by Bradley Parsons
Staff Writer
As Jacksonville’s legal community grows, new Jacksonville Bar Association President Kelly Mathis wants to keep up the small town relationships that distinguish Northeast Florida.
Mathis announced his plans Thursday at the JBA luncheon at the Omni Hotel. Shortly after being sworn in to replace Alan Pickert as president, Mathis laid out an itinerary with a heavy emphasis on collegiality.
“I’m looking out at attorneys I’ve battled with and attorneys I’ve battled against, but they are colleagues all,” said Mathis. “Collegiality is a word you’re going to hear a lot over the next year.”
That emphasis will maintain Northeast Florida’s unique commitment to professionalism in the legal practice, said Mathis. That will be particularly important as Jacksonville’s legal market swells. Mathis expects the number of lawyers practicing in Jacksonville to exceed 3,000 following the July bar exam.
“We need to indoctrinate these new lawyers into the way we do business in North Florida,” he said.
New members of the JBA are now sworn in during official ceremonies. Mathis also plans to hold more events designed to bring JBA members together. These will include more happy hour socials for lawyers and judges and more community commitments. After a three-year break, the JBA will once again build a house for HabiJax, a tradition started under former president Hank Coxe.
“It’s hard to be rude to an attorney when you’ve sat next to that person at a meeting, had a drink with that person or worked with them on a project,” said Mathis.
Working to improve professionalism is a service to clients and Duval County’s courts, said Mathis. Lawyers who argue over procedural technicalities have less time to devote to substantive legal questions, he said.
“It’s the difference between contentiousness and advocacy,” he said.
Mathis hopes to preserve much of the interest in the JBA’s monthly meetings stirred up by Pickert. Mathis said he’ll follow Pickert’s lead in starting and ending meetings on time and attracting interesting speakers.
Before he passed the gavel to Mathis, Pickert offered thanks to a long list of supporters. He thanked the JBA Board of Governors and staff, his firm and family and the JBA membership for helping him lead the JBA through an effective year.
During his one-year term as president, Pickert helped push attendance at the monthly luncheons to 300 attorneys, added 200 new members to the JBA and increased the organization’s community commitments.
Pickert also instituted the popular policy of running on-time meetings. Pickert employed an iron stopwatch approach, cutting short even prominent speakers who threatened to push past 1 p.m.
Thursday’s meeting ended at 1:05, but Pickert said his streak of closing on time was still intact. The meeting didn’t go long until after Mathis was sworn in he said.
“My part of the meeting wrapped up on time,” said Pickert. “I even gave Kelly an extra minute for his comments.”
• Listeners of Jim Rome’s radio show, “The Jungle” are familiar with the term “Jungle karma,” where guests of the show receive on-field good luck. Well now we have “JBA karma,” according to former JBA president Alan Pickert. Pickert noted that several JBA luncheon speakers went on to have good years. Wayne Weaver’s Jaguars had its best season in years; the University of Florida won an NCAA basketball championship following Athletic Director Jeremy Foley’s appearance; and former vice presidential candidate John Edwards finished first in the Iowa Caucus despite telling the JBA he had no interest in the Democratic presidential nomination.
• Due largely to 205 new members, the JBA is running a budget surplus as Pickert passes the gavel to Mathis.