from staff
Florida Bar President Jay White appointed Jacksonville banker Andrew B. Cheney to The Florida Bar’s Citizens Forum for a three-year term.
An advisory group of 12 citizens with varied interests and backgrounds, the Citizens Forum provides two-way communication between the state’s major citizen constituencies and the Bar’s Board of Governors.
A career banker with more than 30 years in the industry, Cheney was appointed president of Mercantile Bank eight years ago. He has served as Jacksonville Market President and Commercial Growth Group Executive for Bank of America. For 23 years, Cheney was with Barnett Bank, beginning as a loan officer and going on to be president of Barnett Bank of Alachua County at the age of 29. He became president of Barnett Bank of Jacksonville in 1992.
A community advocate and volunteer, Cheney is a former chairman of the Jacksonville Regional Chamber of Commerce, Enterprise North Florida, Gator Bowl and United Way of Northeast Florida. He is a graduate of the University of Florida, where he received a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration and also graduated from the Stonier Graduate School of Banking.
The Citizens Forum gives feedback to the Bar’s 52-member governing board and serves as a sounding board for Bar plans and programs. Three attorney members are also appointed annually to serve as resources to the Forum, which meets three times a year, usually at Board of Governors meetings.
Among recent issues considered by the Citizens Forum are making public access to lawyer disciplinary history via The Florida Bar Web’s site readily available and tightening lawyer solicitation rules.
The other three newly appointed Citizens Forum members are Nancy Biesinger of Tampa, Connie Reeves Bookman of Pensacola, and Marni Stahlman of Winter Park.
The Citizens Forum’s first meeting of the Bar’s fiscal year will be July 24 in conjunction with the Board of Governors meeting in Clearwater Beach.