Dear Appellate Practice Section Members,

As the Florida Bar heads into its Fall Schedule, I’ve got several updates of interest to our members:

APS Fall Meeting Cancelled: Dorian came and went, sparing our state the brunt of its gray clouds. Unfortunately, the too-close-to-call storm caused the cancelation of the DCA Judicial Education Conference, and with it, our APS Fall Meeting. Your Executive Committee investigated several options for a replacement meeting on or around the Florida Bar Mid-year meeting, but the timing of the DCA Conference cancellation proved too close to that meeting to allow us to obtain meeting space, and other options had logistical challenges that outweighed the usefulness of an interim meeting prior to the Florida Bar Winter Meeting. So — please make plans to come to that meeting, since it will need to serve as our only official gathering prior to the Annual Meeting in June of 2020! Thanks to all for the patience, especially those who had put in work on the reception or educational components of the DCA Judicial Conference that Dorian blew away.

DCA Educational Conference 2021: Worry not — the plans made for this year will all be preserved and uncorked, just two years hence. Judge Ciklin has already confirmed that the plans for a 2021 redo are in the works, and that our Section will be invited to re-join, this time with no invitation to literary-named storms of any sort!

APS Retreat 2020: Don’t want to wait till 2021 to get away, APS-style? Worry not, 2.0 — the Retreat committee is finalizing plans to get us a welcome getaway/planning session and I can tell you when it will be so you can put it on the books: September 24-27, 2020. It will be somewhere on the water, and somewhere fun, so please reserve the dates and plan to retreat with your favorite Section!

APS Practicing Before the Fifth DCA Seminar: Don’t want to wait until 2020 to see many of your fellow APS’ers, along with nearly every Judge from the Fifth DCA? Then SIGN UP NOW for this amazing seminar, coming to Orlando November 8, 2019. Thanks to Chris Carlyle, Kansas Gooden, and the CLE Committee for getting this seminar together, hope to see many of you there!

Interconnectivity: In this instance, that’s my code word for supporting your fellow APS members! You’ll recall perhaps my mentioning in my meeting ending discussion that we can help recognize each other so as to rival and surpass our trial counsel brethren? Here’s the means: Legal Elite just started, their link: FloridaTrend.com/LegalEliteVote20. We have unmatched geographic diversity, allowing you to support your worthy APS-mates near and far, especially perhaps those Committee Chairs and members (Pro-Bono, CLE, Publications, Outreach, etc.) that do so much work for our Section and deserve any extra accolades we can help them with. Go APS!

Interconnectivity II: I’ve heard lots of great things from our other committees and regret no fall meeting to allow us to share them all with each other. If you or your APS committee have any news you want to get out there, please email me so we can harness the power of your Section to help you get the word out!

Thanks all for allowing me to serve in this exciting, even if meteorologically challenging year! I hope to see everyone at the Winter Meeting if not at the Fifth DCA Seminar.

Nick A. Shannin, Chair

Nicholas A. Shannin, Chair
Appellate Practice Section
nshannin@shanninlaw.com