Trial Lawyers Section gives $75,000 to support children's legal services lawyer.

The Florida Bar Trial Lawyers Section has approved a $75,000 charitable gift to The Florida Bar Foundation for a Trial Lawyers Children's Legal Services Fellowship.

The section indicated that it might make the gift for one or two additional years.

The gift will support a children's legal services attorney whose position was subject to elimination due to a sharp decline in revenue from Florida's Interest on Trust Accounts program.

"The Trial Lawyers Section recognizes the vital role Foundation-funded children's legal services attorneys play in protecting the rights of low-income children," said Craig Gibbs, chair of the Trial Lawyers Section.

"We were alarmed when we learned of the potential loss of career children's legal services attorneys due to the slump in IOTA revenue, and we wanted to do our part by enabling one of the Foundation's grantees to retain its children's advocate."

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Since the early 1990s, the Foundation has funded special annual grants for legal services to children. The Foundation's priorities for its Children's Legal Services Grant Program include representation of foster-care children and access to special education, medical, developmental, and mental health services that are required under law.

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The Foundation distributed $2.8 million to 23 legal aid programs through its Children's Legal Services Grant Program in 2010 but had to cut those grants by 21 percent in 2011 after low interest rates brought about an 88 percent drop in annual IOTA revenue since 2008. The Foundation used funds from its reserve to prevent even deeper cuts. But with reserve funds running low and interest rates not expected to rise until 2013 or later, the Foundation anticipates that it will have to cut its total children's legal services grant funding to $1.2 million by 2013. This will represent further cuts to the program of 42 percent over three years.

Paul Doyle, director of the Foundation's Legal Assistance for the Poor Grant Program, estimates these additional cuts will result in the loss of 10 to 12 attorneys out of 29 children's advocates at legal aid organizations around Florida. That loss will result in a 40 percent reduction in the number of children being served--750 fewer children than the nearly 1,900 served in 2010.

Maria Henderson, president-elect of the Foundation and chair of its Legal Assistance for the Poor Grant Committee, expressed gratitude on behalf of the Foundation and its...