Growing up in a middle-class family in a blue-collar neighborhood, Steve Pajcic could not have dreamed that his path would lead him to Princeton University and Harvard Law School on his way to co-founding one of Jacksonville’s largest local law firms.
“I have been lucky,” Pajcic said.
Pajcic’s father supported the family – his wife, two boys and four girls – by working at Naval Air Station Jacksonville as a carpenter and then a grounds maintenance supervisor.
At an early age, Pajcic and his brother, Gary, knew they wanted to do things together.
“We had a paper route. That was our first business. I was just 11 and I lied about my age to get the job. I couldn’t keep the bike upright and one day, I ran it into a ditch with the Sunday papers, so I lost that,” Pajcic said.
He tried it again a year later and delivered newspapers until he was 18.
At Paxon High School, Pajcic was student body class president and valedictorian. He played basketball and was voted most valuable player in the state high school all-star basketball game.
He was recruited to Princeton by a Jacksonville alumni group that visited Paxon, and he made the decision to move to New Jersey. To put himself through college, he waited on tables and later was hired as a research assistant for a professor.
“They didn’t have sports scholarships back then, but I played on the (basketball) team. I wasn’t good enough to be a starter, but it was fun,” Pajcic said.
While he was on the team, Princeton made it to the NCAA Men’s Basketball Championship Elite Eight in 1964 and to the Final Four in 1965.
“It was perfect. I had all the enjoyment without the pressure to perform,” Pajcic said.
A career in law
Pajcic graduated magna cum laude from Princeton with a degree in economics and as a member of Phi Beta Kappa.
His senior thesis, “The Economic Desirability of a Corporate Income Tax for Florida,” became part of Democrat Reubin Askew’s successful campaign for Florida governor in 1970.
After Princeton, Pajcic stayed in the Ivy League and enrolled at Harvard Law School.
After receiving a J.D., Pajcic was admitted to The Florida Bar in April 1972, and then joined a Jacksonville law firm. His brother, Gary, graduated from Florida State University School of Law about a year later and was hired as an assistant state attorney in Jacksonville.
The motivation behind their boyhood paper route repeated itself when the brothers decided to go into private practice and founded Pajcic & Pajcic in 1974.
“We wanted to do something together where we could do some good. A business we could start together without much money was being lawyers,” Pajcic said.
With a $10,000 loan from a banker Pajcic worked with while he was at the law firm, they rented a small office in the Schultz Building Downtown.
“It was the cheapest rent we could find,” Pajcic said.
It provided just enough space for offices for brothers and a reception room where Steve Pajcic’s late wife, Anne, was office manager.
“Gary and I had three rules,” Pajcic said. “Be ethical, do a good job for our clients and enjoy what we do. If you do those things, the money and success will work out.”
The firm now has more than 50 attorneys and staff in more than 16,000 square feet of space at 1 Independent Square a few blocks from that first office.
Splitting time between Jacksonville and Tallahassee
The same year the brothers launched their firm, Steve Pajcic was elected to the first of six terms in the state House of Representatives.
“Legislative service is a good thing to do with your life. You can do some real good,” he said.
Chairman of the House Finance and Taxation Committee, Pajcic was primary sponsor of the legislation that increased Florida’s homestead property tax exemption from $5,000 to $25,000.
“My focus was to give tax relief to working people who needed it. I thought the homestead exemption was the clearest and easiest way to do it. It was a big jump back then and a big help to people and families,” Pajcic said.
In 1986, Pajcic ran for governor.
In a five-candidate Democratic primary, Pajcic drew 35.9% of the vote, forcing a runoff with the second-place candidate, State Attorney General James Smith.
Both candidates stated in a televised debate that if they lost the runoff, they would endorse the eventual nominee. After Pajcic got 50.64% of the vote, Smith gave Pajcic a less than enthusiastic endorsement that didn’t help unite the party behind its candidate.
With the Democratic ranks split, Tampa Mayor Bob Martinez got 54.6% of the vote in the general election to become the first Republican governor in Florida since Reconstruction after the Civil War.
That ended Steve Pajcic’s career seeking elected office, but he and his brother remained a force in Jacksonville politics.
Helping a sheriff make history
When Jacksonville Sheriff Jim McMillan announced he would retire in 1996, the Pajcic brothers attended a candidate forum.
McMillan had three directors, now called undersheriffs, and he mentioned two of them. Pajcic said that when asked why the third – Nat Glover - was not included, McMillan said he didn’t think Jacksonville was ready for a Black sheriff.
“The newspaper and the TV stations made a big deal out if it,” Pajcic said.
Soon after, at a reception for candidates in the upcoming election, Pajcic weighed in on the question.
“My opinion on whether Jacksonville was ready was that it was really up to the community to decide whether it was ready or not,” Pajcic said.
After consulting with Gary, Pajcic said they made the decision to support Glover if he wanted to enter the race for sheriff.
They had lunch with the potential candidate.
“Nat asked us what we thought he should do. We said we weren’t in the business to tell him what to do, but if he was committed to do it, we would help,” Pajcic said.
In the April 1995 election, Glover defeated two white opponents, receiving 55% of the vote and majorities in 14 of the 15 voting districts. It was enough to head off a runoff election, and Glover became Jacksonville’s first Black sheriff since Reconstruction.
“We became really close friends during the course of the campaign. I often say he is my best friend,” Pajcic said.
Philanthropy and education
The Pajcics have a long history in philanthropy, focused on promoting education opportunities for underserved young people in Jacksonville.
“Education has benefits for everybody. The better educated the populace is, the better everything is. Better workers, less crime, everything,” Pajcic said.
In 1992, the brothers established a $1 million endowment at the University of North Florida to pay part of the tuition for Paxon High School graduates that are accepted at UNF and qualify for financial aid. The program has since expanded to include students at Jean Ribault and William Raines high schools, Pajcic said.
The brothers donated $1 million in 2002 to support education and teachers at five inner-city elementary schools in Duval County.
Before Anne’s death in 2014, she and Steve donated $2 million to Edward Waters College, the largest amount the historically Black college has received in a single donation. The gift was accepted by Glover, who then had become EWC’s president after he retired from law enforcement.
Another philanthropic project is the annual “yard golf” tournament that benefits Jacksonville Area Legal Aid.
What began as a family backyard game with Wiffle balls and “holes” made of cardboard evolved into a significant fundraising effort.
The front nine is at Steve Pajcic’s home on Richmond Street in Avondale; the back nine is at son Michael’s home five doors away.
Entry fee donations and sponsorship contributions are matched 100% by Pajcic & Pajcic. In 2024, the friendly competition that draws attorneys, community leaders and celebrities surpassed the $1 million mark raised for JALA.
Pajcic’s current main philanthropic project is Riverside Turning Point, a nonprofit that works with young African American men to guide them toward college.
“The kids won’t be going to prison – most of them. They will be productive members of society,” Pajcic said. “Everything I do is a drop in the bucket, but you do what you can.”
The future of the family business
Pajcic, 79, goes to the office most days of the week, where he works Michael and three of Gary’s sons, Curry, Curtis and Seth.
Gary Pajcic died in 2006 at age 58 after a brief illness.
In addition to family members, there are a lot of familiar faces when the elder partner goes to the office.
“More than half of the staff has been with us for 20 years or more. We have developed a team spirit mission,” Pajcic said.
The practice has considerably changed since 1974.
“When we started, Gary and I would take anything that came in the door – people who were in jail or they needed a divorce or they had been hurt,” Pajcic said.
“We gradually narrowed it down to personal injury because we felt the best about what we could do and it offered us success,” he said.
Pajcic said the firm can cite victories on behalf of its clients but has “had our share of losses and we have learned from them.”
“I think you can learn more from losing than from winning,” he said.
“We are relatively small and we don’t advertise on TV. We are lucky to be not only surviving, but thriving. The law practice keeps getting better and better because we learn more and more.”