The Florida Bar and the Florida Supreme Court presented the 2025 Pro Bono Awards on January 16 at the Florida Supreme Court.
“For the court, this is always a heart warming and inspiring event,” said Chief Justice Carlos G. Muñiz, who presented the awards. “As in years past, I want to take this opportunity to encourage every Florida lawyer to consider how he or she can help and to take a broad view of what counts as public service. Pro bono service is not one size fits all. There are innumerable ways to serve and each of us in all the variety of our talents and interests has something to offer.”
He shared that in 2024, Florida attorneys provided 1.7 million hours of free legal services and contributed $11.6 million to legal aid groups.
Each year, one of the awards is the Voluntary Bar Association Pro Bono Award, which recognizes a Florida voluntary bar that has demonstrated significant contributions to the delivery of legal services on a pro bono basis.
This year, the award went to our own Jacksonville Women Lawyers Association (JWLA).
JWLA encourages its members to be involved in pro bono work through Jacksonville Area Legal Aid (JALA) and other local legal aid organizations. In October 2023, JWLA’s luncheon, “Breaking Barriers in Our Community: Pro Bono Roundtable,” emphasized the importance of pro bono work and explored the benefits of pro bono service. At all JWLA luncheons, pro bono opportunities are promoted on each dining table.
Since 2018, JWLA has sponsored a paid summer internship program with JALA. Known as the Kathy Para Student Internship Fund, JWLA seeks to promote access to justice, provide substantive legal experience for JWLA’s student membership, and foster a lifelong dedication to pro bono work.
In 2023, JWLA members helped staff a legal aid “Lunch and Learn” series at the Northeast Florida Women Veterans Center. Members have also staffed several wills and advance directive clinics at this center, as well as at various senior citizen centers throughout Jacksonville.
JWLA President Brittany R. Ford accepted the award on behalf of the organization.
“For the last 43 years, JWLA has worked tirelessly toward its twin goals of gender equality and access to justice,” she said. “Encouraging and supporting pro bono work serves both. It provides ample career development opportunities for those who need it including young lawyers, lawyers looking to change their field of practice or lawyers reentering the profession after an absence such as female attorneys who stepped away to raise their families. But most importantly, it allows those who would be unable due to financial concerns to vindicate and protect their legal rights.
“Quite simply, it fills the need that our community would not be able to meet without the efforts of local pro bono and legal aid organizations and the attorneys who work with them. And our friends and partners at Jacksonville Area Legal Aid and Three Rivers Legal Services do it so well. It is one of JWLA’s greatest pleasures to do what we can to support and assist those efforts in our community.
“I am deeply honored and humbled that JWLA receives this award during my tenure as president. And, while I will 100% be keeping this award in my office (laughter), this is not my accomplishment alone. It rests on the shoulders of every JWLA member who joins and participates, on every board member who serves and donates their time, and especially on every past president who came before me – from our Founder Barbara McGriff to our Immediate Past-President Kimberly Woods.
“Many of my present and past board members are in the room today, including Sarah Morris, Alice Morris, Cyndy Trimmer and Kim Woods. It is through their efforts that we have been able to celebrate civility, forge forward, grow together and break barriers in our community for 43 years. So, on behalf of all of them and on behalf of JWLA, I would like to thank Chief Justice Muñiz and his advisory committee for honoring us with this award and our nominators, Aaron Irving, Kathy Para and Missy Davenport, for believing us worthy of it.
Looking ahead, JWLA isn’t slowing down. For the 2024-2025 membership year, JWLA is planning two JWLA-sponsored volunteer opportunities. It also seeks to make volunteer opportunities more available to members by including a pro bono opportunities page on the JWLA website.
For more information about how to get involved, visit jwla.org.
