Jake Schickel received the Justice Ray Ehrlich Trial Advocacy Award at February’s Jacksonville Bar Association meeting.
The award is given to a member of the Jacksonville legal community who “embodies professionalism, humanitarianism and integrity, and who sets a good example for others through steadfast obedience to ethics, aggressive advocacy and a driving force to do what’s right,” according to a news release.
The award is given in the name of Ehrlich, a former justice of the Florida Supreme Court and well-known Jacksonville civil trial attorney, who died in 2005.
Schickel is a founding partner of Coker, Schickel, Sorenson, Posgay, Camerlengo & Iracki and specializes in personal injury, products liability, professional negligence, mediation and workers’ compensation.
Previous honors and achievements include Lawyer of the Year for 2014 from the Jacksonville chapter of ABOTA and the Justice Harry Lee Anstead “Board-Certified Lawyer of the Year” award from The Florida Bar.
He also is an adjunct professor at the Florida Coastal School of Law, a trustee at the University of Florida Levin College of Law and a fellow of the American Bar Foundation, according to the news release.
Wes White files to run for state attorney in 2016
Former assistant state attorney Wes White filed paperwork Friday to run for state attorney in the 4th Judicial Circuit.
White, 58, will likely run against his former boss, State Attorney Angela Corey, who told The Florida Times-Union in October that she plans to seek a third term.
While in private practice, White was a supporter of Corey’s in 2008 when she sought her first term. He was then hired to lead Corey’s office in Nassau County in January 2009. He resigned in 2012, criticizing Corey in an email for treating the Nassau County office as an “unwanted stepchild.”
White later represented Ben Kruidbos, an employee of Corey’s office who was terminated during the time she handled the George Zimmerman trial. Zimmerman was charged in the shooting death of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin in Sanford.
Kruidbos, an information technology employee, testified he found evidence on Martin’s cellphone that Corey’s office did not turn over to Zimmerman’s defense counsel.
Corey’s office said Kruidbos was terminated, among other reasons, for poor oversight of the office and violating public records laws. White said Kruidbos was fired in retaliation for sharing information about what he found on Martin’s phone.
White graduated from the University of Miami, then entered law school at the University of Florida when he was 19.
He and his wife, Pat, have three adult children.