Leadership Academy.

• Author: Visone, Anthony J.
• Position: Annual Reports of Committees of the Florida Bar: 2018-2019

The Wm. Reece Smith, Jr., Leadership Academy (LA) will graduate its sixth class during the 2019 Florida Bar Annual Convention. Class VI is comprised of 30 exceptional lawyers from Gainesville to Miami, practicing law as solo practitioners, government lawyers, public interest lawyers, associates, and partners in law firms throughout Florida. The Leadership Academy Committee (LAC) is similarly populated with 48 lawyers and four judges and is charged with administering the Leadership Academy. For the first time since its inception, the LAC is co-chaired by two of its alumni, John Howe (Class I) and Anthony Visone (Class II).

In March, the LAC held its annual selection meeting and selected another 30 exceptional lawyers for Class VII and six potential alternates. Class VII will be composed of a professionally, ethnically, economically, and socially diverse group of lawyers originating from the Florida panhandle to Miami. Class VII's first session will commence immediately following Class VI's graduation at The Florida Bar Annual Convention.

Like previous years, this year's LAC built upon the success of previous years to create a new and enhanced curriculum for Class VI. This year, while continuing to meet the goals of the Program Evaluation Committee (PEC), the LAC co-chairs began the year by reviewing the recommendations from the prior year's PEC Evaluation Report and consulted with the PEC's leadership to discuss several concerns and ideas for improvements in the functioning and effectiveness of the LA moving forward. Particularly, the PEC recommended that an objective of the LA should be to become financially independent from The Florida Bar through its own independent fundraising initiatives. However, concerns arose relating to the LA's fundraising efforts and its ability to maintain control over the funds raised independently, as well as from the absence of a commitment from The Florida Bar to provide base-level funding each year in its budget. To address these concerns, the LAC's co-chairs consulted and worked consistently with PEC Chair-Elect Scott Westheimer and Florida Bar Budget Committee Chair-Elect Renee Thompson during the course of the year. We are happy to report that the concerns of the LAC's leadership have been addressed.

The LAC has undertaken the task of raising additional funds for its programming through the creation of a Fundraising and Budget Subcommittee (FBSC) co-chaired by LAC members Nicholas Johnson and Brittany...