This year, Law Week is from April 28th-May 4th, with Law Day officially being celebrated on May 1st. Law Day originated in 1957 when American Bar Association President, Charles Rhyne, envisioned a day for celebrating our nation’s legal system. A year later, President Dwight Eisenhower formally established the first Law Day to mark the nation’s commitment to the rule of law. Then in 1961, Congress issued a joint resolution designating May 1st as the official date for celebrating Law Day, which was subsequently codified in U.S. Code, 36, Section 113. Every president since then has issued an annual Law Day proclamation. In the proclamation, the President usually invites citizens to observe Law Day with appropriate ceremonies. In keeping with that tradition, the Broward Bar will be celebrating Law Day on Thursday, May 3rd by holding our annual Law Day Luncheon at the Renaissance Hotel, 1617 SE 17th Street in Fort Lauderdale beginning at noon.
The theme for Law Day this year is “No Courts, No Justice, No Freedom.” This year’s theme promotes the importance of the courts and their role within our justice system and the importance of ensuring access to justice for all citizens. As we are all aware, continued accessibility to the courts depends on their being adequate funding of the court system. As lawyers, I truly believe we have a duty to continue to support all measures taken
by our legislators to find a sustainable revenue source to support our courts for years to come. We are so fortunate to have as our guest speaker at this year’s luncheon, former Florida Supreme Court Justice Raoul Cantero. Appointed to the Florida Supreme Court in 2002 by then Governor Jeb Bush, Mr. Cantero was the first justice of Hispanic descent and one of the youngest ever to sit on the Court. In his six years as a justice, he heard hundreds of appeals and authored well over 100 majority, concurring and dissenting opinions involving precedent-setting and evolving areas of law. Before his Court appointment, Mr. Cantero was in private practice for 14 years and he is currently the chair of the Miami appellate practice section at the law firm of White and Case. Given his experience on the bench and in private practice, you can be sure his presentation will be informative and thought provoking. We truly hope you will join us as we celebrate this important day. Additional upcoming celebrations include our Annual Meeting and Installation Dinner on June 27th at 5:30p.m.at the Harbor Beach Marriott Resort in Fort Lauderdale. At the dinner we will be installing several new Board members including: Michael Fischler, Jose Izquierdo, Michael Kean, Gary Singer, Jeffrey Solomon, and Laura Varela, along with the other officers and directors of the Board. I want to congratulate all of these individuals on being elected to the 2012-2013 Board and I wish everyone on the Board continued success in the coming year.
I also want to recognize Board member, Denise Jensen, for all of her hard work in putting together a Broward
Bar team to participate in the Autism Speaks walk that took place at Nova Southeastern University on April 14th. The team raised more than $1500 (comprised solely of personal donations) to support this worthy cause and many people participated in the actual walk, including Board members, Bruce Weihe (and his daughter Laura), Anita Paoli, Richard Sachs (and his children Zach and Zoe), Denise Jensen (and many of Denise’s co-workers) and myself, in addition to Art Goldberg, Braulio Rosa, and Louis Reinstein. A little rain could not dampen anyone’s spirit and a good time was had by all who participated. Continued participation in similar community events can only serve to improve the reputation of all lawyers, so I would encourage all of our members to get more involved in local community and charitable organizations.
Additional events that are taking place this month include the West Broward Section Golf Tournament on Saturday, May 12, 2012 at the Plantation Preserve Golf Course, 7050 W. Broward Boulevard in Plantation. The cost to attend is $100 per person, which includes lunch, golf, and dinner (you can’t get a better deal anywhere). Registration begins at 11:30 a.m., shotgun start at 1:00 p.m. Proceeds raised will benefit the Seminole Middle School DECAL program. On May 16th, our monthly solo/small firm networking dinner will be taking place at Dave & Busters, 3000 Oakwood Boulevard in Hollywood beginning at 6:00 p.m. The cost to attend is $35.00 for Bar members and $50.00 for non-members. On May 30th, our monthly Bar at the Bar Networking Happy Hour will be taking place at Anthony’s Runway 84 beginning at 5:00p.m. There are also a number of CLE events taking place this month. More information about these events can be found on our website at browardbar.org.
