Athbhliain faoi mhaise duit! No, my fingers were not “off” on my keyboard. This is Happy New Year in Gaelic. I do indeed hope that this is a great year for all Section members and the Section as a whole. Unfortunately, Omicron is putting a damper on several of our events in the next couple of months, but the Section’s work continues on. Our Executive Committee has met and decided, like the Big Bar, to “go virtual” with the Mid-Year meetings on January 26-27. We already had the meetings set up for hybrid attendance, so the zoom registration links that have been posted will still be used. Other zoom invitations will be added to the schedule soon. If you have already purchased a ticket for the Judicial Liaison dinner or the Section lunch, those purchases will be refunded.
After much discussion, the Bankruptcy/UCC Committee’s popular View from the Bench program, scheduled for January 20th in Tampa and January 21st in Miami is being rescheduled for the spring (April or May). As soon as those dates are firmed up, we will let people know.
Given the national draw of The Federal Securities Institute and the uncertainty of the Omicron peak in other states, the decision has been made to postpone this event until next year.
COVID has not stopped the Florida Legislature though. Our Legislation Committee and our consultants Aimee Diaz-Lyon and Greg Bell are working hard advancing the Section’s legislative positions and priorities as the Florida Legislature begins its session next week.
Finally, one perk of being the Chair of the Section is that the Chair gets to plan the Spring Retreat. This year, the Section will be traveling to Ireland, including Northern Ireland. We are optimistic, based on other countries’ experience with Omicron, that this trip will go forward. The information regarding the registration for the trip can be found here. On this trip we will have access to opportunities that you could never schedule on your own. It will be a great trip and I hope that many of you will be able to join us. Please register as soon as possible so that we can firm up our logistics. Sláinte!