IS DEMERE A
FAMILY NAME?
“Yes, it’s French,” said Mason. “It was very popular in the 1600s.”
HOW LARGE IS
THEIR STAFF?
In addition to Mason’s wife, Mason has one senior paralegal/certified legal assistant and one typist. Jackson employs two senior paralegals and one paralegal in training. The partners share the receptionist/runner.
“We will be celebrating our 30th wedding anniversary next year,” said Mason of his wife. “She does all of our discovery work. She’s gifted at analyzing the finances of a household.”
WHY HAVE SEPARATE PERSONNEL?
“Since we have no crossover in our practices, we have completely different staff,” explained Jackson. “Probate and bankruptcy covers 80-90 percent of my practice. The rest is general civil litigation. I did family law up until three or four years ago and I am blessed not to have to do it anymore.”
“One hundred percent of my practice is family law, including initial dissolutions of marriage or modifications of actions,” said Mason. “I don’t do anything in dependency court and I stay away from juvenile delinquency.”
SO, DIVORCE AND BANKRUPTCY DON’T OVERLAP?
“Most of the time I’ll do a bankruptcy for the couple involved,” explained Jackson. “Because I represent both, no one in the firm can represent one against another. Usually if a divorce is in the works, it’s better to get that out of the way. Quite often, financial difficulties will break a weak bond [between spouses]. I’ve found the leading cause of bankruptcy to be divorce.”
“Money problems are probably at the root of many divorces,” agreed Mason. “Divorce always makes a family’s economic situation worse, unless one has a gambling or drug problem.”
HOW HAS FAMILY LAW CHANGED IN YOUR EXPERIENCE?
“Staff, certainly in family law, is crucial,” said Mason. “The days of a single practitioner with a single legal assistant plowing through a divorce is pretty much nonexistent. When I started doing divorces a little over 20 years ago, the average divorce file was about a quarter inch thick. Now, for the last alimony modification file, it took me two days just to prepare the final judgment. At the hearing, we had four boxes — one just for exhibits. Cases have gotten remarkably more complex as the law has evolved over time. The appellate court and legislature have done a good job in defining more exactly what the process of equitable distribution should be and the factors in a custody action. As they provide more guidance, what to do becomes clearer but also more complicated.”
HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN IN BUSINESS?
“My father started the firm after World War II at the corner of Adams and Clay,” said Jackson. “We moved over here [516 W. Adams] in 1981. They tore that block down around 1986 to build an office complex but they changed their minds due to multiple recessions. It was hard times.”
HOW LONG HAVE YOU TWO BEEN PARTNERS?
“Fourteen years,” said Mason. “We’ve been friends since we were five or six years old, and fishing and dive buddies for well over 30 years.”
“I had a partner that died of cancer,” continued Jackson. “Fortunately, my wife talked to his wife when I was looking around.”
ISN’T YOUR WORK DEPRESSING?
“I usually make people very happy,” said Jackson. “They come to me with huge debt problems and I take the weight off their shoulders.”
“Dealing with others’ family difficulties, though not happy work, is something that needs to be done,” said Mason. “I am happy to assist in doing it.”
“The odd thing is, he probably has one of the most stable and well-put-together marriages I’ve ever seen,” added Jackson.
EDUCATION
Florida State University is where Jackson went to law school. He also holds a chemistry degree from Jacksonville University.
“He wears his FSU tie every Friday whether it’s football season or not,” said Mason.
Mason graduated from the University of Miami. Previously, he had earned a degree in accounting. Back in his salad days, he earned a living selling tropical fish and as a commercial spearfisher.
“I worked in my dad’s bank, Jacksonville Federal Savings & Loan, as an auditor,” recalled Mason. “I decided even law school had to be more fun.”
Rumph & Stoddard gave Mason his first taste of the law. He worked at their firm until 1989, when he joined up with Jackson.
WHERE ELSE HAS
JACKSON WORKED?
“My father had a law firm so I grew up helping him as a lawyer and helping with my father’s tax business, Jackson Tax Service,” said Jackson.
— by Monica Chamness’