by Bradley Parsons
Staff Writer
Like many aspiring lawyers, Matt Jackson worked his way through law school. But Jackson wasn’t spending his time away from the books delivering pizzas or tending bar. Instead, he was helping draft legislation and form policy at the top levels of Jacksonville’s government.
The hard work has paid off for Jackson. After working six years as assistant to City Council Finance Chairman Reggie Fullwood, Jackson recently accepted an associate’s position with Brennan, Manna & Diamond. As a fledgling attorney at a national firm with a wide-ranging practice, Jackson is expecting his heavy workload to continue. But he thinks his six years of experience on the fourth floor of City Hall should help him hit the ground running.
“I think the time I’ve spent here should benefit me and allow me to help out a little bit more than a typical beginning associate as far as the firm’s government relations practice,” said Jackson. “The main benefit of spending six years here is it’s given me a knowledge of how the City runs.”
Brennan, Manna & Diamond’s strong government relations practice was a big reason Jackson decided to finally turn in his City ID. Jacksonville branch Managing Partner Michael Freed’s face was a familiar one in Council chambers, said Jackson.
“Just sitting in that chair you meet a lot of people,” said Jackson. “Over several months of conversations, we gradually started to realize that we could help each other out.”
Freed’s aggressive approach to expanding the local office’s practice also made Brennan, Manna & Diamond stand out, said Jackson. The expanding practice should make for a heavy workload for the firm’s young attorneys, but Jackson is no stranger to long hours, dating back to his hitch in the Navy working on the deck of the aircraft carrier U.S.S. John F. Kennedy.
When he starts practicing law Sept. 2, it will mark the first time in about a decade that Jackson hasn’t needed a hyphen to list his job title. When Fullwood ran for his Council seat in 1999, Jackson alternated between duties as campaign treasurer, full-time student at University of North Florida and 4 a.m. shifts at UPS.
After his graduation with a major in Political Science and History, Jackson came to City Hall to serve as Fullwood’s assistant. Fullwood and Jackson met in a UNF Public Administration class.
“It was a good class, but it was four hours long, it was the summer. We used to sit during the class breaks talking about how we’d rather be somewhere else,” he said.
Reunited with Fullwood at City Hall, for a brief time Jackson had only one job to worry about, leaving him wondering what to do with all the free time.
It didn’t take long for him to find an answer. Florida Coastal School of Law gained preliminary accreditation from the American Bar Association in 2001, opening the door for Jackson to begin pursuit of his long considered legal education.
For the next three years, Jackson would work 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. for Fullwood, scramble to beat the Beach Boulevard commute to FCSL by 6 p.m. for four hours of class, then read until midnight.
“Then it was up the next morning and do the whole thing over again,” said Jackson.
Jackson’s schedule got even busier in 2003 with the birth of daughter Ainsley. Wife Susie gave birth four months before Jackson was to take the Florida Bar exam. But Jackson even found a way to apply his multi-tasking skills to child rearing.
“It actually worked out okay, because when she would wake up in the middle of the night, I could put her back to sleep reading her property and contracts law,” he said.
So has the former sailor turned student turned campaign advisor turned political aide turned law student turned lawyer finally found his permanent station in life? For the time being, Jackson is focused solely on his work at Brennan, Manna & Diamond. But he hasn’t got politics completely out of his system.
Jackson said he’ll always be available to help as Fullwood’s political career unfolds, and he hints at his own political ambitions.
“Politics is something I’d love to do, but it’s tough being a Democrat in the South these days,” he said. “You just have to take your lumps I guess.
“There are benefits to being behind the scenes. It’s sometimes easier to get your work done out of the public glare.”