by Karen Brune Mathis
Managing Editor
Members of the Jacksonville Bankruptcy Bar Association honored the late U.S. Bankruptcy Court Middle District Chief Judge George Proctor last week by establishing a scholarship in his name at the University of Florida Levin College of Law.
Proctor died at the age of 81 in 2007.
Attorney Jacob Brown with Akerman Senterfitt clerked for U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Jerry Funk and knew Proctor. Brown announced the scholarship at the annual meeting of the bankruptcy bar Wednesday at The River Club Downtown.
“He was a great person,” said Brown, recalling Proctor’s love for his grandchildren and the Florida Gators.
Brown also recalled Proctor’s informal 7 a.m. meetings with his law clerks, his hospitality in taking his clerks to steak dinners and the Alhambra dinner theater, handing out newly issued gold dollar coins and ordering in from Worman’s Bakery & Deli for his birthday.
“This is a good way to memorialize Judge Proctor and it’s a great cause,” said Brown.
Proctor’s daughter, Cindy Demri, and her husband, Moti Demri, attended the lunch.
Brown is a member of the 110-member bankruptcy bar’s board of directors. The 2011-12 officers and board members were approved and announced at the meeting.
They are:
• President: Mark Mitchell, with Akerman Senterfitt
• Vice President: J. Ellsworth Summers, with Rogers Towers.
• Secretary: Robert Heekin, with Stutsman Thames & Markey.
• Treasurer: Jason Burgess, The Law Offices of Jason Burgess.
• Chair and immediate Past President Doug Neway, Chapter 13 Standing Trustee of the Middle District Jacksonville Division of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court.
In addition to Brown, the board of directors includes Jerrett McConnell, Friedline & McConnell; Edward Jackson, Edward P. Jackson, P.A.; Nina LaFleur, LaFleur Law Firm; Rehan Khawaja, The Law Offices of Rehan N. Khawaja; and Kevin Paysinger, with the Bankruptcy Law Firm of Lansing J. Roy.
Mitchell, who clerked for Proctor, told the members that he hoped to serve them well.
“The Jacksonville Bankruptcy Bar Association has benefited from a lot of talent in this town,” he said.
“We have a great Bar in Jacksonville and great judges,” he said.
Middle District Chief Judge Paul Glenn attended and after the meeting said he expected bankruptcy filings in the Middle District to decline slightly this calendar year from last year, which was a record.
The Middle District encompasses 35 of the state’s 67 counties, including the metropolitan areas of Jacksonville, Orlando, Tampa, Daytona Beach, Ocala and Fort Myers.
According to the U.S. District Court Middle District of Florida website, the district stretches more than 350 miles from the Georgia border to south of Naples on the southwest coast. The clerk’s office is based in Orlando with divisions in Jacksonville, Tampa, Fort Myers and Ocala.
More than 10 million people or more than 57 percent of the state’s population reside, in the district. Also, 15 of the 20 most densely populated counties are in the district.
The website shows that about 18.4 million permanent residents are in the district.
The district is one of the busiest federal district courts in the nation, it states.
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