by Mike Sharkey
Staff Writer
The leadership of the Florida Board of Trial Advocates changed hands in Orlando late last month and Josh Whitman became the third Jacksonville attorney — and second from his firm — to become president of the 600-attorney statewide organization.
Whitman is a partner in the law firm of Milton, Leach, Whitman, D’Andrea, Charek & Milton. Over the course of the next year Whitman will lead the state chapter of the American Board of Trial Advocates (FLABOTA) — a nationwide, 100-chapter organization that boasts 6,000 members.
“The membership is evenly divided between plaintiff attorneys and defense attorneys,” said Whitman. “That’s by charter. There has to be an even number of both.”
In Florida, there are 11 FLABOTA chapters and Whitman intends to spend time with each one during his tenure. The group was formed 15 years ago and Whitman has been preceded as president by firm partner Joe Milton and Howard Coker, a partner at Coker, Schickel, Sorenson & Daniel, who was named the FLABOTA “Trial Lawyer of the Year” during the same meeting in which Whitman was elected president. Ben Weaver of Harrell & Harrell is also a past president, however he was with a Ft. Lauderdale law firm at the time he led FLABOTA.
“My role is to lead the state chapter in identifying issues relevant to the organization’s principles and goals,” said Whitman, who had a law firm with Peter Fryefield before Fryefield became a Circuit Court judge. Whitman then spent five years as a sole practitioner before merging with Milton.
Whitman said FLABOTA has three primary goals: protection of the 7th Amendment, which assures a jury trial; protection of judicial independence and promoting legal professionalism. The state organization meets four times annually – twice in person and twice during statewide conference calls. In October, FLABOTA will meet for the first time under Whitman’s guidance, but the meeting isn’t in Florida.
“This fall we meet in Cashiers, N.C. for three days,” said Whitman. “Joe Milton and his wife Cela have a home up there and they host everyone.”
Whitman said many of the members also have homes in the area including former Jacksonville Bar Association President Rutledge Liles and Bob Cole. There’s a golf tournament and plenty of meetings.
“The leaves are also changing during the third weekend in October, so it’s a great retreat,” said Whitman.
In addition to arranging the four meetings, Whitman said he’ll get to at least one meeting of each of the 11 chapters during the year.
“One of my goals is to keep the chapters on the same page,” said Whitman. “Each chapter has one big annual meeting and the FLABOTA president attends.”
One of the perks of being FLABOTA president is getting to pick the venue for the annual meeting. Next summer, Whitman said the conference will be at the Ginn Resort in Palm Coast. He said the conference has gotten bigger every year and he expects to have over 100 next year.
At the conference, Whitman will unveil a project that will take nearly a year to complete. Whitman is teaming with Video Law Services to create a FLABOTA video that will chronicle the history of FLABOTA and part of Whitman’s year as president.
“We will also be very tuned in to making sure we are in a position to respond to unfair criticisms of our judges. They can’t respond in person,” said Whitman, who’s excited about the next year. “It really is something I am looking forward to and enjoy doing.”
Milton, who served as FLABOTA president in 2000, said Whitman will do a great job.
“We are so proud of him,” said Milton. “He is going to do a super job. He’s already better organized than any other president I’ve seen.”
Interesting, both Milton and Whitman have been presidents of the local FLABOTA chapter and both did well. Milton served in 1996 while Whitman served in 2003.
“As presidents, our chapters were recognized as the outstanding local chapter by the national ABOTA,” said Milton. “He’s a good observer and he’ll pick up the good qualities of the past presidents and build on that.”