I hope that a new tradition for The Jacksonville Bar Association will begin with our monthly membership luncheon Feb. 20. That luncheon will be our first-ever Founders Day Luncheon. The purpose of the luncheon is to celebrate the very proud history of our Association.
The Jacksonville Bar Association was founded in February 1897. Among the 38 charter members of the Association were a former Governor of Florida, a future United States senator, a United States District Court judge, a Circuit Court judge and some of the founding members of some of the leading firms in Jacksonville and Florida that still exist today. Throughout the following years, and continuing today, the membership of this Association has included many other remarkable and accomplished men and women. Some have been famous, many have been less well known, and some have even been infamous, but each is a part of our history. It is that history that we hope to celebrate at our Founders Day Luncheon.
At the luncheon, we will have remarks by Senior United States District Court Judge George C. Young of Orlando, who served as president of the Association in 1960-61, and by Dink Foerster, who served as president of the Association in 1959-60. We will also honor and recognize each of the living past Presidents of the Association at the Luncheon.
In addition to celebrating the history of the Association, we also hope that the Founders Day Luncheon can serve as an opportunity to pay tribute to the senior members of our Association. Our profession has a great tradition of senior lawyers providing much of the training and education for young lawyers. I count myself as being very fortunate to have had the opportunity learn much of what I know about the practice of law from men such as Herdy Ulmer and Jim Taylor while I was a young lawyer at Ulmer, Murchison, Ashby & Taylor. We can learn so much from our senior lawyers, especially regarding the importance of professionalism and civility in the practice of law. We also need to remember to thank them for their many contributions to our Association, our profession and our community.
Many of our senior lawyers remain very active and involved in The Jacksonville Bar Association and our legal community. Mark Hulsey and Jim Cobb are just two of the many senior lawyers who are involved in so many of the Association activities and are always available to assist the Association in any way that they can. There are, however, many senior lawyers who no longer have much contact with our Association or their fellow lawyers. For some, that may be by choice, because of health limitations or for other reasons. It certainly should not be because the senior lawyers believe that they are no longer wanted or needed by our Association. Nothing could be further from the truth. Our Association and our profession desperately desire and need the experience, talents and wisdom of our senior lawyers. If our profession is to continue to prosper and flourish, we must always look towards the future, but we can never permit ourselves to be unmindful of our rich and honored past.
I encourage all of our senior lawyers to attend our Founders Day Luncheon and to take part in the many events and activities of The Jacksonville Bar Association. I would also ask that the rest of us consider calling a senior lawyer we know, perhaps someone who has been a mentor to us, and invite him or her to attend the Founders Day Luncheon and to stay active (or become active again) in our Association.