Scott G. Hawkins: president of The Florida Bar: 'focused on doing what's right'.

AuthorPudlow, Jan

Crazy about baseball when he was a kid, Scott Hawkins could hit, field, and pitch. He may have only been nine years old, but he had a strong arm to throw runners out, honed by practicing with rocks aimed at his younger sister.

Except for right field and first base, he played every position in Tampa's Little League, batting second or third.

When he was 11, he mustered confidence to compete to advance to the Senior League. When he was passed over, he was pretty upset.

A few years later, he was captain of the Orioles, a minor division team of the Senior League. Pitching on opening day, Scott impressively struck out several batters, and the coach for the Chargers, the preeminent upper-division Senior League team, was watching.

"We want you to join our team," the Chargers coach invited Scott, an ego-boosting reversal of earlier rejection.

Scott felt torn about what to do. The Orioles players begged Scott not to leave the team.

But a chance to play for the Chargers packed a jolt of joy.

Scott's first hero, his grandfather George Wells, was visiting from Canada, and gave wise advice about the importance of loyalty.

After wrestling with his decision all weekend, Scott decided to stay with the Orioles. That year, they went on to win the championship.

The following year, Scott was drafted by the Chargers, finishing his Senior League career playing with them. It was a winning trifecta: Scott did the right thing, the Orioles won the championship, and he still got to play for the Chargers.

"The lesson here is things come around in life," said Hawkins from his West Palm Beach law office, sitting four feet away from a framed picture of Grandfather Wells wearing a three-piece suit and a stern expression at his tidy desk.

Things have come around for 53-year-old Hawkins, who has wanted to be president of The Florida Bar since he was a young lawyer. After a three-month statewide campaign, Hawkins won without the necessity of a contested presidential election.

Those who know him best say Hawkins is the right Bar president at a crucial time confronting wide-ranging legislative attacks on the judicial branch.

"He will bring with him a measured, level-headed approach to finding resolutions, rather than being a bomb-thrower," said former Bar President John DeVault of Jacksonville.

Marshall Criser, president of the Bar in 1968 and former president of the University of Florida who knew Hawkins when he was a law student, said: "Scott is very conscientious, thoughtful, and well-prepared in everything he proposed to advocate for. He's reasoned, but he can be forcefully effective. At this particular time in Florida Bar history, there's a lot going on in the legislature and elsewhere where the leadership of the Bar is important. I can't think of anyone better to assume that leadership role."

Interviews with three dozen partners, co-counsel, legal adversaries, clients, family, and friends paint this picture of Hawkins: fair-minded thinker, observant listener, organized perfectionist, aggressive yet dignified advocate, honest adversary, consensus-builder, skilled compromiser, analytical decider, solid guy with a warm sense of humor, quietly spiritual gentleman, a straight arrow.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

When Hawkins explains how he will approach this particularly challenging year of his presidency, he weaves a philosophical answer about his desire to preserve and strengthen the Bar.

"Our strength is in our moral credibility and the force of law. I firmly believe, in terms of The Florida Bar's reputation as an institution, that it is very, very important that we be perceived and act as a nonpartisan entity, that we not be aligned with any particular party, that we be viewed as an honest broker and resource in the state," said Hawkins, a self-described moderate Republican.

"I think one of our most important roles in the state is to provide balanced and sound judgment on the legislature's proposed issues, and to do that we have to be viewed as absolutely credible."

Many say Hawkins' desire to serve as Bar president has nothing to do with ego and personal power-grabbing and everything to do with stewardship.

At the UF College of Law, where Hawkins serves as a trustee, Dean Bob Jerry said he was delighted to discover he and Hawkins share an interest in servant leadership, a philosophy he described as "leadership most starkly manifested through service to others."

Hawkins definitely has that servant leadership trait, Jerry said.

"I think that motivates him more than anything," Jerry said. "A word that I would use above all to describe him is 'integrity.' He models something all of us in the profession ought to make a cornerstone of our work and every day."

At Jones, Foster, Johnston & Stubbs, where Hawkins is the firm's vice chair and board certified business litigator, partner Mike Krantz said: "Scott is living a life with a purpose, and that's great to watch. I think the purpose in Scott's life is to truly glorify God and be of service to men. Amongst my peers, he is doing the most good of anyone I know."

Charitable Heart, Spiritual Soul

Doing good came naturally to Hawkins as a young lawyer. In 1987, his second year at the firm, Hawkins joined the board of The Children's Place in Palm Beach County, a center for abused children.

In his decade of charitable work at The Children's Place, Hawkins helped create Connor's Nursery, a companion home for HIV-positive infants and crack babies, the first shelter of its kind in Florida. As president of the dual organization, he helped build the board from four to 20 members, and helped raise the first million-dollar gift for the charity that merged into what is now called Home Safe.

Walking through the home, he would hold the children.

"I would play a little bit, as much as they would play with me in a suit," Hawkins recalls with a smile. "I have a heart for children, and I had a heart for the cause. I am a committed Christian. Looking back, I thought this was an opportunity that was brought to me for a divine reason. And I felt privileged to take it on."

Hawkins stresses there were "many, many qualified, competent, committed people who were part of the overall effort to rebuild the charity."

Krantz says that's typical of his humble friend.

"There was virtually nothing there, and when he left, it was an up-and-coming charity. Scott deserves much of the credit," Krantz said.

"The way Scott is, he deflects the credit he's due and gives it to other people. That's why people like to work with him and for him. He's not grabbing accolades for himself. He's humble, but driven and

accomplished."

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Hawkins' spirituality has guided him since childhood. He even considered going into the ministry, checking out a program at Vanderbilt University where he could receive a law degree and a master's of divinity.

"I remember wondering if I was called--I guess that's the way you put it--whether it was what God wanted me to do."

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

He ended up only applying to UF, the place Harold Givens, his legendary, inspiring honors English teacher at Tampa's Chamberlain High School, urged him to attend.

"I think Scott's spirituality is inward. He's not a man who would wear that on his sleeve," said Andy Helgesen, a church friend, former adversary, and co-counsel. "Presbyterians aren't too showy anyway. We tend not to be very demonstrative about our faith. But Scott's commitment is clear."

Walter "Lucky" Arnold, senior pastor of the 1,500-member First Presbyterian Church of North Palm Beach, where Hawkins is president of the board of trustees and an ordained elder, has known Hawkins for about 25 years.

"He is a disciple. I don't know that he is amassing power for power's sake. He finds he is able to help people, and that is his motivation," Arnold said. "I appreciate that Scott is the same guy wherever you meet him. He doesn't have the stained-glass persona. He's the real deal."

Marshall Jones, chair of the development committee at Palm Beach Atlantic University, an interdenominational Christian college where Hawkins serves as vice chair of the board of trustees, met Hawkins at adult Bible study class. When their daughters were young, the two men would meet every Friday morning at 7 for coffee and Bible reading.

"We'd discuss how to be better fathers, better husbands, and better in our businesses by doing what we felt God would want us to do with ourselves," Jones said.

"Scott is a wonderful accountability partner. Self-awareness comes naturally," Jones said. "He's aware of his own shortcomings and surrounds himself with people of integrity who help him do the right things. He has strong character and doesn't need it, but has enough humility to recognize the important strength he gets from others."

Three months before their only child was born, Scott and Lisa Hawkins would meet every morning at 6 to read Scripture and daily devotions, such as My Utmost for His Highest, by the late Scottish minister Oswald Chambers.

Twenty-three years later, the couple's devotional routine continues, as they start their day together with prayer, sharing wise counsel. Lisa Hawkins is also an elder at the church, putting her master's degree in educational psychology to good use overseeing the ministry of lay people who serve as caregivers for the homebound and those living in nursing homes.

"It's a very important part of my existence," Scott Hawkins said. "And it's been clearly hugely important in our marriage. It gives us an anchor point. It forces you to become deep, because you are focusing on something deep: a scriptural reference."

Sawing Logs at "Sometime" Cabin

Grandfather Wells rose from office boy at age 14 at Massey Ferguson, to running the plant during WWII building the wings for the de Havilland Mosquito bomber, to senior executive of the agriculture machinery corporation for all of Canada. He taught his first grandchild everything, from the wisdom of buying stock in...

To continue reading

Request your trial

VLEX uses login cookies to provide you with a better browsing experience. If you click on 'Accept' or continue browsing this site we consider that you accept our cookie policy. ACCEPT