from staff
Ft. Lauderdale attorney Jesse H. Diner has become President-elect designate of The Florida Bar after being elected without opposition. The commercial and construction litigator will be sworn in as president-elect in June, when current president-elect John G. “Jay” White of West Palm Beach becomes president for the 2008-09 Bar year. Diner will be sworn in as president of the Bar in June 2009.
Diner said the Bar and the legal profession will face many challenges in the coming years.
“Certainly judicial funding in a state that has a budgetary crisis is the first thing,” he said, noting that the state has already cut $1.2 billion from its current budget and will cut another $2.5 billion in March.
Guaranteeing the courts have enough money to operate effectively and quickly resolve disputes is paramount, he said.
Diner said diversity in the sense of inclusion is also extremely important as is maintaining a fair and impartial judiciary.
“Judicial independence is always one issue away from being a major issue,” said Diner, who among his many Bar positions had chaired its Judicial Independence Committee.
After attending South Broward High in Hollywood, Diner received his undergraduate degree from Gettysburg College, with a major in political science and minors in economics and history. He also serves on the Board of Trustees for the college. Diner received his law degree from St. John’s University. He became a member of The Florida Bar in 1973.
Currently, he is a name shareholder in Atkinson, Diner, Stone, Mankuta & Ploucha in Fort Lauderdale, where he has an active litigation practice.
Diner has also served on The Florida Bar Board of Governors since 1996. He has three times served as chair of the board’s Budget Committee and twice, including the current Bar year, as chair of the Legislation Committee. He has also been chair of the Communications, Member Benefits, and Investment board committees, as well as the inaugural chair of the Judicial Independence Committee. He has been the board liaison to the Professional Ethics Committee for several years, and has served several terms on the board’s Executive Committee, which is empowered to act for the board between its meetings. He is a member of the Bar’s Real Property, Probate and Trust Law Section and the Trial Lawyers Section.
In addition to his Florida Bar activities, Diner is a past president of the Broward County Bar Association and a past president of the Legal Aid Service of Broward County. He has served as a trustee for the City of Miami Firefighters’ and Police Officers’ Pension Board from 1985 until September 2007.