Dear Appellate Practice Section Members,
Welcome to the 2026-2027 Bar year! It is a privilege to write to you as Chair this year, and an even greater one to do so as a member of a community I have admired since my earliest days at as a member of The Florida Bar.
Our Appellate Bar has always been a small world in the best sense—a place where you come to know your adversaries by their writing, your mentors by their generosity, and your colleagues by the quiet camaraderie that survives even the most hard-fought argument. Those connections are the inheritance this Section hands down to each new generation of practitioners. They are why so many of us feel, even when we practice alone or in small shops, that we are never really practicing alone at all.
This year, I want us to build on that inheritance. Immediate Past-Chair Joe Eagleton got us started with his “Year of Connections.” Connection is where we start; it is not where we should stop. My hope for the months ahead is that we move, deliberately and together, from connection to collaboration—from knowing one another to working alongside one another in ways that make each of us better at the craft.
What does that look like in practice? It looks like a mentorship culture that pairs seasoned advocates with newer ones, so that the lessons of a career are not lost but passed forward. It looks like pro bono efforts that draw on our collective expertise to serve the litigants who cannot serve themselves. It looks like CLE programming built not only to inform but to convene—to put practitioners in the same room (or on the same Zoom), trade approaches, and sharpen each other’s thinking. And it looks like deepening the partnership between our appellate practitioners and the trial bar, because the best appellate work begins long before the notice of appeal is filed.
Need some more concrete ideas and opportunities to collaborate?
• Take a pro bono appeal. Due to the dedication of our Pro Bono Committee Chairs, Jamie Moses and Bailey Howard, our Pro Bono Committee is thriving and expanding. And they’ve made it easy to help out through the Guardian Ad Litem Program and the other programs seeking the skills of our APS members.
• Write something. Our Publications Committee chair Sarah Roberge and Record chair Eleanor Sills are always there if you want to expand your writing from briefs to articles. Check out the Journal article topic bank or pitch your own topic, write a judicial profile or a “conflict certified” feature for The Record, or contact Keith Upson if you want to help out with our signature give back program—the Pro Se Handbook.
• Advocate to a new audience. Advocacy Chairs Diane DeWolf and Dan Nordby are solidifying our Section’s commitment to every appellate court in Florida having its own courthouse. Join their efforts.
• Present a CLE. Our CLE Chairs, Allen Bonner and Garrett Tozier, have a lot of programming in the mix already, but we can always find a way to do one more program. Let them know if you have a CLE ready to go or just an idea for one.
• Promote our social media efforts. Whether you are on our Communications Committee or just want to be in the know, check out the work of Dineen Wasylik, Dimitri Peteves, and Lara Breslow on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn—You’re likes are always welcome, too. And don’t forget to take a look at our Section website.
• Meet with new members and judges. Outreach Chair Ali Preston and Vice Chair Evan Dix could use some help and attendances at the committee’s popular initiatives, including the Table of Authorities, virtual trivia nights, the board certification town hall.
• Help out with planning the dessert reception, Section retreats, and more. Programs Chair Alyssa Cory and the committee are placing the finishing touches on our October 2026 retreat to Boston and starting to plan next year’s dessert reception. They’d love your help.
• Attend the Boston Retreat. From October 1-4, the Section will be travelling to Boston to see the sites, soak up some history, and engage in some bonding.
• Speaking of History, help to preserve ours. Give a shout out to Section Historian Kim Berman to see how you can help build up our archives.
None of this happens from the top down. A Section is only as collaborative as its members choose to be. So this is also an invitation. Join a committee. Volunteer to write or to speak. Reach out to a younger lawyer who reminds you of yourself a decade ago, or to a more experienced one whose brief you admired. The infrastructure for collaboration already exists in this Section; what gives it life is your willingness to participate.
I am grateful to the leaders who came before me and to the volunteers whose work makes everything we do possible. I am grateful, too, for the chance to serve you this year. And I am grateful for your officer team, Chair-Elect Mary Walter, Treasurer Chance Lyman, Secretary Brandon Breslow, and Bar administrator Amy Walker. I do not take the helm of this great Section lightly, and I welcome your ideas, your candor, and your involvement at every turn. My door—and my inbox—are open.
Thank you for your support of the Section and for sharing your ideas. Here’s to a year of turning the connections we have built into the collaboration our appellate practice deserves.
