Page 4 - Florida Sentinel 2-9-18

Feature
First Of Its Kind Program Held To Honor Legal Trailblazers
BY IRIS B. HOLTON Sentinel City Editor
On Thursday, February 8th, a program was held to pay tribute to 30 members of the legal community who have served as trailblazers in the Tampa Bay Area.
The first of its kind pro- gram in the Tampa Bay Area was presented by the U. S. Dis- trict Court, Middle District of Florida, Tampa Division. U. S. Magistrate Julie Sneed and U. S. Magistrate An- thony Porcelli shared the duties of chairpersons.
Entitled “Hidden Fig- ures: Honoring Trailblaz- ers In Tampa Bay,” the program recognized lawyers and judges in their respective careers.
Panel speakers were: Judge Charles R. Wilson, Judge Elizabeth Kovachevich, Judge Henry Adams, re- tired Judge E. J. Salcines, Atty. Arthenia Joyner and retired Attorney Delano Stewart.
The 30 honorees were:
•Emmy Acton, the first female County Attorney.
•Judge Henry Adams, the first African American U. S. District Judge appointed to the Middle District of Florida.
•Prof. Dorothea Beane,
the first tenured African Amer- ican law professor at Stetson University College of Law .
•Pam Bondi, the first fe- male Attorney General in Florida.
•Donna Bucella, the first woman appointed to serve as a U. S. Attorney in Florida.
•Judge Susan Bucklew, the first female appointed as County Judge. She is also the first female appointed as Cir- cuit Judge in the 13th Judicial Circuit.
•Judge Lisa Campbell,
U. S. MAGISTRATE JULIE SNEED Co-Chairperson, Hidden Figures Program
the first elected African Amer- ican female Judge in Hillsbor- ough County, without having first been appointed.
•Judge Vivian Corvo, the first elected Hispanic fe- male Circuit Judge in Hillsbor- ough County.
•Judge Virginia Her- nandez Covington is the first Hispanic to be appointed as United States District Court Judge; the first Hispanic fe- male to be named to the Sec- ond District Court of Appeal; the first Cuban-American woman to be named to any Appellate Court in Florida and the first female supervisor in the Tampa U. S. Attorney’s Of- fice.
•Judge Marva Cren- shaw became the first African American female Circuit Court Judge in Hillsborough County.
•Atty. Warren Dawson, the first African American to serve as Assistant City Attor- ney; the first African American to work in the Federal office building in Tampa, and the distinction of being the first African American lawyer to work for the NLRB.
•Atty. Julianne Holt be- came the first woman elected as the Public Defender in Hillsborough County.
U. S. MAGISTRATE ANTHONY PORCELLI Co-Chairperson, Hidden
Figures Program
•Judge Miriam Irizarry became the first Hispanic fe- male County Court Judge to serve in Pinellas County.
•Atty. Arthenia Joyner is the first Black fe- male lawyer to practice in Hillsborough County.
•Judge Elizabeth Ko- vachevich was elected to a newly created Sixth Judicial Circuit Court Judgeship; she was the first woman jurist in Tampa Bay.
•Maria Chapa Lopez be- came the first Hispanic female U. S. Attorney in the Middle District of Florida.
•Judge Mac McCoy is the first openly gay person to be sworn in as Federal Judge in the Middle District of Florida.
•Judge Catherine McEwen became the first woman appointed as a U. S. Bankruptcy Judge in the Tampa Division of the Middle District of Florida.
•Prof. Luz Nagle, first tenured Hispanic law profes- sor at Stetson University Col- lege of Law (2004).
•Atty. Eugene Pettis, first African American Presi- dent of The Florida Bar (2013).
•Justice Peggy Quince, first African Ameri- can woman to serve as Chief Justice; First African Ameri- can woman appointed to the
Florida Supreme Court; First African American woman ap- pointed to a Florida District Court of Appeal.
•Ruthann Robson, one of the first female judicial law clerks in the Tampa federal courthouse.
•Atty. Marsha Rydberg, first female president of the HCBA (1991-1992).
•Judge E. J. Salcines, first Hispanic State Attorney in Florida; first as the Thir- teenth Judicial Circuit County Solicitor.
•Atty. Lanse Scriven, first African American Presi- dent of the Hillsborough County Bar Association; First African American member of The Florida Bar Board of Gov- ernors from Hillsborough County.
•Judge Mary Scriven, first African American female Federal Judge in Florida (Sworn as Magistrate Judge in 1997).
•Atty. Carolyn House
Stewart, first African American female Assistant State Attorney in the Thir- teenth Judicial Circuit; First African American female hired by a Fortune 500 in Tampa (Jim Walter Corp.,); First African American female from Hillsborough County ap- pointed to The Florida Board of Bar Examiners.
•Atty. Delano Ste- wart, first African American Assistant Public Defender, Thirteenth Judicial Circuit.
•Susan
Velez, first African American female President of Hillsbor- ough County Bar Association.
•Judge Charles Wil- son, first African Amer- ican in Tampa Bay appointed to the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals.
•Atty. Gwynne Young, first female Assistant State At- torney in Hillsborough County.
Johnson
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