JACKSONVILLE ATTORNEY IN LINE FOR FLORIDA BAR PRESIDENT

Decenber 17, 2004

TALLAHASSEE -- Jacksonville attorney Henry M. "Hank" Coxe III has become president-elect designate of The Florida Bar. Mr. Coxe will be sworn in at the June Annual Meeting in Orlando as president-elect when current President-elect Alan Bookman is sworn in as president. Mr. Coxe will be sworn in as president in June 2006.

In describing his outlook for the Bar, he referred to the Florida Supreme Court’s 1949 opinion that created The Florida Bar. In that opinion, Mr. Coxe said, "the court found that 'we cannot shut our eyes to the fact that, like other institutions of the country, it [the legal profession] is under attack and we have a duty to meet that attack courageously. We think this duty devolves on the Bar as a whole.' There is really only one issue and that is the protection of the profession and the judiciary while serving the public.”

The best way to accomplish that, Mr. Coxe added, is by “ensuring for generations to come that the judiciary remains an independent third branch of government, and that judges can make decisions independent of public opinion, media and the other two branches of government, just as the other two branches of government should be able to operate contitutionally independently of the judiciary.”

To some extent, that involves bucking some current trends. “I marvel at the extent we go to teach our children about the importance of the three branches of government and in reality so many adults can ignore it when it suits their purpose,” Mr. Coxe said.

Mr. Coxe has served on the Bar's Board of Governors since 1995, and has chaired its Legislative Committee and the Disciplinary Review Committee, among other duties. He is currently the chair of the Special Commission on Lawyer Regulation, which is performing a top to bottom review of the Bar’s grievance process.

After getting his undergraduate degree in political science from the University of the South, Mr. Coxe got his law degree from Washington & Lee University in 1972. He joined the Virginia Bar in 1972, and the Florida Bar in 1973, when he also joined the Fourth Circuit State Attorney’s Office, eventually heading up the felony division and the special prosecution division that handled complex prosecutions. From 1981 to 1996, Mr. Coxe ran his own firm and then in 1996 he joined the firm of Bedell, Dittmar, DeVault, Pillans & Coxe. Mr. Coxe concentrates his practice in criminal defense.

He also has extensive experience in a variety of state and local bar activities. He is a past president of the Jacksonville Bar Association, serves on the board of Jacksonville Area Legal Aid, and as a master of the Chester Bedell Inn of Court. Mr. Coxe has chaired the Fourth Circuit Judicial Nominating Commission and served on the First District Court of Appeal JNC, and has also headed the Disciplinary Grievance Committee of the U.S. District Court, Jacksonville Division.

CONTACT: Jennifer Krell Davis, The Florida Bar
DATE: Dec. 17, 2004
TELEPHONE: 850/561-5666