Last Monday, Ramon Abadin, president of The Florida Bar, and President-elect Bill Schifino visited Florida Coastal School of Law as part of their town hall series to build strong connections with students.
During the meeting, students and the Coastal Law community had the opportunity to hear Abadin’s vision for The Florida Bar.
Afterward, he, Schifino and Katherine Hurst-Miller, president-elect of the Young Lawyers Division, fielded questions from the audience on topics ranging from how to set up a firm to trends in legal specialization.
Abadin visited several Florida law schools during his first six months in office. He says his mission for holding these events is simple: To make the connections between students, The Florida Bar and legal education stronger.
“I want to engage the young lawyers, to learn their concerns, apprehensions, and issues,” he said. “With these town hall meetings, we are carrying on what Eugene Pettis and Gregory Coleman started and after I leave office Bill (Schifino) will continue. At one point, (we hope) they will all become members of The Florida Bar and I want them to get to know who we are and have a greater understanding of what we do.”
Amanda Lynch, a 3L and member of the Student Division within The Florida Bar, agrees with the mission of the town halls.
“Their visit brought an enormous amount of knowledge to the table with regards to current, important topics in the profession. Their insight and suggestions are paramount to keeping up with changes in the legal field,” she said.
Abadin and Schifino stressed the structure of the system (legal education) as a whole is in transit and it is important for people to take note.
Both said they were pleased with what Florida Coastal is doing in regard to its practical training and skills programs, which recently receiving an A+ in experiential learning from the National Jurist Magazine.
“I like it,” Abadin said. “I like their model of external training and want to see more programs like it. I also feel their commitment to diversity in legal education is one that should be commended.”