Bill Brinton achieved some remarkable things during his life and his career. In The Florida Times-Union article marking his passing, Brinton’s partner, Graham Allen, stated that Brinton was the best president in the history of The Jacksonville Bar Association.
That’s very high praise, given the outstanding quality of The Jacksonville Bar’s leaders over the years, but I have no doubt that Allen was right. However, Bill Brinton was more than just a great Jacksonville Bar president, he was a great citizen of this community, and his example gives us a model which we should each try to follow in the course of our careers.
Bill Brinton was a very young president of The Jacksonville Bar Association. He was only 39 when he took over the office, and he dealt with some of the most serious issues that faced our community.
Bill was president when I first joined the organization, and I remember his strong stance against racial injustice. In fact, I recall very vividly the chants of protesters outside of the courthouse where I was employed as a young prosecutor, and the turmoil that existed at that time.
Bill Brinton and the other leaders of the Bar could have shied away from controversy, and could have simply declared the issues “too political,” and elected to not get involved. Instead, they chimed in, along with other individuals and groups, to call for the resignation of a chief judge who had made racist, sexist, and anti-Semitic comments.
Brinton showed the same leadership outside of his Bar roles. He was a leader on a number of civic issues, including his successful fight to establish a meaningful outdoor advertising ordinance. Many of us do not recall the visual blight that existed prior to the sign ordinance. We have Bill Brinton to thank for civic efforts to reduce the amount of sign pollution in our community.
Brinton also led the successful effort to protect Jacksonville’s trees through a citizen referendum establishing a tree ordinance, and was very prominent in enacting term limits for elected officials through a referendum process.
We as lawyers have a responsibility to try to make life better in our community. No other profession commits itself to pro bono service like our profession. No other profession is as well represented on civic boards, community organizations, and charitable efforts.
We have countless members of The Jacksonville Bar Association who commit themselves to bettering both our profession and our community, and I want to try to identify many of their efforts over the upcoming year. We do a fairly poor job identifying the substantial involvement of lawyers in our community, and we need to do a better job in recognizing how they serve Jacksonville.
I hope that Bill Brinton’s passing will serve as a reminder of our role in working to make our community a better place.