by Bradley Parsons
Staff Writer
Looking down at the St. Johns River from an office that occupies nearly half a floor in the Bank of America Building, Kelly Mathis seems surprised at how fast his practice has grown in the few years since he hung up his own shingle.
Since he left Gobelman, Love, Blazs & Wasilenko with a single legal assistant in tow, Mathis has added three attorneys, three staff members and moved into an office eight times larger than his original digs in the Wachovia Building. He doesn’t need all 8,000 square feet now, but the space will come in handy when he soon hires two more lawyers.
“I don’t know what direction we’ll take exactly, but I anticipate that we’ll continue to grow,” said Mathis. “I didn’t expect to grow this fast.”
The same could be said about Northeast Florida’s legal market. In two decades, the number of attorneys practicing in Duval and surrounding counties has more than doubled to nearly 4,000. Mathis said managing that growth is his first priority as he prepares to lead the Jacksonville Bar Association as president.
Mathis will succeed Alan Pickert in June for a one-year term as JBA head. As president, Mathis wants to continue Pickert’s policy of building buzz around the JBA’s monthly meetings and emphasize the organization’s community service. Both are a means to keep the JBA relevant as Jacksonville’s legal market grows, he said.
“We are a completely voluntary organization, so we need to always be looking at what we are providing to members,” said Mathis. “What are we doing to stay important to our membership?”
Professionalism is often a casualty of a crowded legal market, said Mathis. He sees the monthly meetings as a way for attorneys to stay connected to the JBA and to each other.
“Collegiality is a means to stay professional,” said Mathis. “Two lawyers who work together on a bar project are going to respect each other in the courtroom.
“Think about it like you’re driving around. If you’ve ever honked your horn at somebody (in a bad way) and then realized that you know them, you feel a little embarrassed about it. Same thing applies here. I want to encourage attorneys to get to know each other outside of court.”
Mathis hopes to keep attendance strong at the monthly meetings — the JBA routinely set attendance records under Pickert. Mathis plans to keep Pickert’s emphasis on starting and stopping on time and hopes to have similar good fortune when scheduling speakers. Pickert nabbed former vice presidential candidate John Edwards and University of Florida Athletic Director Jeremy Foley, among others.
“That’s one of the biggest challenges, finding the speakers,” said Mathis. “We don’t pay, so you have to know somebody who’s important. I’m not sure if I know somebody, but maybe I know somebody who knows somebody.”
Many of those luncheon speakers have used their time at the podium to lobby for judicial independence within the state. The JBA will continue to lobby for independent courts and to preserve access to those courts, said Mathis. But he doesn’t think it’s the JBA’s role to weigh in on the state’s hot-button political issues. It would be presumptuous for the JBA to try to speak for all of its members, said Mathis.
But the JBA will be engaged on one rather large political issue facing Jacksonville. The new county courthouse, or lack thereof, will continue to be a priority for the JBA leadership, he said.
Mathis acknowledged that the issue is a tricky one for Mayor John Peyton. But he said Duval County needs a new courthouse and it’s Peyton’s job to get it built.
“He’s the one who sets the agenda, he’s the one who has to lead the way,” said Mathis. “Right now we’re just waiting, and I promise you the cost is not going to go down.”