Robert Gobelman, of counsel at Marks Gray, retired Oct. 27 from The Florida Bar.
He and his wife, Mary Bland Love, joined Marks Gray in 2011 along with other members of the firm Gobelman, Love, Wasilenko and Kendall.
A news release from Marks Gray refers to Gobelman’s “distinguished career defending complex litigation in state and federal courts in the areas of business and corporate law, insurance law, and product and professional liability.”
A U.S. Navy veteran of World War II and an Army veteran of the Korean War, he graduated with honors in 1955 from Wittenburg University in Springfield, Ohio.
Gobelman then attended the University of Chicago Law School on a full scholarship, graduating in 1958.
He moved to Jacksonville and joined Osborne, Copp, Markham and Ehrlich, which merged to form Matthews, Osborne, Ehrlich, McNatt, Gobelman & Cobb. That’s where he met Love. The couple formed their own firm, Gobelman & Love, on April 1, 1988.
In an article published June 6, 2003, in the Daily Record, Love recalled when she and Gobelman moved into their new offices Downtown on Adams Street in the building that is now headquarters for Jacksonville Area Legal Aid.
“When we started, we had no carpet, borrowed furniture and Bob had a trial starting that Monday. We got the boxes unpacked on Saturday, drinking beer from Scottie’s to get it done. Our first firm picture is Bob and me toasting our new firm with bottles of beer sitting on boxes,” she said.
During Gobelman’s 59-year career, he served as president of the Jacksonville Association of Defense Counsel, Florida Defense Lawyers Association and Jacksonville Area Legal Aid.
According to an article published Aug. 17, 2009, in the Daily Record, when Gobelman was made an honorary member of The Jacksonville Bar Association in recognition of 50 years of membership in the Bar, he recounted his early work with legal aid.
“In 1958, and for a number of years thereafter, it consisted of volunteer attorneys meeting once or twice a month as a panel of three and reviewing the client problems of the individuals who had presented to The Jacksonville Bar Association and if the problem required attorney representation, one of the three panel attorneys would take it and represent the client pro bono,” he said.
Gobelman also was chair of the first zoning board established after consolidation of Jacksonville and Duval County governments in 1968 and was a founding member of the Jacksonville chapter of the American Board of Trial Advocates.
“All of us at Marks Gray want to congratulate Bob on a great career and thank him for his contributions to this firm over the past years. He will certainly be missed by all of us,” said Marks Gray President Frederick H. Kent in the release.