by David Ball
Staff Writer
As a child, Jonathan Zisser rarely dreamed of becoming a lawyer. Being the son of Jacksonville attorneys Elliot and Carolyn Zisser was a close as he wanted to get.
“I found it incredibly boring and I hated when they would talk about it,” he said of his parents’ common legal-driven dinner table conversations. “It was annoying at first, but as I got older, I started paying a little more attention.”
Although his parents never pushed him, Zisser eventually decided to pursue a law career. He still had no plans to ever join his father and his uncle, Barry Zisser, at their firm or join his mother’s practice.
He saw law as an opportunity to get involved with his first passion – the environment. After graduating from Vermont Law School in 2001, Zisser litigated Endangered Species Act cases in Washington, D.C. He said he could not have been happier.
But just this Thursday, Jonathan officially became the third Zisser at Zisser Robison Brown Nowlis & Maciejewski, which coincidentally specializes in family law. “It’s the family business, and it’s my goal for it to be my firm for the rest of my career,” he said.
Zisser’s journey back to his hometown and family’s law firm is a unique one (somehow involving the Bush administration), but the end result is common among many attorneys in Jacksonville.
Whether father and son, mother and daughter or husband and wife, many local law professionals tend not only to share a bar membership, but also a last name.
A quick scan through a recent Jacksonville professional directory shows more than 300 last names shared by at least two attorneys or judges. While counting the number of related law professionals would be nearly impossible, the anecdotal evidence is that more of those 300 are related than not.
“I have one son and two daughters-in-law practicing,” said Circuit Court Judge Peter Dearing. “Then there’s a whole other Dearing family — Tom Dearing — and we are not related as far as we know. There could be hundreds of examples.”
The trend is obvious in the names of personal injury firms like Farah & Farah, Barnes Barnes & Cohen, Pajcic & Pajcic, Morgan & Morgan, Elrod & Elrod and Harrell & Harrell among others.
Each family likely has its own specific reason for pursuing law or maybe teaming up at a firm, but some general themes do emerge. The most complex relationships, though, may be the ones forged by husbands and wives.
Law school – where love is in the air?
The time when law students graduate and prepare for the bar exam is obviously a stressful time. On top of that, Florida Coastal School of Law graduate Jay Howanitz added a marriage proposal.
“The day before graduation was the day I proposed to her,” said Howanitz, who married his wife and fellow Florida Coastal grad Holly in November 2006.
For many lawyers, law school becomes the great match-maker. Elliot Zisser met his wife at George Washington School of Law in the early 70s, and Peter Dearing’s son, David, met wife Vicki in law school.
“You are living a common life,” said Dearing, “and it’s a natural thing to gravitate towards people who have something in common.”
Holly Howanitz, whose brother and sister-in-law met in law school, said she didn’t fall in love with Jay because he was a lawyer. It just took law school to bring them together.
At home, the couple can often be found “relaxing” on the couch or in bed with laptops, Blackberrys and law books spread out, Holly working on defense cases for Wicker, Smith, O’Hara, McCoy & Ford, and Jay working on plaintiff work for Spohrer & Dodd.
They said they prefer practicing at separate firms as it limits the amount of work that inevitably follows them back home.
“We have our days, and it’s usually interesting conversation at the dinner table,” said Jay. “But when you do bring it home, it’s nice to have someone who understands the demands of the job. It’s also nice to have someone else to pick apart your case. It’s almost like free legal advice.”
Judge James Ruth and wife Michelline Haynes Ruth, general counsel for Geico Insurance, have struck a balance that includes mutual respect for the rigors of each other’s job, as well as the spirit of argument.
“I can’t actively say we argue, but we have debate,” said Michelline. “It’s not unusual for us to start out disagreeing, but by the time we finish I’ve changed his mind and he’s changed my mind, so we still end up disagreeing.”
Sometimes these legal conversations at home can lead to embarrassing moments professionally, as Jonathan Zisser explained.
“I was at a cocktail party with my parents when I was young and they were talking to a judge,” said Zisser. “They brought me over to meet the judge and I said, ‘Oh, you’re judge so and so, I heard about you at the dinner table.’
“I saw their reaction and I got incredibly embarrassed,” he added. “I quickly went and hid in the corner.”
More serious professional conflicts arise when a husband and wife find themselves on opposite sides of the same case, and usually one or both firms have to drop the case.
“We determine on a case by case basis who stays on the case and who doesn’t,” said Carolyn Zisser, who runs her own family law practice at the beaches and enjoys not being the fourth Zisser at her husband’s office.
“Giving each other space is a very good piece of advice for other young lawyer couples,” said Zisser. “But I think you should also be willing to share the responsibilities at home. Don’t be hung up by role differentiation. At home you aren’t lawyers, you are just husband and wife.”
Siblings, but no rivalry
While some married couples prefer to see each other at home and not in the office, many siblings enjoy the bond of working together. The Zissers are a good example.
Nearly 36 years ago, Barry Zisser welcomed his brother, fresh out of law school, into his firm. Elliot said he gave up a very lucrative job in Las Vegas in order to practice with his brother.
“I knew he was going to be a good lawyer because he had great parents,” said Barry. “Plus, my mother insisted I hire him.”
The brothers both debated in high school back in New York, although they rarely argue with each other. One reason may be that Barry is 13 years older and more like a father figure to Elliot than just a brother.
“We do disagree, and that’s very healthy,” said Zisser. “We bounce ideas, theories, methods or as far as taking on a particular client. We’ll thrash that out very heatedly, and one of us will usually convince the other.”
Elliot said sharing a name with a well-known attorney helped him break into the Jacksonville law scene, although now he relishes achieving a certain measure of distinction between his brother, wife and now his son.
Jonathan, who just left the Public Defender’s Office, is now hoping to use his well-known name as entry into private practice while continuing to pursue environmental work on his own.
At 32, he is hoping to have as many years of success as his father and uncle. As for a future successor to the Zisser firm, Jonathan said it would be nice, but not something he’ll be pushing for if he has children.
“It took my dad 32 years to realize he was going to have someone continue on the name,” he said. “When I do have kids, if they want to be a professional surfer, or a lawyer or doctor, whatever path they take is fine with me.”
But if that child is born in Jacksonville, expect a Zisser attorney to be practicing in a courtroom for years to come.