Fort Lauderdale’s Eugene K. Pettis will become the first Black president of the Florida Bar in its 105-year history.

BY STARLA VAUGHNS CHERIN
FLORIDA COURIER

Attorney Eugene K. Pettis is the first African-American president of the Florida Bar in its 105-year history. He is the Florida Bar’s president-elect designate because no other candidates came forward to challenge Pettis in a statewide election.

Eugene K. Pettis will be sworn in as the Florida Bar’s president-elect in June.

Pettis will be sworn in as president-elect at the Bar’s annual convention in June when Tampa attorney Gwynne Alice Young will be sworn in as president. He will become Bar president in 2013 representing more than 93,000 Florida attorneys.

In 1950, there were less than a handful of Black lawyers in Florida who became members of the Bar once it became a unified Bar, making membership mandatory for all Florida lawyers.

‘Reflection of time’

Then, the Bar mirrored society’s racial inequality and injustice. Although it was considered unified, there was little room for African-American advancement in the organization. Timing and steady progress within the Bar marked Pettis’ ascent.

"I recognize the significance of being the first African-American; it is a reflection of time. I have read of others before me that were as qualified or more qualified but didn’t have the opportunity," Pettis told the Florida Courier.

"In decades past, minorities were not as welcomed in the Bar when you have that type of culture. It has taken us a long time to make people feel comfortable to get up and serve.

More leaders expected

"Over 100 years passed and never has an African-American even run. We would have had Henry Latimer, a former judge, in 2005. But other than him, no one has come close," Pettis explained.

"In 1950, there were a handful of African-American lawyers but it’s like Virgil Hawkins – who was rejected and rejected from the University of Florida law school – the opportunities were not there.

"In recent times there have been greater opportunities to go up the ladder of leadership," Pettis noted. "It has taken us 50 years to get the ‘first,’ but it will not take long for a ‘second’ because of the culture of leadership within our community and within the Bar that will produce additional African-American leaders."

Started law firm

Pettis began practicing law in 1985 when he joined Conrad, Scherer and James, where he rapidly learned the fine points of litigation under the mentorship of Rex Conrad. In 1992, Pettis left this firm and with partner James Haliczer began a new law firm, later joined by partner Richard B. Schwamm.

Six years after graduating from law school at the University of Florida, Pettis became the first African-American appointed to the South Florida Water Management District’s governing board.

As a litigator in 1994, Pettis defended a South Florida hospital in a major medical malpractice suit relating to a brain injury of a baby. He won the case in a four-month trial. The plaintiffs appealed and he won a second time in a five-month trial.

He is a member of the invitation-only American College of Trial Lawyers and the American Board of Trial Advocates. He is also a member of the National Bar Association, the legal association historically composed of Black attorneys.

Already state leader

In 2005, he was elected to the Florida Bar’s governing board from the 17th Judicial Circuit (Broward County). He currently serves on the Executive Committee of the Board of Governors and co-chairs the Commission on Review of the Discipline System, which is comprehensively reviewing the Bar’s discipline system.

For three years, Pettis chaired the Bar’s committee that fights to preserve the independence of Florida’s judiciary and led the committee as it launched its benchmarks program for attorneys to teach civics education to adults.

Honored family

Growing up in Fort Lauderdale in the 1960s and 1970s, Pettis was the baby of seven children. Looking back, he says they were poor but there was so much love and sacrifice.

His father, Cyrus, now deceased, was a postal worker. His mother, Sara, is a former teacher’s assistant. The family had everything they needed and his parents worked hard to expose them to opportunities, he remarked.

The family was selected from among 200 families across the nation to be one of the nine Great American Families in 1985 that met then-first lady Nancy Reagan, honorary chairman of the Great American Family Awards Program.

The family was nominated because of their community involvement and activism in Broward County. Sara and Cyrus Pettis worked hard to make sure each of their children had the opportunity to attend college and the older siblings pitched in to help the younger ones pay for college expenses.

Victim of racism

While growing up, Eugene Pettis experienced his share of unfairness that helped propel him to be the man he is today.

In 1971 in sixth grade, attending an all-Black school with all-White teachers, Pettis became another victim of racism and brutality. Running out of the cafeteria after another boy, a White male teacher grabbed his arm, called another coach and they took him behind the office.

He was told to put his hand on a counter and one of the men pulled out a leather strap.

"They both beat me so hard and so many times I lost count and could barely catch my breath. I was out of my mind. I was so torn up. I got home and pulled my pants down. All my buttocks and back were bruised. My dad, who was usually a quiet man, wanted to kill them," Pettis recalled.

Beaten, suspended

During a special investigation, one man said he hit Pettis three times; the other said eight times. They did not know there was a little girl behind the curtains. She was Pettis’ next-door neighbor. She came forward to tell how she counted the number of hits she heard behind the curtain. She had counted 67 times.

After that, Pettis became the fighter and fought every day in school, especially when imposed busing carted Black children to Rogers Middle School in Fort Lauderdale. He remembers getting 32 referrals and being suspended from school.

Upon entering Stranahan High, he had two fights. A teacher told him: "If you get in one more fight, you will be suspended from school."

Says Pettis: "I don’t know what happened. It was like the sky opened up and I changed. I left there with every honor."

Serving community

Imparting education to others is a chief concern to Pettis, who has two daughters. So much so that he and his family manage two scholarship funds for fledgling students: the Eugene and Sheila Pettis and Family Endowment at Broward College – named after he and his wife – along with the Sarah Jones Pettis Scholarship Fund at the University of Florida, named after his mother.

College scholarships have been given to students from Dillard and Stranahan High Schools. He also represents school districts in Broward and Palm Beach County.

Carrying it forward, Pettis intends to ignite the Bar’s membership toward more community involvement, especially in stemming the nearly 50 percent dropout rate of African-American males and females in Florida.

"We have come a long way and we’re pretty comfortable in our homes and jobs. We’ve lost the advocacy of our predecessors. Our creed of professionalism states: ‘I will further my profession’s devotion to public service and to the public good.’

"I can’t think of a better way to fulfill our creed than to serve the Florida Bar. The reach of the Bar and its members’ contributions to public service and public good is unparalleled," Pettis explained.

Reflecting on past

"We need to get back to being advocates in our community. We can’t ignore the problem. This may be about Black children, but in truth it affects all of us. African-American males’ dropout rate is twice that of Whites. That should sound a bell that this is not acceptable education.

"Where are we as leaders of our community? Being advocates of change is something we’ve lost. If you look back at the changes of the civil rights movement, it was lawyers that were at the forefront," he remarked.

Endurance counts

Steady, forthright and committed, Pettis gets his work ethic from his parents. "When I started with my firm in 1985, I noticed my boss was there every morning at 7:30 a.m. I could get there at 7:30 but he was used to that. So I said I would get there before him and stay there when he left.

"To pursue a goal day in and day out, give up some of your life’s pleasures to achieve the goal. It builds character and confidence. My parents taught us to believe in ourselves and trust in God. It may not be on your terms or in your time, but if you stick with it you will accomplish it even when the chips are down. If you believe, you will outlast the challenges and success will be yours."