Tallahassee attorney and current Florida Bar Board of Governors member Kelly Overstreet Johnson is the president-elect designate of The Florida Bar. Johnson, an AV-rated lawyer, practices complex commercial litigation, including class actions suits, and employment and labor law, and is a partner in the Tallahassee office of Broad and Cassel.
Johnson, 44, will be sworn in as president-elect at the June 2003 annual meeting, when President-elect Miles McGrane of Miami takes the oath as president. Johnson will become president of The Florida Bar in June 2004. She will be the third female Bar president in the organization’s history. The last year a Tallahassee lawyer became Bar president was 1965.
During her presidency, Johnson says she wants to continue efforts to improve the image of lawyers and let the public know the many positive things lawyers do on a daily basis. In the coming year, she also plans to work with The Florida Bar and the Florida Supreme Court on Article V funding issues.
Another area of concern for Johnson will be the functioning of Florida’s 26 judicial nominating commissions (JNC).
“The JNC process is vitally important and must function correctly to ensure the public benefits from the process by having judges who are fair and well qualified sitting on the bench,” she said.
Johnson will also seek to take another look at Bar advertising rules. Many lawyers still dislike or oppose lawyer advertising and believe it is the largest cause of public discontent with the profession. But the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that lawyer advertising cannot be banned. Johnson said she wants to make sure the Bar’s rules are as consistent and simple as possible, and that they are enforced.
Seeking the Bar presidency seemed like a logical step for Johnson, who has an extensive resume of local, state, and national bar participation. Johnson was the only candidate to file for Bar president in the upcoming 2003 elections.
“I have been involved in Bar work for most of my career and I’ve always enjoyed it,” she said. “I have loved my work on the Board of Governors and the Bar Executive Committee. After serving with other presidents, I realized I also had a desire to serve and thought I could do a good job.”
Johnson graduated from Florida State University with a bachelor’s degree in business in 1979, and three years later got her law degree, with honors, from Florida State.
She became a civil litigator with the Attorney General’s Office, then went to work for Ervin, Varn, Jacobs, Odom & Kitchen. She opened her own law office and then joined Broad and Cassel’s Tallahassee office in 1990. In addition to its Tallahassee location, Broad and Cassel has offices in Boca Raton, Ft. Lauderdale, Miami, Orlando, Tampa and West Palm Beach.
Johnson has served in various bar offices, including president of the Tallahassee Bar Association (where she was the first woman elected president) and the Tallahassee Women Lawyers. She served four years on The Florida Bar’s Young Lawyers Division Board of Governors, and two years in the ABA House of Delegates and is a fellow of the American Bar Foundation.
She served four years each on the 2nd Circuit and the First District Court of Appeal judicial nominating commissions.