If you couldn’t make The Florida Bar meeting in Boca Raton last month, not only did you miss local trial attorney Hank Coxe’s installation as Bar president, you missed a ceremony filled with anecdotes and good laughs, some at Coxe’s expense and some thanks to Coxe, who took over for Alan Bookman, a real estate attorney from Pensacola. Coxe was sworn in by former Florida Supreme Court Chief Justice Barbara Pariente.
• Coxe’s first federal court case was before United States Judge Harvey Schlesinger and was a little off the beaten path. Seems Coxe was representing some folks who were accused of transporting horses with equine anemia across state lines. “During that case, I learned from Hank there’s an appropriate time for humor in the courtroom.”
• John Kozyak was the recipient of this year’s G. Kirk Haas Humanitarian Award. Kozyak is the founder of a firm in Miami and the organizer of a huge annual picnic to promote diversity within the profession. This year’s picnic is set for Oct. 21 and Kozyak promises an interesting time. “You’ll see Hank Coxe in shorts and a T-shirt,” said Kozyak. “Judges will be playing volleyball and eating with their hands. It’s fun.”
• Victoria Sica, a second-year law student at Florida International University, was the scholarship winner. She’s also the niece of Circuit Court Judge Jack Schemer.
• John Stewart (not the political pundit) was sworn is as the new president of the Bar’s Young Lawyer’s Division. Stewart asked his father to introduce him because “I knew he’d be more nervous than I am and that would make me look good. I’m glad he read the things I wrote.”
• According to Stewart, there are now 20,000 attorneys in the state that qualify as Young Lawyers.
• An attorney practicing in Georgia was sworn in as the President-elect of the YLD. Scott Atwood is licensed to practice in both Georgia and Florida and is only the second non-Florida lawyer to serve in this capacity.
• The keynote address was delivered by former Supreme Court Justice Major B. Harding and he spared no one early on. “I just got conflicting instructions,” said Harding. “Hank said there are rules. Alan said there are no rules. Barbara, which is it?” Harding then took his watch off as if he was on a timer, but said, “It means absolutely nothing.”
• Harding urged the attending Bar members to continue their pro bono work and contribute to their area legal aids. “I have a particular interest in Legal Aid in Jacksonville because the building is named after me,” said Harding of Jacksonville Area Legal Aid, which is in the Major B. Harding Center for Justice.
• Bar President-elect Frank Angones was introduced by Federal Judge Frederico Moreno of Miami, who informed everyone that Angones, who came to the U.S. two weeks after the Bay of Pigs incident, was selected the top teenager in Miami by the Miami Herald in 1968. When Moreno was done, Pariente lightheartedly said, “That was very good. It gives us faith that federal judges can work without law clerks.”
• Coxe’s wife Mary was a classmate of Hillary Rodham Clinton at Wellesley College for Women in Wellesley, Mass.
• The Coxes celebrated their 26th anniversary two days before Coxe was sworn in as Bar president.
• Entertainment was provided by Andy Clark, who plays piano and organ at Riverside Presbyterian Church, and Irene Lumpkin, a Juilliard-trained soloist.
• Little-known item. Assistant State Attorney Jay Plotkin is the son-in-law of Schlesinger.
• Next year’s annual Bar meeting is June 27-30 in Orlando at the World Center Marriott.