Being the managing partner of a full-service legal firm and president of The Jacksonville Bar Association can be time-consuming, but Michael Freed knows life could be more daunting.
Freed, managing partner of Brennan, Manna & Diamond’s Florida office, returned to the city following a career with the Skadden firm in Washington, D.C., which took a lot of his time from his family.
“I wanted to focus on other things,” he said, referring to his wife and children. “I never saw them.”
So he moved back to Jacksonville, where he had attended undergraduate school at Jacksonville University, and hasn’t looked back.
The city, he said, offers the best of both quality of life and business and is a place he’ll remain.
He said the firm of 17 has grown in the past four years and will continue to expand as the opportunity presents itself.
Aside from the everyday job, where he has served some high-profile cases such as the Mark Brunell bankruptcy reorganization. Freed also serves as the 2011-12 president of The Jacksonville Bar Association.
The position generally takes 2-4 hours of each workday, but he’s been prepared throughout the years by former leadership and his association involvement.
His goals are to re-energize both engagement and mentorship throughout the association’s ranks of 2,100 members.
“We want to keep rolling up our sleeves to get involved,” he said.
His best advice in his early career was easy to recall.
“You need to do the right thing for the right reasons,” he said. “If you do, success will follow. And if it doesn’t, at least you’ll be able to sleep at night.”
He and his wife have five children from 2 to 16. He and his wife try to arrange interesting vacations.
For example, The JBA representation at national conferences has led to some extensive travel so he’ll take some of the children along and stay an extra day or two when possible to see the sights.
The last vacation for the entire gang, though, was a “staycation” in town with a different activity or mini-excursion each day.
“It was a fun time,” he said.
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