by Richard Prior
Staff Writer
Henry David Thoreau said, “The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation.”
Paul Renner isn’t one of those.
“Having been a division officer responsible for 30 guys during a war and having been a prosecutor, I’m used to and comfortable being in the fray,” he said. “I enjoy it.”
Renner was born in Atlanta and lived in Merritt Island and Vero Beach before the family moved to Jacksonville. He went to Terry Parker High School and graduated from Davidson College in North Carolina with a bachelor’s degree in history.
His new diploma in hand, he had “a choice between being a bank loan officer or joining the military. I chose excitement . . . my apologies to the bankers.”
Renner enlisted in the Navy and, after training, was assigned to the USS McInerney, a Perry Class frigate.
“I really got what I wanted,” he said. “I wanted to be on a small ship where I’d have more responsibility, more opportunities to do things than I would on a carrier.”
Renner found all the responsibility and excitement he sought when the McInerney was sent to the Persian Gulf in January 1991.
The frigate took part in de-mining operations, interdicted ships in the Red Sea in support of sanctions against Iraq, escorted merchant vessels out of a mine-filled channel in Kuwait and assisted the battleship Wisconsin.
“The Wisconsin was shelling the coast pretty heavily with its 2,000-pound shells,” Renner said. “We were up and down the firing line, giving them defense against any ships or planes that would come out.”
He and the ship returned to Jacksonville on July 3, 1991, to “a great celebration. They gave us a heckuva welcome.”
It was an experience Renner wouldn’t trade.
“It was something you’re proud you did,” he said. “It was a good way to learn leadership at a young age and be with some guys you form a very close bond with.”
A month after his return, Renner was in the reserves and attending law school at the University of Florida.
“Ever since I was a kid, I really had an interest in kind of having the background to leave society a little better than I found it,” he said. “I always saw the law as a way to accomplish that.”
His first job after graduation was with the State Attorney’s office in Broward County. The culture, as much as the work, drew him south.
“I absolutely love Latin culture,” he said. “I had been assigned to South America for my two weeks in the reserves each year. My first assignment was Rio de Janiero. Then to Chili a couple of times . . . and Caracas, Venezuela. I went to live with a family out in the Andes Mountains.
“It’s a culture that’s very welcoming.”
The State Attorney’s office in Broward, with about 150 lawyers at the time, is the second largest in the state.
“I think they’re coming up on 200 lawyers now,” said Renner, whose felony trial division handled street crimes up to second-degree murder. “There’s enough crime to keep all of them busy nonstop.
“It was kind of a natural next step for serving the community.”
Renner tried between 60 and 70 trials during his three and a half years in the office.
“If a young person just out of law school wants to be a litigator, there is no better way to start than to be a public defender or assistant state attorney,” he said. “You literally walk in your first day, they hand you a file and say, ‘You’re picking a jury at 1 o’clock.’ ”
For all the long hours, hard work and misery that came across his desk, “That was the best experience I’ve had as an attorney,” said Renner. “You can truly do something good for the community.
“You can give victims some sense of justice; you can take people off the streets that are habitual offenders. At the same time, you can exercise mercy where mercy is appropriate.
“The role of prosecutor is kind of like that of a police officer or anyone in a position of trust. It carries with it an enormous responsibility to use good judgment, not to simply see yourself as a member of a team that wants to win.”
He left the State Attorney’s office in October 1998 and went into commercial practice with a Broward firm. His focus has been on “broadly defined commercial matters,” including landlord-tenant disputes, employment litigation, construction defects or liens, domain name disputes and probate litigation.
He opened his own office in the Blackstone Building in January.
“I think going out on my own is certainly something you have apprehensions about,” he said. “But it is a thrill to face down those challenges and overcome them.”
Though he misses criminal law, “Commercial is more intellectually challenging. It often presents you with something new.
“As a commercial attorney, one of the things I look at is adding value to my client’s business. I’m not somebody you’ve hired at arm’s length. I’m somebody that wants to be part of your team to advance the bottom line.”