Edward R. Blumberg.

• Author: Blankenship, Gary
• Position: Florida

Described by friends as an exceptionally hard worker deeply dedicated to the practice of law, the new president has plans for significant action during the coming year.

When you meet Ed Blumberg, his boyish face topped by slightly unruly black hair with an occasional gray strand breaks readily into a smile that spreads to his eyes. He shakes hands enthusiastically. "Are you doing okay?" he invariably asks.

Beneath the gregarious exterior, though, lie several serious streaks, streaks of strong feelings about his practice, his profession, and the people in his life.

He is serious when he talks about the catastrophically injured clients he's represented over the past 23 years. "In the practice of law, it is essential that we always utilize our greatest efforts. Representing them is an awesome responsibility, and one we do not take lightly."

He believes passionately in the importance of lawyers, calling the practice of law "the highest calling in the secular world."

He believes individual lawyers, and The Florida Bar, need to keep working to restore the respect once accorded members of the legal profession. "You go to a hospital and watch how they treat doctors. Everybody falls all over them--`Yessir, doctor so-and-so,' `Right away, doctor!' Then go to the courthouse. How do they treat lawyers? They search us! Restoring respect to the profession has got to be one of our major goals."

And his dedication to his family -- wife Iliana and eight-year-old twins Robert ("Beau") and Caroline -- is legendary among members of the Board of Governors, where he is known as the only one to consistently punctuate three-day board meetings with nightly flights home. That tradition held true during the past six months, as he prepared for his year as president with frequent trips to Bar headquarters in Tallahassee. He'll get out of an afternoon meeting at the Capitol, go home to Coral Gables and be back, early, for another meeting at 9 a.m. With characteristic self-deprecation, he says of the twins, "At least they act like they're glad to see me, which is good."

"When all is said and done, Ed will be remembered as a `lawyers' president," says Burton Young, the former Bar president Blumberg considers his mentor in Bar work. "He loves being a lawyer, and he is very concerned with how lawyers are faring throughout the state."

Blumberg has served on the Board of Governors since 1987. In addition to a lot of frequent flyer miles, he has acquired a few tricks over the years that help him keep all his plates spinning.

"Ed's watch never tells the correct time, on purpose," notes Scott Baena, a friend of the new president for 22 years. "It's not less than 40 minutes ahead of real time. That habit goes a long way to explaining the nature of the man. He's always ahead of you."

"Ed is an extremely hard worker," adds Circuit Judge Thomas Carney, Jr., a close friend who met Blumberg when they worked opposite sides of a case 20 years ago. "If I want to reach Ed at 6 or 7 in the evening, I'll call his office. If I want to reach him on Sunday, I'll call his office. He's what a lawyer should be -- he works very hard for his clients, and he's an honorable man."

"He prepares so thoroughly .... I've never seen anyone put so much time and effort into preparing a case and polishing it," agrees Cecyl L. Pickle, who gave Blumberg his first job out of law school, as a clerk at Knight Peters Hoeveler Pickle Niemoeller & Flynn, one of Miami's oldest firms. "He makes it look so easy when he gets to court. It looks like everything he does couldn't happen any other way. He doesn't ask you to believe him, he tells you why you should. He's the product of hard work and talent."

"I served with him on the Board of Governors for four years, and served on a grievance committee three years before that, and I am on the grievance committee again. I've met a lot of lawyers, and I can tell you Ed Blumberg is the finest lawyer I have ever met," Dr. Theodore Struhl says. "He goes way out of his way for his clients, works very hard, is extremely ethical. He is an excellent family man, who is raising his children beautifully. And he likes to have fun he plays guitar very nicely, plays the piano by ear very nicely, and has a good sense of humor."

"Ed's got that great, relaxing smile and manner, and that great sense of humor," adds past Bar President Bill Blews, who named Blumberg chair of the Legislation Committee during a challenging legislative session. "But his easy manner notwithstanding, he is extremely focused on his goals. He has a refined appreciation of the proper role of The Florida Bar, which takes some time to acquire, and has provided great leadership on the Board of Governors. We couldn't have a better president during the constitution revision process. He understands the process, understands the legislature. He has a lot of street smarts about how things work."

Early Years

Blumberg was born February 15, 1951, in Pennsylvania. His father was a businessman from a Philadelphia family, his mother an aspiring artist from Atlanta who had travelled north to further her education. When the marriage failed after a few years, his mother returned with her son to her hometown.

"My mother's family, the Peixottos, was one of the first Jewish families in the United States," Blumberg, an eighth-generation American, says. "They were kicked out of Portugal during the Inquisition and went to the Netherlands, then to the West Indies and eventually to colonial America at Providence, and spread south from there. Some generations prospered and some generations did not prosper. There were a lot of rabbis -- my great-grandfather was the rabbi in Key West, and there are still a very few living down there whom he bar mitzvahed back in the early part of the century."

"More importantly, though, the real beauty of the United States, and particularly of Florida, is that it doesn't matter where you're from or what your father did for a living -- what counts is what you can do with your own ability and hard work. And that's what's great about the practice of law. How you do is determined by how hard you're willing to work."

Friends uniformly describe Blumberg as an incredibly hard worker, a trait that started when, as a pre-teen, he mowed lawns and delivered the Atlanta Journal. He landed a job at 15 as a stock clerk and then salesman at a shoe store in Atlanta. He recalls those times as educational -- you can learn a lot about human nature selling shoes" -- if somewhat dangerous -- "I walked a couple of miles home at night along a busy road; I wouldn't let my kids do that today." He proved adept at selling, earning as much as $200 a week while working part-time, a respectable salary back then even for a professional.

High school activities included studying Latin (he won several statewide awards for his proficiency, ranking third in the state during his sophomore year and second as a junior) and membership in the debate team, where he recalls with irony doing better defending than on the affirmative side.

After graduation from North Fulton High School, he entered the University of Georgia, majoring in psychology. He was considering three careers -- medicine, psychology and law because he saw them as helping people.

"Being a medical doctor, that's a special commitment. You have to have a special calling. I'm not sure I have that calling," he says. As for psychology, two summers working in a mental hospital as a psychiatric assistant dimmed that prospect.

"The people I thought I had helped the first summer and who were discharged were there again next summer," he remembers. "I knew I wanted to do something more concrete in terms of being able to help someone."

As for the third possibility, "I had the opportunity to take the LSAT when I was a junior, and I scored very high. That sealed my fate."

During undergraduate school Blumberg also sold travel plans door-to-door, which gave him more lessons in human nature -- and an insight into his own nature that has shaped his law practice. "I became disenchanted with the product, and I quit. I learned from that. I cannot do something I do not truly believe in."

He and another student next talked to local restaurant-owners and worked up a coupon book offering discounts on meals for university students. A local attorney did the necessary legal work for free, an example of a lawyer's willingness to help someone in need that Blumberg has not...