Tallahassee lawyer/lobbyist Barry Richard, a member of the George Bush legal team during the Florida recount battle, was the featured speaker at the Jacksonville Bar Association Law Day luncheon Friday at the Adam’s Mark Hotel. He reviewed the legalities of the efforts by Democratic party nominee Al Gore’s team to get recounts and debunked several changes by Gore’s backers that the Florida Supreme Court acted illegally, as did state officials.
And, he said, even if Gore had succeeded in getting a slate of Electoral College delegates certified, as Bush did when Secretary of State Katherine Harris certified the election, it would not have mattered.
“The law says that Congress shall decided with each chamber voting separately,” said Richard. “We can assume that the Senate would have gone for Gore, as the split was 50-50 with Gore [as vice president] breaking the tie, and the Republican-dominated House would have gone for Bush.
“In that case, the law says that the matter goes back to the state to be decided by its governor.”
Who, of course, then and now is Jeb Bush, George Bush’s younger brother.
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The JBA’s other major honor — the Liberty Bell Award — went to John Rutherford, the director of corrections for the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office.
Rutherford was honored for his community service and assistance to the legal profession.
Like Jake Schickel, who was honored as the Lawyer of the Year, it was a surprise, but there was a difference: getting him there. Schickel’s office is two blocks from the Adam’s Mark and he’d made a reservation, so JBA executive director Diane Gill’s main problem was sneaking his wife into the room without him seeing her (she did . . . through the kitchen.)
“Larry Pritchard [the JSO’s legal counsel] asked me to come to the luncheon and I didn’t have anything else to do,” said Rutherford. “I had no idea at all that I was going to win this.”
And what would have happened if Rutherford had something else to do?
“Plan B,” said Pritchard, “then Plan C.” And then? “We were going to tell him.”
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Even though it was Law Day, it was also the JBA’s annual meeting and the following were elected into membership: Nicole Amick, Michael Bateh, Bart Brink, Laura Callison, Giselle Carson, Paul Consbruck, Stacie Drawdy, Randall Erler, Andrew Fawbush, Terry Murman and Marvin Gillman.
Also, Jacqueline Holley, Randall Jenkins, Cindy Lasky, Michael Lee, Isabelle Lopez, Elizabeth Ondriezek, Gregory Prysock, Richard Ramsey, Samuel Ross, Shannon Scheffer, Heather Snipes, Jerry Snider, Aberdeen Speights, Jason Taylor and Lisa Varon.
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What’s a big meeting without door prizes? The three sponsors each chipped in and winners were Bill Miles, two tickets to Universal Studios; Vanessa Herbert, a Palm Pilot from Special Counsel; and Karen Winzell, flowers from Florida Community College at Jacksonville’s legal program.
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Even though the Law Day luncheon is the biggest day of the year, the JBA still has two major events: the annual meeting May 23 at Deerwood and the final 2001-02 luncheon June 11 at the Omni. At the latter, Tom Beverly passes along the gavel to incoming president Bill Joel and the Bar is expected to install Jim Moseley Jr. as its president-elect.