As you may have heard, the Jacksonville Bar Association is in a period of transition. Long-time executive director Craig Shoup has left the organization to pursue new opportunities.
The board has embarked on a strategic planning process, mapping out its ambitious vision for the next five years.
While the board plans and searches for a permanent executive director, local attorney Jon McGowan has stepped in as interim.
Jon is a familiar face in Jacksonville and at the JBA. He was involved in local politics for many years.
He currently serves as the chair of the JBA Government Relations Committee and was presented Chair of the Year for 2023-24.
He is an attorney at the McGowan Law Firm, where he practices international law, with a focus on climate change and sustainability regulations, and administrative law, both as a special magistrate and represents law students before the Florida Board of Bar Examiners.
However, law wasn’t his first career. Jon jokingly refers to law school as his “midlife crisis.” He started at Florida State University College of Law at the age of 39, where he obtained a Certificate in Environmental, Natural Resources and Land Use Law along with his J.D.
While at FSU, he studied in the summer at Oxford Program. Six months later, he was back in England, studying in London with the University of Iowa College. That opened doors internationally.
While in law school, he was asked by the American Bar Association to write a chapter in a book on impact investing.
His chapter focused on legal developments in the United Kingdom. The work to learn an emerging area of law in a foreign jurisdiction was tedious.
At the end, he had a unique knowledge base on international legal development in sustainability reporting as the market began to boom.
From there, he authored multiple legal journal articles. He was published by the Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy, the University of Chicago Business Law Review and the ABA International Law Journal.
He has spoken at international law conferences in Washington, D.C., England and Croatia. He authored a reference book on Florida’s Constitution, and a second on New York’s Constitution.
He also has an expert analysis column in Forbes, where he writes about developments in sustainability reporting, climate change regulations and environmental, social and governance. He is frequently quoted in international media outlets.
His international network is boosted through his involvement with the European Law Institute. ELI is a think tank based at the University of Vienna that works on legal development for the European Union.
The organization comprises academics, practitioners and senior judges primarily from Europe.
Jon was elected to be a fellow in 2020. In September 2025, he was elected to the Council, the governing body of the organization, for a four-year term.
He is the first American elected to leadership in the organization’s history.
He will serve alongside the chief justice of the Supreme Court of Austria, the master of the rolls (chief judge) of England and Wales, and other prestigious legal minds.
In June 2025, he was selected to join the roster of Fulbright Specialists as a legal expert in sustainability and climate change law.
During their three-year term on the roster, experts can be matched with information exchange programs at institutions around the world.
Back home, he enjoys his life at the beach. An alumnus of the University of Florida, he has been a season ticket holder for Gators basketball for more than 20 years.
His hobby is nature photography. He owns the Jax Beach Arts Market, a monthly(ish) event featuring local arts and crafts.
His love for the arts also drives his travels as he visits galleries and performances around the world.
He is also a big fan of stand-up comedy and is a regular at both The Florida Theatre and Comedy Zone.
For now, Jon is putting in the long hours of running both a law practice and serving full-time as the interim executive director of the JBA.
It is anticipated that a permanent executive director will be in place early 2026. Until then, the JBA is in steady hands.