Annual Meeting of The Florida Bar

I spent most of last week in Orlando at the Annual Meeting of The Florida Bar. I spent four full days attending committee meetings and a seminar. Here are some of the "empathy sightings":

Legal Needs of Children:

A little background: The Florida Bar committees addressing children's needs are consistently motivated, driven, by empathy - empathy in action. There are three such committees in which I have participated. The Family Law Section of the Bar has a committee working to help dependent children and children in need of adoption. Other children's needs are addressed in the Children's Issues Committee, of which I am a member. The Public Interest Law Section of the Bar has a Legal Needs of Children Committee. It does not limit which children it helps. A larger version of that committee is Legal Needs of Children Standing Committee of the entire Florida Bar.

On Thursday, June 28th, I sat in on the Florida Bar's standing committee meeting; my term as a member begins at the September meeting. There must have been about forty people there, most of whom work in social or legal services for children. There is no requirement that anyone participate in Bar committees, so the strong attendance that I saw speaks well for the attendees' commitment to the issues addressed, i.e., the welfare of children. Most of the attention was on children in the dependency division of the court, abused or neglected children.

Animal Law Committee: Yes George, there is a committee of The Florida Bar devoted to all issues related to animals. I attended the committee meeting as well as the seminar that the committee presented. It was quite an eye-opener to hear about the problems that disabled people have regarding service animals and emotional support animals.

Domestic Violence: Preventing and protecting against domestic violence is a daunting assignment. The committee works on steadily and is always an interesting meeting.

There was much more for me at the meetings; glad I went.

Articles of Incorporation Filed

It's official, The Empathy Federation, Inc. is a non-profit corporation registered in the State of Florida. Soon we will have our first meeting of the board of directors.

Incorporation and Initial Board of Directors

It's been a good day, an exciting day, as we proceed to make this non-profit organization a reality. We are filing the Articles of Incorporation for The Empathy Federation, Inc. Also, today one more person agreed to be a member of the initial board of directors. She is an attorney with diverse experience, bright insight, and a strong moral fiber; I know she will have an important impact on the direction and effectiveness of the Federation.

Today's problems cannot be solved if we still think the way we thought when we created them.

Albert Einstein

The Empathy Federation, a non-profit organization, is based on a vision of a better world through empathy education. The advancement of empathy education will create an environment that can change the world for the better. Empathy: that's what drives philanthropy, and it's empathy that will reverse animal abuse, school bullying, juvenile delinquency, crime, racism, terrorism etc. and spread the universal understanding called empathy can bring personal and social awareness and fulfillment.

Our mission is to establish a federation for organizations committed to the development and promotion of empathy education.