by Bradley Parsons
Staff Writer
Ask the two local attorneys running for the same seat on the Florida Bar’s board of governors for their campaign role models and their answers are revealing.
Jake Schickel, a near 30-year veteran and partner at Coker, Myers, Schickel, Sorenson,
Higginbotham and Green on Bay Street, wants to emulate Florida Bar president-to-be Hank Coxe.
Schickel’s opponent, sole practitioner Arthur Hernandez, whose office is on Forsyth St., gets his inspiration from underdog champion Rocky Balboa.
The March election for one of seven contested seats, this one for the Fourth Circuit Seat Two, pits Schickel’s experience against Hernandez’ campaign for change. Schickel sees his across-the-board legal and business experience as the perfect complement to the board. Hernandez thinks the time is right to make over the board to reflect the State’s rapidly evolving legal landscape.
Hernandez sees a board that lacks diversity with not enough minorities, women, young lawyers or small firms represented. The board’s job is to set policies and procedures to guide the Bar’s growth, he says, but now too many of those decisions are made by attorneys at the tail end of their career.
“The big board has been a slow-moving train,” said Hernandez. “It’s made up of a lot of attorneys who have served and practiced for 25-plus years. They’re very knowledgeable and very well experienced, but its only fair that policies be set by the people who are going to have to live with them.”
Hernandez acknowledges he’s the underdog in this race but he’s far from an unknown in Duval County. He’s served two previous terms on the Board, first as a representative of the Bar’s Young Lawyers Division from 1998 through 2000, and as an ex-officio member through 2002. This is his first run at the policy-making “Big Board.”
Hernandez’ business and political contacts have also kept his name circulating around town. He served on Mayor Peyton’s Hispanic American Advisory Board, and he said being “one of about 12” Hispanic attorneys in Jacksonville has benefited his commercial litigation with a focus on trade south of the border.
Like Hernandez, Schickel is counting on word of mouth to generate his campaign’s buzz. In South Florida, some candidates spend thousands to campaign through the more crowded legal community. But both local candidates think phone calls, e-mails and the occasional letter should be sufficient to spread the word among Duval County’s 2,900 attorneys.
Schickel casts himself as a more traditionalist candidate. He says he wants to follow in the footsteps of prominent local lawyers who have represented Northeast Florida on the Board.
Schickel wants to bring a different kind of diversity to the Board. He points to a resume stacked with wide-ranging legal experience and prominent positions in Jacksonville’s political, business and non-profit communities.
“I’m, quite frankly, in a unique position with experience in defense, mediation, plaintiff work. I’ve seen both sides of personal injury and worker’s compensation. There’s a real diversity there,” he said.
In addition to his legal background, Schickel has served as chairman of JEA’s board of directors and as a member of the Jacksonville Regional Chamber of Commerce’s board.
Schickel said his business background would be an asset to the Bar when it comes to budget planning and said his political contacts would allow him to effectively lobby State lawmakers.
The candidates may have different ideas about the needs of the Bar, but don’t expect to see the mudslinging that characterizes political campaigns. Hernandez and Schickel both express their respect for one another and call each other friends.
Their race is one of eight for seats with the others being held either by persons with time remaining on their terms or by unopposed candidates.
In addition to Hernandez vs. Schickel, there are races in the Eighth Circuit, Seat 1 between Carl B. Schwait, Gainesville, and Cynthia S. Swanson, Gainesville; Thirteenth Circuit, Seat 2: William Kalish, Tampa, and Jeffrey W. Warren, Tampa; Fifteenth Circuit, Seat 2: Gregory Coleman, West Palm Beach, and Siobhan Helene Shea, Palm Beach; Fifteenth Circuit, Seat 4: Lisa S. Small, Palm Beach, and V. Lynn Whitfield, West Palm Beach; Sixteenth Circuit, Seat 1: Edwin A. Scales, Key West, and Timothy Nicholas Thomes, Key Largo and in the Nineteenth Circuit, Seat 1: Gean Cary Junginger, Jr., Ft. Pierce, and Harold G. Melville, Ft. Pierce. New Board members - for a two-year term - elected without opposition are: Denise A. Lyn, Inverness, Fifth Circuit, Seat 1, replaces William H. Phelan, Jr. who was first elected to the Board in 1999. Daniel L. DeCubellis, Orlando, Ninth Circuit, Seat 2, replaces Russell Divine who was elected to the Board 2001.
Incumbents elected without opposition for two-year terms beginning in 2005 are: Lawrence E. Sellers, Jr., Tallahassee, Second Circuit, Seat 1; Murray B. Silverstein, St. Petersburg, Sixth Circuit, Seat 2; David Rothman, Miami, Eleventh Circuit, Seat 2; Jennifer R. Coberly, Miami, Eleventh Circuit, Seat 4; Sharon L. Langer, Miami, Eleventh Circuit, Seat 6; Steven E. Chaykin, Miami, Eleventh Circuit, Seat 8; Kimberly A. Bald, Bradenton, Twelfth Circuit, Seat 1; Gwynne Alice Young, Tampa, Thirteenth Circuit, Seat 3; Nancy W. Gregoire, Ft. Lauderdale, Seventeenth Circuit, Seat 2; Henry Latimer, Ft. Lauderdale, Seventeenth Circuit, Seat 3; Frank C. Walker, II, Ft. Lauderdale, Seventeenth Circuit, Seat 5; A. Lawrence Ringers, Ft. Myers, Twentieth Circuit, Seat 2; Richard A. Tanner, New Jersey, Out-of-State, Seat 1; Gary J. Leppla, Ohio, Out-of-State, Seat 3
Ballots for contested races will be mailed to eligible voters by March 1,2005.
The Bar’s 52-member board consists of the president and president-elect, the president and president-elect of the Young Lawyers Division, representatives elected by members of the Bar from each of the state’s 20judicial circuits, four out-of-state representatives elected by Florida Bar members who reside outside of Florida, and two public members appointed by the Florida Supreme Court.