SCOTT WESTHEIMER PRESIDENT OF THE FLORIDA BAR.

• Author: Fargason, Patrick R.

Amere block from the majestic Mediterranean Revival style Sarasota County Courthouse sits the law office of Syprett Meshad. With over 50 years of service to the community, the firm has built a sterling reputation.

At the heart of Syprett-Meshad is partner F. Scott Westheimer, who, like Sarasota founding father Charles Edward Ringling, proved that success isn't geographically defined. The 51-year-old. who was sworn in as the 75th president of The Florida Bar June 23, is the first lawyer from Sarasota or the 12th Circuit to be elected to the office.

Westheimer, a 1989 graduate of Riverview High School, earned his law degree with honors from the University of Florida Levin College of Law in 1996.

While in Gainesville, Westheimer was a member of the Order of Coif, the honorary society that recognizes the top 10% of law students. Westheimer's talent and energy could have taken him anywhere in the world.

But Westheimer's Sarasota roots run deep.

"I just have a bond with Sarasota,"

Westheimer said. "It's hard to explain the magic of this town until you visit here. It's a town where people are still genuine and welcoming. It's somewhere where you can still make your mark and it feels like a small town but keeps growing at a crazy pace. I had great relationships here when I graduated law school. It was just always home."

Syprett Meshad President Michael Resnick, a founding partner, says Sarasota sets the standard for the way law should be practiced in Florida "forever."

"We don't practice the cut-throat sort of law here and that's one of the main reasons people continue to come back to Sarasota and Manatee County," Resnick said.

Practicing law "the Sarasota Way" is at the heart of Westheimer's presidential platform.

Back to Basics

Westheimer said he is "humbled" by the opportunity to serve the lawyers of Florida and represent the Bar, a national leader in professionalism, ethics, innovation, and access to justice.

"During my term, we will continue to focus on investing in our members, to help them with the daily practice of law, their ethical duties, and health and wellness, which all serve to effectuate our core mission of protecting the public and supporting our independent court system," Westheimer said.

Westheimer hopes to steer the Bar back to basics and concentrate on its core mission.

"Our main focus this year is doing everything we can to analyze, enhance, and improve our discipline system, which I think is already one of the best in the nation. We plan to help educate our members on compliance, improve communication about the system to our members, and the public, and provide lawyers resources to succeed. We need to give our lawyers all the tools and resources they need to comply with our disciplinary rules, so they can focus on practicing law," Westheimer said.

One of the priorities Westheimer is focusing on is free trust accounting software for members to assist them in complying with the trust accounting rules.

Westheimer served as the Sarasota County Bar president from 2010-2011. That led him to prioritize collaboration with local bars in the coming year.

"We need to strengthen our bond with the voluntary bars," Westheimer said. "They do so much amazing work for their members and their programs that focus on things like professionalism, ethics, health and wellness, and mentoring, which are right in our lane. We should be partnering and collaborating with them instead of trying to recreate the wheel all the time. They connect with their members in ways that we, as the state Bar, can't and their members are our members. If we're helping them out, we're doing the same thing."

Westheimer says running for office while practicing law during the pandemic helped him focus on technology.

"You don't realize how much technology affects your day-to-day practice until something like COVID hits and that's all you have," he said.

Westheimer says technology shouldn't be feared and Zoom meetings and hearings (that aren't evidentiary) are a great benefit to the practice and the public.

We can do hearings throughout the state without charging our clients five or six hours for travel and other expenses. Its effect on access to the courts and the cost of litigation are immense; however, we now have to work to find new ways to continue our connectivity that can be lost without seeing each other in person all the time.

Westheimer--whose family moved to Sarasota from the Baltimore area when he was a young child--and Resnick go way back.

"I first met Scott when he was little and I bounced him on my knee," Resnick said. "The Westheimers were very good friends of mine. I kept in touch as Scott went to school and then Scott wanted to be a legal intern."

Following Westheimer's first year of law school, Resnick and the other partners hired him as a law clerk during the summer of 1994. Resnick believed he found a diamond in the rough.

"He was top 10 in his class in law school and whip-smart," Resnick said. "He had a good feel for people. You can be one of the smartest people in the world, but if you can't convince the client that you are the best attorney it doesn't matter."

Sweet Home, Sarasota

Syprett-Meshad partner Teresa D. Jones, a Florida Super Lawyer in the personal injury field, came to Sarasota in 1986. She was a partner during Westheimer's first summer as an intern and remembers how he kept coming back.

"Most of our clerks would come in and work the summer and that would be it," Jones said. "We wouldn't see them again. Particularly if they were freshmen. But this kid kept showing up. He finally graduated, took the bar, and then showed up again. Once he came in the door, he was ours."

Corporate practice attorney John Patterson, a partner at the Sarasota office of Shutts & Bowen, also remembers Westheimer from childhood. Patterson said the Westheimers moved into their Sarasota neighborhood in 1979.

"The Westheimers moved in not immediately behind our house, but right behind that," Patterson recalled. "We introduced ourselves to his dad and mom and we liked them. They would come over to our house for dinner and we'd go over to their house for a drink, and we were very good neighbors."

Scott's mother, Carol Westheimer, said the family moved to Sarasota County when Westheimer was in the fourth grade.

"We moved to Siesta Key in Sara-sota from Columbia, Maryland, when Scott was in elementary school," Carol said. "All three of my children went through school in Sarasota."

Scott's younger brother, Ryan Westheimer, now a movie producer in Los Angeles, said he and Scott were typical siblings.

"We are 15 months apart and like normal brothers growing up, we fought constantly as anyone else with a brother can relate," Ryan Westheimer said, "which is funny when you see how close we are now."

Patterson said the two families had a lot in common and Scott was the same age as his daughter, Kim. They went to high school together and ran in the same circle of friends. As a kid, Westheimer had a penchant for picking oranges from Patterson's tree.

"I say getting but he was really stealing," Patterson joked. "Think about that, the president of The Florida Bar stealing oranges from your citrus tree."

Patterson, a Board of Governors member from 1996-2000, is also a past president of the Sarasota County Bar Association and encouraged, even pushed, Westheimer to get involved in bar service.

"I'd been active and had been president of the local bar, and you owe something to your profession that's been good to you, and Scott got involved," Patterson said.

Elevating Local Bars

...