Bills have been introduced in the both the Florida House and Senate known as “The “Dorothy L. Hukill Financial Literacy Act” (SB 1054 Financial Literacy Instruction in Public Schools, and HB 1115: High School Graduation Requirements in Personal Finance). The bills, although not exactly the same, are very similar. The proposed legislation would mandate a one-half credit of instruction in personal financial literacy and money management for all students. 

The Senate bill was recently referred to the Senate Education and Senate Rules Committees. BLS MEMBERS, WE NEED YOUR HELP!! We ask that you write to each of the senators on these committees to express our support for the legislation. Our Task Force has made it easy for you to help in this endeavor. We have drafted a sample letter in MS Word, and posted it in the BLS Financial Literacy Task Force webpage, which you can find here. We have also posted a list of the members of these committees together with their physical and email addresses of where you would need to send each letter.

All you have to do is download the sample letter, modify it to your writing style if you so choose, address it to each of the senators, print the letters on your letterhead, and just sign and mail (and/or email) them. THAT’S IT! IT IS AS SIMPLE AS THAT! 

THANK YOU FOR YOUR HELP!

Carlos E. Sardi

Chair, Financial Literacy Task Force

The Office of Financial Regulation invites you to join us for a Legislative Update meeting on Tuesday, January 18, 2022, at 1:30 p.m. EST. We will provide information on the progress on the OFR's legislative efforts to stimulate the formation of a capital funding ecosystem - HB 779/ SB 1880

You may read more about the bill, submit your feedback, and view the industry comments we have received by visiting our securities initiative webpage. You can also contact our office at (850) 410-9601or feedback@flofr.gov.

BBASDFL invites BLS members to attend a Chapter 11 Workshop presented by Judge Williamson. This is the first of a three part series.

Last year, in response to the Section's Diversity & Inclusion CLE Speaker Panel Policy, the Florida Supreme Court, sua sponte, amended the Rules Regulating the Florida Bar to preclude continuing legal education credit for "any course submitted by a sponsor, including a section of the Florida Bar, that uses quotas based on race, ethnicity, gender, religion, national origin, disability, or sexual orientation in the selection of course faculty or participants." This Section, along with many other organizations and individuals, submitted a Comment in response to the Court's amendment. The vast majority of the comments asked the Court to reconsider the amendment. The Court denied oral argument. On December 16, 2021, the Court issued its Opinion in response to the Comments, making two minor changes to the rule effective January 1, 2022, but rejecting the substantive arguments asserted by commenters. Justice Labarga dissented from the Opinion, citing many of the arguments raised by the Section. The Section is disappointed at this outcome although perhaps not surprised. This decision will no doubt be the subject of conversation during the IMF Committee Meeting at our Mid-Year meeting at 1:00 pm on January 26th. If you would like to be part of that conversation, please register to attend the meeting via Zoom 

Miss an issue? Need to look something up? The compilation of all of the 2021 case updates can be found here.

All members are welcome. Time is running out to register.

Pre-Trip(Dig deeper in the culture): March 12-15, 2022

Main Trip(Discovering Dublin, Belfast, & Beyond): March 15-20, 2022

Post-Trip(Ireland's West Coast): March 20-23, 2022

In keeping with our mission to make everyone’s lives easier and more efficient, Michael Moecker and Associates, in conjunction with the Business Law Section of the Florida Bar, is excited to roll out the Helpful Links page. As we previewed at the Labor Day Retreat, the page has many of the links everyone uses on a frequent basis. The current page has the most recent versions of the US Bankruptcy Code, federal rules of procedure, Florida Statute 727 – ABC’s, local rules for all districts in Florida, UCRERA, the UCC, corporation statutes, and other helpful links. 

The page is on the BLS website and can be found at the following link https://flabizlaw.org/library/helpful-links/. To bookmark the page on your desktop, phone, or tablet, follow these instructions. The page will be reviewed periodically for updates, so please do not hesitate to contact me at Mhealy@moecker.com if you have any suggestions. 

Thank you,

Michael Moecker and Associates