Details, schedule and registration are available on the Annual Convention web page. The Solo & Small Firm Section will hold its Annual Meeting and Awards Ceremony during the convention. Details coming soon.

Live (in person) at The Boca Raton (register through Annual Florida Bar Convention) and live video webcast with 90-day, on-demand access. Don’t miss it! This course will cover the latest updates for the following key practice areas:  Family Law, Employment Law, Real Estate, Elder Law, Estate Planning, Business Law, Government Law, and Traffic.

• Live (in person) registration through the Annual Florida Bar Convention (Register for the All Access Pass to attend Florida Law Update 2023 at The Boca Raton; $275 until 5/31; $350 after 5/31):  REGISTER
• Live video webcast with 90-day, on-demand access (Solo & Small Firm Section members $295; non-members $340):  REGISTER

SCHEDULE & PRESENTERS

7:55 AM – 8:00 AM
Opening Remarks
Jennifer Kuyrkendall Griffin, Program Chair

8:00 AM – 8:50 AM
Family Law Update
Magistrate Diane Kirigin, 15th Judicial Circuit, Delray Beach

8:50 AM – 9:40 AM
Employment Law Update
Nick Andrews, FordHarrison, Tampa

9:40 AM – 10:30 AM
Real Estate
Patrick Neale, Patrick Neale & Associates, Naples

10:30 AM – 10:45 AM
Break

10:45 AM – 11:35 AM
Elder Law
Collett Small, Slater & Small PLLC, Pembroke Pines

11:35 AM – 12:20 PM
Estate Planning
Amy Fanzlaw, Osborne & Osborne, P.A., Boca Raton

12:20 PM – 01:45 PM
Lunch

01:45 PM – 02:35 PM
Business Law
Clay Roesch, ShuffieldLowman, Orlando

02:35 PM – 03:25 PM
Government Law
Chris Hand, Hand Law, Jacksonville

03:25 PM – 03:35 PM
Break

03:35 PM – 04:25 PM
Traffic
Rick Silverman, Rick Silverman, P.A. Tampa

12–1 PM InReach Zoom by Tim Chinaris, Belmont Law, Nashville, and moderated by Michelle Adams Gumula, Hoyt & Bryan, Oviedo. Course number and Ethics CLE credit pending approval. Registration opens soon.

Keeping abreast of Florida legal ethics requires monitoring rule changes, ethics opinions, case law, and disciplinary actions. In this webinar, Timothy P. Chinaris, law professor, legal ethics lawyer, and former Florida Bar Ethics Director, will help busy lawyers by highlighting ethical developments that may be important to them.  Learn what’s new in conflicts of interest, confidentiality, attorney’s fees, disciplinary sanctions, and more.  This session will also take a peek into the future, especially nonlawyer practice and artificial intelligence.

Tim Chinaris is a Professor of Law at Belmont University College of Law in Nashville, Tennessee, where he teaches courses in legal ethics, torts, insurance law, and other subjects.  Professor Chinaris was Ethics Director of the Florida Bar from 1989-1997, where he ran the popular “ethics hotline” service that answers more than 25,000 calls annually from bar members.

Professor Chinaris holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Florida State University and received his J.D. With Honors from the University of Texas School of Law.  He is admitted to practice law in Florida, Tennessee, Alabama, and Texas.  Professor Chinaris has served on state bar ethics and UPL committees in four states, including chairing both the Florida Bar Professional Ethics Committee and the Committee on Professionalism.  He currently chairs the Tennessee Bar Association Ethics and Professional Responsibility Committee.

Professor Chinaris consults with and represents lawyers and others on professional responsibility issues, including lawyer advertising and bar admission matters.  His legal ethics website is “sunEthics.com.”  He co-authored the authoritative treatise Florida Legal Malpractice and Attorney Ethics (ALM 2017) (with Warren Trazenfeld and Robert Jarvis). He has served as an expert witness in various legal ethics matters, including in the first case decided under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act.

Free Wednesday Wisdom CLE for Solo & Small Firm Section members* by Mark Doble, CEO and founder of Alexsei, a software company that uses AI to produce legal research memos on demand. Moderator:  Judge Jennifer Kuyrkendall Griffin. Course number and Technology CLE credit pending approval. REGISTER

It is commonly noted that “AI is not here to replace lawyers, but lawyers who use AI will replace lawyers who don’t”. AI is being used by solo lawyers and small firms across the USA to help them compete with larger firms, without the need for significant overhead or an army of associates. It can increase their output, while minimizing their non-billable time spent on repetitive tasks like legal research. Mark Doble, will outline some of the benefits of leveraging AI in your practice.

*Registration will be approved when section membership is confirmed.

Mark Doble is the CEO and founder of Alexsei, a software company that uses AI to produce legal research memos on demand. Mark received his J.D. from Queen’s University in Canada, where he split his time between building software and completing the requisite law school readings. During his brief stint in a law firm, Mark became convinced that software would positively impact the legal profession in ways not yet seen due to the rapidly evolving nature of AI, so he quit his job to start Alexsei.

Free Wednesday Wisdom Zoom webinar for Solo & Small Firm Section members* by Don Blackwell, Lake Mary, and Rebecca J. Bandy, Tallahassee, and moderated by Judge Jennifer Kuyrkendall Griffin. Course number and Mental Illness Awareness CLE credit pending approval. *Registration will be approved when section membership is confirmed. REGISTER

A candid and intimate look at some of the mental health challenges confronting our profession, including reflections on a ground-breaking panel discussion highlighting the lived experiences of several highly-accomplished legal professionals, aimed at inspiring attendees of the webinar to be more attentive and responsive to the mental health and wellness of their colleagues and loved ones.

Rebecca J. Bandy serves as the Director of The Florida Bar’s Henry Latimer Center for Professionalism. Read her full bio here.

Don Blackwell is a trial lawyer at Bowman and Brooke, LLP, in Lake Mary. Read his full bio here.

Live Zoom Webinar by Justin Petredis, Petredis Law, Tampa, and moderated by Paige Greenlee, Greenlee Law, Tampa. Course number and CLE credit pending approval. All registrations will have 90-day, on-demand access. Registration opens soon.

DESCRIPTION: Florida Bar Board Certified Criminal Trial Lawyer Justin Petredis will discuss the legal aspects of a DUI including your rights when you are pulled over as well as what is required of you. He will also explain the typical police investigative tactics and several new State Attorney DUI diversion programs.

Justin Petredis was raised in Cleveland, Ohio. He attended Miami (OH) for undergrad and Tulane for law school. Justin moved to Tampa, his wife’s hometown, after graduation and worked as an Assistant State Attorney in the 6th Circuit (Dade City branch) from 2004 until 2012.  In 2012 he opened his own practice where he practices almost exclusively in Criminal law. Justin became Board Certified in Criminal Trial Law in 2013. He handles all types of criminal cases, although approximately half of his practice involves handling 1st-degree homicide cases as conflict counsel for the State of Florida, through the Office of Criminal Conflict and Civil Regional Counsel.  As an Asst. State Attorney and private defense attorney, Justin has handled nearly 100 jury trials, including 8 first-degree homicide cases, of which he prevailed in 4. He has been chair of the Hillsborough County Bar Association Criminal Section for 7+ years, current chair of a Florida Bar Grievance Committee and was recently appointed to the Florida Bar Criminal Procedure Rules Committee.

Free Wednesday Wisdom Zoom webinar for Solo & Small Firm Section members* by Megan Murray, Underwood Murray, P.A., Tampa, and moderated by Judge Jennifer Kuyrkendall Griffin. Course number and CLE credit pending approval. *Registration will be approved when section membership is confirmed. REGISTER

This seminar will provide an introduction to bankruptcy nondischargeability and why it matters in state court. Megan Murray will discuss the framework surrounding nondischargeability and relevant bankruptcy laws, how to identify nondischargeable debts early in a case, how to manage the risks of a judgment debtor filing bankruptcy, and eliminating a judgment through the bankruptcy process. Judgment creditors who do not consider dischargeability in state court risk losing their judgment in bankruptcy if the debt is of a kind that may be subject to nondischargeability. Careful advance consideration is key.

Megan Murray, a founding shareholder of Underwood Murray, has over twenty years of reorganization and workout experience advising individuals, business owners, debtors, trustees, creditors’ committees, secured and unsecured creditors, and asset purchasers and sellers.  She has experience both on the legal side and on the business side in a global financial institution.  She counsels individuals and businesses and owners in a wide variety of disputes and industries including but not limited to real estate, hospitality, pharmaceutical, medical services, construction, insurance, transportation, logistics, aviation, and financial services.

In addition to her broad range of representations in core bankruptcy matters, Ms. Murray counsels her clients in making critical business decisions, while prosecuting and defending complex business disputes.  She has been involved in director and officer liability litigation, bondholder disputes, shareholder and partnership disputes, court-appointed receiverships, assignment proceedings, recovery of large and small business assets, and lien priority disputes related to a variety of collateral including real property, equipment, aircraft and logistics-related assets.

Live Zoom webinar by Sia Baker-Barnes, Searcy Denney, West Palm Beach, and moderated by Rebekah S. Taylor, The Florida Bar Young Lawyers Division Liaison to the Solo & Small Firm Section, Snedaker Law, Lake Mary. Course number and Ethics CLE credit pending approval. Registration opens soon.

Join Florida Bar Board of Governors member and Florida Bar Board-Certified Civil Trial Lawyer Sia Baker-Barnes as she shares examples of ethical pitfalls that have trapped the unwary. Also highlighted will be ways for lawyers to avoid the disciplinary system.

Rosalyn “Sia” Baker-Barnes is a Shareholder at Searcy Denney Scarola Barnhart & Shipley, P.A., and the Chairperson of the firm’s Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Committee. Ms. Baker-Barnes is Board-Certified in Civil Trial Law by the Florida Bar, and is recognized by US News & World Report as one of the “Best Lawyers in America,” by Lawdragon as one of America’s “500 Leading Plaintiff Consumer Lawyers,” by Florida Super Lawyers magazine as a top lawyer in the state, by Florida Trend magazine as a “Legal Elite,” and by the Daily Business Review as one of South Florida’s Inaugural “Top 20 Women in Law.”

In her over 20-year career, she has successfully pursued justice for victims in personal injury, medical negligence and product liability cases and frequently lectures throughout the United States on catastrophic injury cases. She has achieved numerous multi-million dollar verdicts and settlements, including a landmark $20 million compensatory and punitive damages verdict against tobacco giant RJ Reynolds Tobacco Company that was affirmed by the Florida Supreme Court and reached the United States Supreme Court. Read her bio here.

Save the Date! The 2024 Ethics & Professionalism Update is a can’t-miss program!

Details coming soon.