I was honored, but more so, humbled to have been awarded the Palm Beach County Bar Association’s 2015 Judge Edward Rodgers Diversity Award last Friday at the annual Bench Bar Conference. I also congratulate my good friend, Adam Rabin, for having been awarded the Bar’s Sid Stubbs Professionalism Award. It was well deserved. Also congratulations and many thanks go to Bench Bar Co-Chairs Rebecca Vargas and Larry Rochefort for presenting another well-planned Bench Bar Conference. I was most thrilled that my mother, Rose Howe, was able to attend.
Considering its namesake, I could not be more honored to be the recipient of this year’s Diversity Award. I especially thank the Co-Chairs of the Bar’s Committee for Diversity and Inclusion (“CDI”), Kalinthia Dillard and Julia Wyda, and all of the members of the CDI. The work of CDI is extremely important and is as necessary now as at any other time in our Bar’s and country’s history. Issues of diversity and race are difficult to discuss and most people seek to avoid addressing them. Yet, the CDI takes on these issues year in and year out. Our Bar’s CDI has become a beacon of leadership and a model of success across the state, since its reformation in 2007. This is why it was so crucial that the Bar leadership at that time took the courageous act of making the CDI its only permanent standing committee.
Thanks again to everyone who has worked, and who continue to work, with the CDI on its numerous programs and initiatives. As lawyers, our primary duty is to pursue justice, and diversity and inclusion are components of true justice.
