As we begin what must be the most unusual of Bar years I am excited to serve as your Chair.  First, I would like to thank the immediate Past Chair, Judge Brian A. Newman for his leadership and service.  In addition to his responsibilities as the Chair, Brian continued the development of the DOAH trial academy, which I believe will become a signature program for the Section.  I would also like to thank the members of the Executive Council with terms expiring in 2020, Paul Drake; Francine M. Ffolkes; Tara Price; Gigi Rollini; and Collin Roopnarine for their service to the Section.  Many thanks must be extended to the ALS Ad Hoc Uniform Rules of Procedure Committee for its tireless devotion and multiple meetings.  The Committee, chaired by Larry Sellers with Paul Drake serving as reporter, also included Seann Frazier, Shaw Stiller, and Administrative Law Judges Yolonda Green, Elizabeth McArthur, Lisa Nelson, and David Watkins.

Having served as the Chair of the ALS CLE Committee since 2013, I have stepped aside and appointed Brittany Adams Long as the new Chair.  She has also agreed to serve as the Section’s representative at The Florida Bar CLE Committee.  The COVID 19 crisis has significantly impacted on our 2020 CLE presentations.  The Advanced Topics Seminar has been delayed until November.  Hopefully, we can move forward with a live presentation at that time.  After careful consideration and previous postponements, the Steering Committee of the Pat Dore program has decided to convert that program into a webinar series that will be presented as soon as possible.  The Long Range Planning Committee meeting was postponed. We are now planning to conduct that meeting via Zoom or similar technology platform.  The date will be announced shortly.

Over the past several years the Section has created several programs in an attempt to grow the Section membership and open it up to wider active participation.  The Administrative Outreach Program in Tallahassee and Young Lawyers Division have been very successful.  There are many to thank for the success, but I believe Tabitha Jackson should be recognized.  The South Florida chapter of the Administrative Law Section has developed quickly under the leadership of Sharlee Edwards and others.  During this year, I hope to begin the development of a central Florida chapter.  Katherine McGinnis has agreed to assist me in organizing the central Florida chapter.  Regrettably, our plans have been delayed as we would like to include some type of live mixer to begin this program.

As many of you are aware, I am also a member of the State and Federal Government and Administrative Practice Certification Committee.  The Certification Committee has been very responsive to the desire of the Administrative Law Section to address the certification and examination requirements in an attempt to grow the number of certified attorneys.  Judge Gar Chisenhall has been a tireless advocate for this plan.  Significant progress has been made.  The Certification Committee has already revised the content of the examination to place increased emphasis on Florida practice over Federal practice.  The examination is now 80% Florida practice based, and there are no Federal essay questions currently.  The Certification Committee is also moving forward with a plan to revise the standards for qualifying to sit for the examination and to rename the certification itself, possibly to Florida Government and Administrative Law Certified.  These changes require amendments to the standards for Board certification which must be approved by the Board of Legal Specialization and Education and ultimately the Board of Governors.  The rule changes have been drafted and submitted to a meeting of the BLSE.  This resulted in some additional revisions and inquiries to other sections.  The SFGAP Certification Committee is hopeful that this process will move forward during 2020 to completion.  The Section has also focused continuing education programs on exam preparation and is working on a project to provide study materials via links on the Section’s website.  Many thanks to Angela Morrison, Gregg Morton, Megan Silver, and Judge Chisenhall for rounding up study materials and shepherding this project.

In conclusion, your Section needs your active participation, perhaps now more than ever.  Many significant projects have been initiated to expand the activities of the Section in an attempt to grow our membership. I would also like to thank those of you who volunteered to serve on the committees of the Section. A posting of committee membership rosters is available on our website.  Please reach out to the other members of your committee and develop plans to further our primary goal of increased membership and service.  Thank you for the opportunity to serve as your Chair.

Bruce D. Lamb