Leaders of The Florida Bar expressed support Friday for an undocumented immigrant who graduated from the Florida State University law school and is seeking to practice law in the state.?
- MARGIE MENZEL, THE NEWS SERVICE OF FLORIDA
Leaders of The Florida Bar expressed support Friday for an undocumented immigrant who graduated from the Florida State University law school and is seeking to practice law in the state.
The Florida Supreme Court has been considering the issue for months.
The Bar?s Board of Governors voted on the motion after a petition was submitted earlier this month by Talbot ?Sandy? D?Alemberte, who represents immigrant Jose Godinez-Samperio. The petition called for amending the Bar rules to state that ?no one may be disqualified from membership in The Florida Bar solely because he or she is not a United States citizen.?
The governors ?support the concept? in the petition, said Bar spokeswoman Francine Walker, but recommended that the high court look to another part of the Bar to implement it.
?Our board said that isn?t something that should be in the Florida Bar rules that govern the practice of law,? Walker said. ?It should be in the Bar admission rules.?
The governors recommended that the Supreme Court seek input from the Board of Bar Examiners on the issue. The day before, the Rules Committee of the Bar voted 6-1 to endorse the substance of the petition.
?This was fine with us,? said Patsy Palmer, D?Alemberte?s law partner and wife. ?The language of the petition itself states that the amendment might fit more neatly within the Bar-admission rules, but that we could not propose such an amendment because those rules do not provide for a member petition.?
Palmer said she and D?Alemberte will file a notice of supplemental authority to bring the matter to the state Supreme Court?s attention early next week.
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