The Florida Bar President's Pro Bono Service Award.
The Florida Bar President's Pro Bono Service Award was established in 1981. Its purpose is twofold: "to further encourage lawyers to volunteer free legal services to the poor by recognizing those who make such public service commitments; and to communicate to the public some sense of the substantial volunteer services provided by Florida lawyers to those who cannot afford legal fees."
This award recognizes individual lawyer service in each of Florida's specific judicial circuits, as well as one Bar member practicing out-of-state.
Joseph D. Lorenz
First Circuit
Pro bono service has been a hallmark of Joseph D. Lorenz throughout his 43-year legal career in Okaloosa County.
In 1998, he received The Florida Bar President's Pro Bono Service Award for the First Judicial Circuit, and almost 20 years later he is being honored again. Notably, said his nominators with Legal Services of North Florida, the body of pro bono work he has engaged in over the last two decades is almost double the amount for which he was first honored.
Lorenz's specialty is marital and family law, and that is reflected in his pro bono work. In one case a few years ago, he provided more than 60 hours of pro bono work in a dissolution of marriage that involved domestic violence and custody of the children. More recently, he has worked on other domestic cases. He has provided his pro bono work directly as well as through Legal Services of North Florida (and through Okaloosa-Walton Legal Aid when that program existed).
Lorenz also has provided service through the Veterans Consortium Pro Bono Program, which delivers appellate services to veterans with disabilities through the federal Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims. He also has volunteered as an attorney for the First Circuit Guardian Ad Litem Program and has worked as an attorney for the state's Child Protection Team, to ensure the safety of children believed to have been abused. In 1994, he was honored by the governor and the Florida Supreme Court for service to the Guardian ad Litem program.
Lorenz was lured to Florida from Pennsylvania in 1966 to study at the University of Miami. He earned his law degree from the University of Florida's Levin College of Law and immediately went into practice in Fort Walton Beach. Over the years, he has been active in his community, serving as an officer with the Jaycees, the Boy Scouts, Child Guardians, Inc., the Chamber of Commerce and First United Methodist Church.
He is a Florida Supreme Court-certified Family and Civic Circuit Mediator, and he has been a mediator in more than 2,000 family cases since 1991--most of them through the court-ordered mediation program at reduced fee levels.
David H. Abrams
Second Circuit
David H. Abrams got a late start in his legal career, receiving his J.D. 10 years after he graduated from college and set off to become a registered professional nurse. He still describes himself as a nurse who practices law, and that personal care shows in his pro bono work.
While still at the City University of New York School of Law, Abrams became involved with Florida State Professor Paolo Annino's Children in Prison project, and he was the lead author on a clemency petition for a young woman who imprisoned for a first offense at age 13.
With his law degree in hand, Abrams worked for the public defender, specializing in juvenile delinquency defense. At the same time, he continued his pro bono efforts and earned the Lone Star Legal Aid Project Award for representing a Texas mother whose child was kidnapped in a custody battle.
Since opening his own office in Tallahassee in 2004, specializing in consumer rights and bankruptcy, Abrams has taken on some challenging pro bono cases.
He represented a transgender student who was expelled from Leon County schools for wearing opposite-gender clothes and further represented the child in delinquency proceedings. He used his nursing background in helping a 26-year-old pregnant woman who was fighting her court-ordered bed rest in a hospital. He spent a holiday weekend doing research and drafting pleadings, and he paid a filing fee for an appeal out of his own pocket. Though the woman had a miscarriage before the case ended, Abrams won the appeal with a holding that pregnant women have rights to privacy and liberty in making medical decisions.
Abrams spent more than 100 hours representing a cognitively impaired child in dependency court and through the child's recent adoption. In a current case, Abrams is helping a former property manager whose homeowners' association has reneged on waiving his HOA fees. His total in that case is 50 pro bono hours and counting.
Abrams also takes on smaller challenges, such as offering area students free lease previews.
He is active in his community, organizing and sponsoring "Saving Homes for the Holidays" for the homeless defense program of Legal Services of North Florida.
Christina "Tina" Nieto Seifert
Third Circuit
When Christina "Tina" Nieto Seifert went into private practice in 2009, after spending most of the first 14 years of her legal career with the State Attorney's Office, legal aid was the big winner.
Seifert immediately signed up with Three Rivers Legal Services as a volunteer, and since then she has provided pro bono assistance to nearly 60 family law clients, spending as much as 60 hours on just one divorce case.
Family law cases always are difficult to place with volunteer attorneys. That's why Seifert, whose solo practice in Lake City concentrates on family and criminal law, is so valuable to Three Rivers. Her pro bono clients often are victims of domestic violence, and they often are facing a crisis in their lives. Seifert's nominators said she is exceptionally patient and understanding of her clients' needs, and the clients in turn become more comfortable and at ease, recognizing that Seifert truly enjoys working with them.
Seifert also regularly volunteers to conduct the Three Rivers Legal Services pro se divorce clinic and has said she'd be happy to volunteer every month.
Outside of her pro bono service, Seifert is active in the legal and local community.
Throughout her career, she has been a role model for newer attorneys in the Third Judicial Circuit. She has been an active member of the Third Judicial Circuit Bar Association, holding every officer position at least once and serving as president twice, most recently in 2014-15. Each December, she organizes the local bar association's toy drive for low-income children, and this year she also organized a food drive for a local food bank. She also has coached Columbia County High School's mock trial team, and she is on the Board of Directors of the Gateway Art Gallery in Lake City
She is a graduate of the Stetson University College of Law.
Laura J. Boeckman
Fourth Circuit
Not only has Laura Boeckman donated hundreds of hours of pro bono service, but she also has been a vocal advocate advancing the availability of civil legal services for low-income people. For more than 15 years, she has demonstrated a commitment to protecting victims from those who engage in deceptive and unfair trade practices.
Two years after receiving her J.D. in 2001 from the Indiana University School of Law in Bloomington, Boeckman joined Jacksonville Area Legal Aid as a staff attorney. In 2005, she joined the faculty of the Florida Coastal School of Law and was the supervising attorney for the school's Consumer Law Clinic. She helped dozens of people through the clinic while providing hundreds of hours of pro bono work on an individual basis, accepting cases from Jacksonville Area Legal Aid, the Federal District Court, and the American Bar Association's Military Pro Bono Project. mostly focusing on consumer disputes.
Just as important as Boeckman's pro bono case representation has been her leadership as a mentor, guide and expert for other pro bono attorneys and legal services staff.
Boeckman has developed and presented topics such as "Litigating Garnishment Exemptions" and "Professionalism and the Pro Bono Client" for training pro bono attorneys across the state. She was one of the first coaches for the Fourth Circuit's Bankruptcy Pro Bono Practice Groups, which helped clear a backlog of cases and foster a new group of dedicated pro bono attorneys.
Now, as the North Florida Bureau Chief in the Consumer Protection Division of the Attorney General's Office, Boeckman still participates in pro bono efforts. For example, as the current president of the Jacksonville Chapter of the Federal Bar Association, she has supported participation of members in the Legal Information Program, in which federal practice pro bono attorneys work with legal services staff attorneys to guide pro se litigants. The pilot program was so successful that it is being expanded to Tampa and Orlando.
Boeckman also is co-chair of the Pro Bono Committee of the Jacksonville Bar Association, has made presentations on small-claims court and bankruptcy issues, and has spoken to clients of Habitat for Humanity about their rights as consumers.
Samuel Pennington
Fifth Circuit
Samuel Pennington's road to the legal profession had several twists and turns.
After graduating from Titusville High School, he enlisted in the U.S. Navy and was honorably discharged in 1970. He then went to college and graduated from the Cumberland School of Law at Samford University in 1979.
Pennington didn't get around to taking The Florida Bar exam until 1988, instead working for several years with Christian Prison Ministries. But since the mid-1990s, he has limited his practice to the area of bankruptcy law. He also has kept a focus on helping people in need through pro bono legal services.
In 1996, Pennington was recognized for his extraordinary pro bono services by the Greater Orlando Legal Services and the Lake County Bar Association. And in 2015, he was named the Lake County...
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