Business section plans busy year.

Incorporating a new committee, pursuing specialized business courts, and continuing its successful legislative and CLE programs are the current priorities of the Business Law Section.

Chair David Felman reported to the Bar Board of Governors recently: "I can't remember a time when things were going better."

He said the 5,000-member section addresses a wide variety of business issues, from commercial transactions to intellectual property to bankruptcy to computer and technology issues.

Goals for the section include smoothly incorporating the Computer Law Committee, which recently joined the section after being an independent Bar committee.

The section will also pursue its goal of getting a special court set up to hear business issues, similar to Delaware's chancery courts.

"One of the problems businesses face here is that although the judiciary consists of excellent judges, it's unpredictable whether you'll get a judge who has a lot of experience on the business issues involved in a case," Felman said.

The section will be launching its new website shortly, he added, and is also updating its highly regarded "Reports on Standards for Opinions of Florida Legal Counsel for Business and Real Estate Transactions."

The section had a successful session with the legislature earlier this year, passing items ranging from UCC reforms to proxy voting to centralized filing for judgment liens. Feldman said the section plans to be busy in next year's session, as well.

On CLE, the section has three highly regarded and successful annual programs, he said. Those are the Federal Security Institute, held last February in Miami Beach, the third annual Internet Law and Representation of Technology Companies, held in May in Ft. Lauderdale, and the Bankruptcy Law & Practice: View from the Bench, held in September in Tampa and Miami.