RUDEN McCLOSKY PARTNER APPOINTED TO AMERICAN BAR ASSOCIATION HOUSE OF DELEGATES

FORT LAUDERDALE, FL -- The law firm of Ruden McClosky is pleased to announce that Family Law Partner Michele Cummings has been appointed to the American Bar Association House of Delegates by the Florida Bar Board of Governors. In her role as Delegate, Ms. Cummings will advise on specific actions taken by the House of Delegates, which is the policy-making body of the ABA. Her one-year term as Delegate is effective August 1, 2004.

Ms.Cummings is a partner of Ruden McClosky and head of the Firm's Family Law Practice Group. She concentrates her practice in matters such as dissolution of marriage, paternity, and child support and custody cases. She is Board Certified by The Florida Bar as a specialist in marital and family law and is a Fellow of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers and the International Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers. She is also a certified family law mediator and circuit/civil mediator.

Ms.Cummings has served as a faculty member for the National Institute of Trial Advocacy Deposition Training Program and lectured at the Florida Bar Practicing with Professionalism seminar. She is a former member of the Board of Governors of The Florida Bar (representative of the 17th Judicial Circuit); former chair of the Program Evaluation Committee; former member of the Executive Committee; and she was liaison to the Family Law Section.

A past chair of the Judicial Nominating Commission of the 17th Judicial Circuit, she also serves on the Executive Council of the Family Law Section of The Florida Bar. She serves on the Board of Directors and is Treasurer of the South Palm Beach County Bar Association and is a recent appointee of the Florida Supreme Court to The Florida Bar Foundation Board of Directors.

A member of Broward Lawyers Care of Broward County and a participant in the SCOPE program for the Florida Bar, Ms. Cummings previously served on the Board of Directors of the Broward County Bar Association. She is currently a member of the Academy of Florida Trial Lawyers, the Broward County Trial Lawyers Association, and the Broward County Women Lawyers Association. She is a graduate of Leadership Hollywood.

Ms. Cummings is a graduate of the University of Alabama (B.S., 1966) and received a Masters degree in Counseling from Barry University (M.S., magna cum laude, 1976). She received her Juris Doctorate from Nova University (J.D., magna cum laude, 1980).