2020 has been a rough year for all of us. We have experienced personal loss, social unrest, economic challenges and significant limitations on personal interaction. While the impacts of these conditions may manifest themselves differently in each of us, we have all been faced with some of the loftiest challenges we had ever likely encountered. It is my sincere hope that with the COVID-19 vaccines recently approved by the Federal Drug Administration, we will return to some sort of normalcy in 2021.
It is a good time for us all to focus on the blessings in our lives. One of the many blessings in my life was the opportunity of education. It was not exactly given to me. I had to work to pay for my education – many times working multiple jobs simultaneously – but the fact that a fine, quality education was available to me is a huge blessing. Along the way, during college, law school and post-law school studies in taxation, I had the fortune of having terrific mentors. One of my mentors, Professor David Richardson (now a retired professor and Chair of the Graduate Tax Program at the University of Florida College of Law), advised me that once I entered the practice of law, I had a duty to the profession to share the wealth of knowledge that I had been so fortunate enough to attain from my studies and that I would attain in my law practice. That statement from Professor Richardson resonated strongly with me and has continuously been at the forefront of my career goals.