TALLAHASSEE ATTORNEY TO RECEIVE YOUNG LAWYERS PRO BONO SERVICE AWARD

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 19, 2010
CONTACT: Dorohn A. Frazier,
The Florida Bar
TELEPHONE: (850) 561-5764; dfrazier@flabar.org

Evans pro bono award

Monica Miller Evans, a Tallahassee attorney with Messer Caparello & Self P.A., has been selected to receive the 2010 Florida Bar Young Lawyers Division Pro Bono Service Award. The award will be presented at a Jan. 28 ceremony at the Florida Supreme Court.

Evans concentrates her pro bono efforts on meeting the legal needs of dependent children and she has advocated for more than 35 abused and neglected children. She received certification from the Guardian Ad Litem (GAL) Program in 2004, serves on the Guardian Ad Litem Voluntary Advisory and Recruitment Committee and is a Pro-Bono Initiative Coordinator for the Program. She was the Second Judicial Circuit's Guardian Ad Litem Volunteer of the Year for 2009.

Born and raised in Jefferson County, Florida, Evans attended Trevecca Nazarene University in Nashville, Tenn., and received a law degree from Florida State University in 2002.

Evans heads her firm's real estate division and handles the firm's title insurance business. She also handles commercial loan workouts and real property and construction litigation.

Also active in the community, Evans is a member of the Monticello First Church of the Nazarene and serves on the Monticello Christian Academy School Board and Premier Bank's Community Board. She has been a committee chair and student mentor for Tallahassee Women Lawyers since 2006, and is also a volunteer with the Florida Attorneys Saving Homes (FASH) program. She has served on the Jefferson County United Way Fundraiser Team for several years and served on United Way's Investment Team in 2008. In addition, Evans will serve as Jefferson County Relay for Life Publicity Chair in 2010.

This year's awards ceremony, which also honors individual, circuit, law firm (two winners, in Miami and Sarasota), voluntary bar and judicial pro bono efforts, is scheduled for Thursday, Jan. 28, 2010, at 3:30 p.m. at the Florida Supreme Court. In addition, the ceremony will be broadcast live, unless pre-empted, on the Florida Channel (check local cable listings for the channel number) and on the Internet at http://wfsu.org/gavel2gavel.