Downs named president-elect.

Mayanne Downs of Orlando has become president-elect designate of The Florida Bar after being elected without opposition. Her election became official December 15 with the close of filing.

Downs will be sworn in as president-elect in June 2009, when current President-elect Jesse H. Diner of Ft. Lauderdale becomes president for the 2009-10 Bar year. Downs will be sworn in as president of the 86,000-member Bar in June 2010. She will be the organization's fourth woman president since its founding in 1950.

She has served on the Bar Board of Governors since 2002.

"I'm not sure it has sunk in. It's hard to imagine that any person would have an honor like this. It's an extraordinary opportunity and honor," Downs said of being elected. "I'm very proud to be a lawyer and very proud of this profession, and I'm happy for the opportunity to do some things I'm interested in doing."

That includes, she said, traveling the state and meeting Bar members.

Downs shared her thoughts about her decision to run for president. "After spending a couple of years doing the work of the board, I decided I wanted to be a more meaningful part of that.... I had been so impressed by this group and the commitment this board has to the profession and the administration of justice."

Two years ago, Downs was critically ill with sepsis and she was asked if that near-death experience made a difference in her plans. She said it had, because of the support from the board throughout her illness and conversations with board members who had seen similar situations which had profoundly influenced their lives and convinced them not to defer their dreams.

"It was the complete embodiment of that saying, 'that which does not kill you makes you stronger,' because I look at everything differently now," Downs said, adding looking at things differently ranges from her teenage children, to her partners, to the profession, and the Bar.

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Asked for her top three goals as Bar president, Downs rattled them off in her typically direct fashion.

"A continued focus on technology," she said. "The way we communicate today is markedly different than when I came on the board a short time ago. I have teenage children. The way they interface with the world using communications is the wave of the future.

"I just actually did my own Web site. I did it for the fun, and I really did it because I was so interested in how my children get information about the world around them.

"I want to be...