American College of Bankruptcy Foundation Recognized with Inaugural Access to Justice Pro Bono Award
In a ceremony on May 5, 2017 in Miami, Florida, the Dade Legal Aid - Put Something Back inaugural Access to Justice Pro Bono Award was presented to the American College of Bankruptcy Foundation for its extraordinary leadership and contributions resulting in greater access to justice for those in dire need of free legal assistance.
States Karen Josefsberg Ladis, Executive Director of Dade Legal Aid, "The Foundation has truly answered the call to help disenfranchised members of our community by actively soliciting and awarding financial grants on a nationwide basis to community-based pro bono legal services organizations that offer ongoing recruitment trainings, support pro se clinics and educational programs, and mentoring others to assist individuals in need of Chapter 7 & 13 bankruptcy assistance. Thanks to this dedicated group, which includes local practitioners and judges, tens of thousands of indigent debtors have received the help they so desperately need."
ACB Foundation Chair Mark Bloom, of Greenberg Traurig, was present to accept the award on behalf of the Foundation.
From the Chair
formal fund structure and a revised investment policy. The Board has asked the task force to prepare final recommendations on each of these issues for consideration at the College meetings during the NCBJ in Las Vegas this fall.
Second, the College currently has approximately $800,000 in operating reserves. The task force viewed this amount as an appropriate cushion for future operations. However, the task force also recommended consideration of modification to our existing, highly-conservative, investment model in an effort to seek greater returns on these monies. Final recommendations from the task force on this issue also will be presented and discussed at the October Board meeting
2019 Induction Venue. The other initiative begun after our fall meeting in San Francisco was an effort to consider possible alternative locations for our 2019 Induction. That year, the NCBJ meeting will be held in Washington DC, so it was felt that an alternative location would be worth exploring.
Over the past several months, we have considered Seattle, Washington; Phoenix, Arizona; Austin, Texas; and San Diego, California as alternative induction locations. The issue proves to be more difficult than we first anticipated. For example, our induction timing conflicts with the huge SXSW event in Austin and with spring baseball in Phoenix. Those conflicts make hotel and venue reservations more expensive if not completely unavailable. The Executive Committee will be discussing the 2019 site this month, and we hope you have a Board conclusion in the relatively near future.
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Mark Bloom accepts Access to Justice Pro Bono Award on behalf of the ACB Foundation