Tampa attorney William Schifino Jr. was sworn in Friday as the 68th president of The Florida Bar at the organization’s annual convention in Orlando.
Miami attorney Michael Higer was sworn in as president-elect and will become Bar president in June 2017.
Schifino is managing partner in the Tampa office of Burr & Forman LLP and is a Board Certified specialist in business litigation.
He focuses on litigation and trial practice, including securities litigation and arbitration, professional malpractice litigation, employment litigation and intellectual property litigation.
He also is on the firm’s executive committee.
One of Schifino’s major goals as Bar president is to consider recommendations from the Vision 2016 Commission, which has been studying four general areas that will impact the future practice of law in Florida: technology, legal education, Bar admissions and access to legal services.
“We have to implement and take action on all of these issues coming out of Vision 2016,” he said. “Whether we’re going to recommend them to the membership or to the court, I’m not judging. But we have to analyze, debate and take action — one way or another.”
Schifino also vows to work on an issue that grabbed his attention three years ago, as a member of The Florida Bar’s board of governors: Finding a way to connect lawyers who are unemployed or underemployed with citizens who don’t have access to legal services.
That effort would dovetail with the work of the Florida Commission on Access to Civil Justice, created by Supreme Court Chief Justice Jorge Labarga.
As Bar president, Schifino expects to address issues that could affect the judiciary.
They include proposed term limits for judges, which The Florida Bar opposes, and the annual challenges of promoting adequate funding for the courts and protecting the independence of the judicial branch.
He also is concerned about diversity.
“We will not lose sight of the need for diversity and inclusion in the profession. Our profession needs to lead the charge,” Schifino said.
He served on a task force to enhance diversity in the judiciary, created by Eugene Pettis when Pettis was Bar president for the 2013-14 term.
Schifino earned his Juris Doctor from the University of Florida Fredric G. Levin College of Law and his B.A. from Tulane University.
After law school, he worked for Taub & Williams, then helped establish Williams, Schifino, Mangione & Steady, where he was a founding shareholder, president and then managing director before the firm combined with Burr & Forman in 2012.
Schifino recently completed an eight-year term as a member and chairman of the 13th Judicial Circuit Judicial Nominating Commission.
He is active in Big Brothers/Big Sisters of Greater Tampa and is director of the corporate board of the Boys & Girls Club of Tampa Bay Inc. He is on the Board of Trustees for the UF law school.
He also spent many years as a youth league softball coach. He and his wife, Paola, have two daughters and a son.