented annually in honor of J. Ben Watkins, a 1949 graduate of Stetson Law who still actively practices law and was instrumental in founding the Stetson Law Review. The Stetson Law Review is a premier academic journal published three times per year. Each issue is presented in a symposium format addressing contemporary legal topics.

GULFPORT, Fla. – Stetson University College of Law began the academic year by winning first and second place in the E. Earle Zehmer Workers’ Compensation Moot Court Competition in Orlando recently.

Two teams of Stetson students advanced to compete against each other in the final round, beating a dozen teams from other law schools around the country. This is the second consecutive year that Stetson Law has won the competition, sponsored by the Workers Compensation Section of the Florida Bar. The winning Stetson team of Derrick Connell, Amie Patty and brief writer Pamela Vergara narrowly defeated the Stetson team of Joseph Herbert, Brice Zoecklein and brief writer Kristen Chittenden, who came in second place. Fourteen teams competed.

“The teams argued brilliantly in the final round before three judges from the Florida 1st District Court of Appeal,” said Professor Stephanie Vaughan, moot court advisor. “We could never ask for more in a competition.”

Stetson Law Professor Michael Allen coached the first-place team of Connell, Patty and Vergara, and moot court alumnae Jennifer Card Kennedy and Nancy Slack Meyer of Abbey Adams in St. Petersburg , Fla. , coached the second-place team of Herbert, Zoecklein and Chittenden.

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Registered paralegals increase

By DOTTIE PARIS
CFLJ Features Editor

The voluntary Florida Registered Paralegal program set a milestone, recently celebrating its 3080th registered paralegal in its first year.

"The interest in the program has exceeded our expectations," said Lori Holcomb, Florida Registered Paralegal counsel at The Florida Bar, which administers the program.

A Florida Registered Paralegal is a person with education, training or job experience who is supervised by a member of The Florida Bar and who performs substantive legal work for which the attorney is responsible. Additionally Florida Registered Paralegals must meet specific requirements.

Approved by the Florida Supreme Court in November 2007, the program's goal is to better serve the public by establishing high professional standards. The program allows for voluntary registration of paralegals who have to agree to abide by a Code of Ethics.

Applications are available on The Florida Bar Web site at http://www.floridabar.org/frp. There is a $150 application fee.

Holcomb said that after registration papers are filed and if everything is in order, processing applications takes a couple of weeks. Applicants who are approved are notified by mail with certificates and welcome packets.

To remain a Florida Registered Paralegal, 30 hours of continuing education courses are required over a three-year period, with five of those hours having to be in professionalism or ethics courses. Yearly dues are $150 and must be paid by Aug. 15.

Florida Registered Paralegals will receive renewal statements in the mail in late May or early June. Questions about the program can be sent to frp@flabar.org

Orlando, Fla. – Barry University’s Dwayne O. Andreas School of Law recently honored former judge Winifred J. Sharp with the Allies for Justice Award during the Law School’s Allies for Justice Gala.

Sharp has spent the past 27 years as a judge for the Fifth District Court of Appeal, from which she recently retired. She earned her law degree in 1961 from Stanford University and was a practicing attorney in Orlando for nearly 14 years. Throughout her career Sharp has been an advocate for women’s and children’s issues. She has been involved in the equal rights movement and Florida child care initiatives, and has remained active on women’s issues through membership in groups like the League of Women Voters and the Governor’s Commission on the Status of Women, and as a past president of the Florida Association of Women Lawyers.

She has also been active in organizations that protect the rights of children and the mentally ill, which has been portrayed through her roles as past president of the Board of Directors of the Child Care Resources Network, a member of the Florida Council for Community Mental Health, and a board member of the Beth Johnson Community Mental Health Center. Sharp’s community efforts extend to both educational and religious organizations as well. She is the past Director of the Christian Service Center and has served as a director of the Foundation for Valencia Community College in Orlando. She is married to Joel Sharp, a member of the Barry Board of Trustees and the Law School Advisory Board.

Also honored at the Gala were Barry Law School student Ashley Spizzuco and Barry Law School graduate Jerry Girley. The two received the first-ever Student Ally and Alumni Ally Award. Spizzuco is a second year student who exhibits a passion for helping others through her volunteer work with SBA, the VITA program and organizing other fundraisers on campus. Girley, a 2007 graduate, has dedicated his career to fighting for civil rights. In addition to pursuing cases of discrimination as a lawyer, Jerry volunteers his time with statewide civil rights organizations, assists with voting drives and initiatives for underrepresented populations and is an ordained minister.

For more information about the Allies for Justice Gala and the honorees, please call the Law School’s Leslie Golden at (321) 206-5604.