Committees of The Florida bar.

• Position: Annual Reports

Admiralty

Over the 2005-2006 year, the leadership developed and presented several seminars on advanced admiralty law for committee members. These seminars enabled those attending to obtain continuing legal education admiralty certification credits. At the September meeting, Matthew Valcourt reviewed the facts, law, and status of Rings v. Chatham County, Georgia, then under 11th Circuit appellate review. The appellant was later granted certiorari review by the 11th Circuit, currently pending. Jacob Munch presented an update on admiralty case law, and Joanne Foster reviewed the June SEALI case law update on "Hurricanes--Weathering the Storm." At the January meeting, Barbara Cook presented 2005 federal cases of interest in admiralty, including the developing progeny of Stewart v. Dutra, 543 U.S. 481 (2005). Ms. Foster discussed maritime lien law applied to environmental damage for a vessel on the hard. John Thomas enlightened the group on "Yacht Charter and the Yacht Time Share Business." At both meetings, Michael McLeod reported on his subcommittee proposal for uniformity of local rules among the Florida districts. Anyone interested in helping with that effort should contact him at mmcleod@seidenlaw.com.

The committee's most significant 2005-06 accomplishment was the development of Admiralty Law 2006 for presentation in Ft. Lauderdale on April 27. This is an intermediate level seminar produced by program chair, Stephen Moon, and steering committee members Kenneth Gale Hawkes, John W. Keller III, Demetrios C. Kirkiles, Jeffrey J. Munch, Alan S. Richard, John H. Thomas, Roger A. Vaughan, and Rebecca Watford. The program was awarded 7.0 admiralty and maritime CLE attendance credits. The committee is to be congratulated for its hard work and determination.

Thanks to Demetrios C. Kirkiles, the committee now has an e-mail list of all members which permits direct communication on various issues and upcoming events and rapid response. Demetrios is the gatekeeper of the list and may be contacted at dkirkiles@bellsouth.net.

Through its chair, the membership made a proposal of three educational seminars to the President's Showcase for the 2006 Florida Bar Annual Meeting. Unfortunately, none were selected. Matthew Valcourt also made a presentation to the Palm Beach County Bar Association on Maritime Security and Recent Legislation, Maritime Transportation Security Act.

BARBARA K. COOK, Chair

Advertising

The Standing Committee on Advertising is responsible for advising members of The Florida Bar on permissible advertising and marketing practices. The committee, which meets monthly, reviews appeals of opinions issued by staff counsel, offers guidance to staff in evaluating lawyer advertisements, makes recommendations regarding rule changes, and provides guidance to Bar members concerning both the substantive and procedural requirements of the advertising rules.

The committee advises on the substance of the advertising rules through a variety of different methods. An in-depth analysis of the filing requirements, substantive regulations, and committee interpretations are provided by the committee's Handbook on Lawyer Advertising and Solicitation (6th ed., 2004), which is regularly updated by Bar staff and is posted on the Bar's Web site for easy access. The handbook has been updated by Bar staff with the input of the committee to reflect recent amendments per Rules Regulating The Florida Bar--Amendments, 875 So. 2d 448 (Fla. 2004).

The committee, through its staff, continues to publish a column in The Florida Bar News from time to time, titled "Advertising Updates." Articles have explained the most recent revisions to the advertising rules and provided information regarding recent opinions of the Board of Governors and the committee regarding advertising. The committee further updates the Bar's Web site with new material and information when needed in order to provide as much information as possible to assist members in compliance with the attorney advertising rules.

The committee has been active in assisting other Bar committees this year and continues to serve in an advisory capacity to the statewide grievance committee on lawyer advertising, assisting the grievance committee in understanding the advertising rules and the advertising review process. Three members of the committee, Shane Munoz, John Bales, and John Remsen, also participated in the Bar's recent Advertising Task Force 2004, which made a number of recommendations for rule changes to benefit Bar members, resulting in filing some proposed new advertising rules and proposed revisions to existing rules with the Florida Supreme Court in December 2005. These rules, if approved by the Florida Supreme Court, propose, among other things, to eliminate the requirement for the hiring disclosure in print ads and to eliminate the size requirement for disclosures in advertisements. The proposed changes seek to make the Bar's advertising rules easier to understand and to follow.

By far the most time consuming task of the committee this year, as in past years, has been reviewing advertisements filed by members of The Florida Bar to determine whether they comply with the advertising rules. The committee reviews decisions of its staff regarding lawyer advertisements if the staff's interpretation of a particular rule or advertisement is appealed by an advertising attorney. Advertisers can appeal decisions of the committee to the Board of Governors if they wish to do so. The committee also provides guidance to its staff and advertisers, pursuant to requests, to foster compliance with the rules and to permit advertisers to accomplish their legitimate advertising goals. Due to the increased volume and complexity of advertising appeals this year, the committee increased the duration of its monthly meetings and scheduled at least two additional special meetings to accommodate appeals filed this year. The committee works hard to apply the advertising rules fairly to all types of advertisements and to balance the rights of advertisers with the needs and concerns of the public.

The committee has also provided advice and information as requested by the Bar's Attorney Web site Task Force, which is considering issues regarding attorney Web sites and whether they should be subject to the Bar's advertising review.

The Standing Committee on Advertising is made up of nonlawyers as well as lawyers. We believe that this has contributed substantially to our work and our broad perspective on advertising and marketing. I would like to thank each of our committee members, John Bales, Shane Munoz, John Remsen, Dr. Merlin Langley, Renee Gorman, and Sharon Barnett for their tremendous contribution.

Finally, the committee thanks our board liaison, Dominic Caparello, who has been an active participant in our work this year, DEUP Division Director Mary Ellen Bateman, and our hardworking staff headed by ethics counsel, Elizabeth Tarbert. Without the participation and hard work of these individuals, the business of this committee could not be accomplished.

HALLEY B. LEWIS III, Chair

Animal Law

The Animal Law Committee, the newest of the Bar's substantive law committees, is in its second full year. After provisional approval by the Program Evaluation Committee in late 2004, the committee was granted permanent status the following summer by a large majority of the PEC.

The committee recognized that its subcommittee structure from the provisional year no longer fit its status as a permanent committee and so reorganized in mid-2005, paring down from five subcommittees to two. Currently the two standing subcommittees are education and community involvement, respectively chaired by Sandra Wolkov and Heather Velenau.

The current membership is 78 and comprises attorneys from all disciplines of law in all areas of the state. The January 20 meeting had an attendance of 17. A comprehensive full-day CLE program will be offered to the membership of the Bar at its annual convention in Orlando this month. All potential attendees could not be accommodated due to space limitations, and the committee takes this as recognition that there is a strong interest in this growing field of substantive law among practicing Florida attorneys. A second full-day symposium is currently planned for the 2006 annual meeting with criminal and civil areas among the topic offerings. Subcommittee Chair Sandra Wolkov has once again put together a lively, informative educational program and has worked tirelessly to coordinate this offering.

The committee, wishing to capitalize on what we perceive to be a very significant interest by the Bar membership, is interested in sponsoring smaller-scale CLE presentations on focused topics in animal law in several venues throughout the state, but has been limited by budgetary restraints. We are exploring methods to overcome these constraints, since education of Florida attorneys on the current state of animal law in Florida and developing trends throughout the nation has been identified by the committee as a main focus.

The membership has expressed a desire to create an award to recognize one individual each year who has done an outstanding job to raise awareness regarding animal law issues or furthered the growth of animal law in Florida. Members of the Community Involvement Subcommittee are in the process of developing criteria for nomination, a voting process, and a timetable for announcing and making the award (likely in conjunction with the annual convention). The exact nature of the award itself is under consideration by this subcommittee, as is the exact title of the award with several under active consideration.

Phyllis Coleman, a member since inception and professor of law at Nova Shepard Broad Law Center, taught the first animal law course at that facility during the winter of 2005. This mirrors the growth of animal law course offerings at many law schools both within Florida and...