by Joe Wilhelm Jr.
Staff Writer
The legal community can dip into the fountain of youth as a member of the Jacksonville Bar Association.
The Young Lawyers Division of the JBA accepts lawyers who are 35 years old or younger or who have been practicing less than five years. The organization within the JBA provides opportunities for young lawyers to network with other young lawyers, volunteering with charitable causes and learning from a variety of guest speakers.
The combination of age and length of practice allows for a membership of varying ages. Currently its youngest member is 25 while the most senior is 63, according to the JBA.
Eileen LaCivita, 25, of Tritt & Franson utilized advanced placement courses at Fort Walton Beach High to accumulate 21 college credits before she stepped on campus at Florida State University in 2001.
“My family has always encouraged me to get finished and not take a break,” said LaCivita. “The benefit of getting my degrees so early is that by my early to mid 30s I will have more experience than most of my colleagues.”
Her next goal is board certification in construction law.
“I’m on track to be board certified in construction law by the time I’m 30,” said LaCivita. “The certification singles you out as a specialist and sets me apart from peers to serve clients.”
The gray hair gets Charlie Stambaugh, 63, of Vernis & Bowling singled out at Young Lawyers meetings.
“On one hand I’m proud to be a part of it,” said Stambaugh. “On the other hand, I feel awkward when I attend Young Lawyers functions because people usually ask me if I’m the guest speaker. It’s fun to raise my hand and say I’m one of the new guys.”
Stambaugh earned a bachelor’s in marketing from the University of Maryland in 1970 and began his career in sales and marketing management in 1971 while working on his master’s degree in business administration. He worked for General Electric’s Information Services Company before taking a job with AT&T’s American Transtech. The move to another company also signaled Stambaugh’s move from Baltimore to Jacksonville. He retired from the corporate world in 1999, but free time was short-lived.
“I was having too much fun, so my wife thought I should do something constructive,” said Stambaugh. “The real estate market was getting hot at the time, so I got my license.”
Not content with real estate investment and development, Stambaugh decided to put himself to the test and passed the LSAT with little preparation.
“The thought of going back to school at 59 wasn’t that appealing,” said Stambaugh. “I didn’t want to sit in a room where I couldn’t express my own views and had to worry about intimidation from the professor.
“(The Florida Coastal School of Law) treated me like a customer rather than student. I really enjoyed the non-traditional atmosphere.”
All-night study sessions may be harder for Stambaugh than his younger counterparts, but he felt he had an edge in the classroom.
“I think I had an advantage approaching law school at this age because most of the cases we studied included situations that I had gone through and had an opinion about,” said Stambaugh. “They had meaning to me, as though I had been there. It didn’t feel foreign at all.”
He also had a familiarity with his first boss as a lawyer.
“A friend had called me to find out about office space to start a law firm in Jacksonville and I found them a property,” said Stambaugh. “They called me and asked me to start a real estate practice at their office moments after I found out I had passed the bar.”
He is excited about his good fortune, but quick to put it in perspective.
“I have always been fascinated by the law and I’m learning a lot,” said Stambaugh, “but I’m not trying to duplicate a career.”
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