The florida bar president's pro bono service award recipients.

The First Judicial Circuit is represented by two recipients. Sharon W Potter and James R. Stokes. Both were involved in the same high profile King case. In November 2001, Terry King was found murdered and in a matter of days, his two minor sons were arrested for the murder. The children were 12 and 13 years old. Upon hearing about the boys' case, Sharon Potter and James Stokes immediately offered their services free of charge, and between the two, they contributed hundreds of hours on the case.

Sharon W. Potter

Pensacola, Florida

First Judicial Circuit

In 1994, Sharon Potter graduated from the University of West Florida summa cum laude with a B. A. in Legal Administration, and in 1997 she graduated cum laude from Florida State University College of Law.

Ms. Potter has been in practice for five years, primarily in the areas of criminal and family law: She is a member of the Pensacola Chapter of the Florida Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, the Florida Association of Women Lawyers, the American Bar Association, and the American Inns of Court.

She received the Criminal Defense Attorney of the Year award in 2000 from Pensacola's Society of Criminal Defense Lawyers. Her pro bono work this past year consists primarily of the King case, a case she took late in 2001. She represented a 13-year-old boy charged with the first-degree murder of his father. When she first became involved with the case, her client was still charged in juvenile court. Shortly thereafter, he was indicted for first-degree murder in the adult system.

She quickly learned that "representing a child in the adult system has many questions to which answers are difficult to find." She burned up the phone lines between her office and the ethics advisors at The Florida Bar seeking guidance. She also quickly learned that the young client needed much more attention from her than adult clients. He was in jail during the entire pendency of his case. She visited him several times a week for many months, and spoke to him on the phone almost every day for a period of time. He was a gregarious child with severe ADHD who was put in solitary confinement at the adult jail -- not for punishment, but for protection. She was usually the only person he could talk to when he was feeling lonesome. She got to know "a child who had experienced a difficult life with no real family and little stability."

After a long pretrial process, extensive depositions, trial, and subsequent mediation, the case was resolved after almost a year. Dennis Corder, a new partner, joined her firm July 1, 2002 and helped tremendously with the case, handling many pretrial and post-trial matters as well as the trial itself.

James R. Stokes

Pensacola, Florida

First Judicial Circuit

James Randall Stokes obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree in education at Oklahoma State University in 1982 while serving in the United States Marine Corps. He received flight training in 1984 at NAS, Pensacola, Florida, and served in the Gulf War as a helicopter pilot where he received numerous decorations, including the Air Medal. After leaving the Marine Corps, he earned his Juris Doctor at Florida State College of Law in December 1995. At that time he began an internship and worked in the Public Defender's Office in Pensacola until 1999 when he began his private practice in Pensacola. His practice concentrates in criminal defense and family law.

He has performed hundreds, of hours of service working with indigent clients; including the controversial King case, which aroused unprecedented and challenging legal issues and decisions. Mt Stokes is an active member of the Escambia/Santa Rosa County Bar Association and also a member of the American Inns of Court, Pensacola Chapter.

Bruce R. Conroy

Tallahassee, Florida

Second Judicial Circuit

For the past three years Bruce Conroy has endeavored to establish a pro bono program for the Florida Department of Transportation with Legal Services of North Florida. He drafted and obtained his agency's approval of a pro bono legal services policy, which encourages DOT attorneys to provide legal services to the poor and authorizes them to do so throughout Florida. He also established, participates in, and coordinates a Pro Bono Legal Advice Telephone Hotline program for DOT attorneys through Legal Services to provide volunteer attorneys to handle legal questions for the poor. He completed an annual calendar providing DOT volunteer attorneys four days a month at Legal Services. He helped establish, participates in and coordinate, an evening of monthly legal assistance by lawyers from DOT (along with other state agency attorneys he recruits to participate) at the Tallahassee Homeless Shelter. Also, he set up opportunities for DOT attorneys to participate in Legal Services Family Mediation Assistance Program, which helps Legal Services attorneys by representing their clients at court ordered family mediations in Leon County. Finally, he made his attorney staff available to handle pro bono cases directly. Although he spends well over 50 hours annually in these endeavors, the hours generated by volunteers he recruited can be approximated at over 500 hours, the equivalent of $75,000 worth of legal services. The nature of the cases handled runs the full gambit of civil legal matters generated through a legal services organization.

Mr. Conroy is Florida Bar board certified in city, county, and local government law. He is also the DOT Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) Coordinator. Further, he currently serves on the Florida Supreme Court appointed Task Force on Rule II of the Rules Relating The Florida Bar, which includes use of law students by legal aid organizations. He served on a court appointed professionalism committee in the 20th Judicial Circuit. He is licensed to practice in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit and the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida.

He is a member of the Florida Government Bar Association and Administrative Law and Government Lawyer Sections of The Florida Bar, a past president of the Cape Coral Bar Association; and serves on the organizing committee for the St. Thomas Moore Society, a guild of Catholic lawyers in Tallahassee.

He and his wife have 5 children, 2 of whom are in high school, and 3 of whom are home-schooled.

Kathleen McCarthy Bishop

Perry, Florida

Third Judicial Circuit

Kathleen Bishop grew up in East Rutherford, New Jersey. After graduating high school in 1984, she attended the University of Central Florida in Orlando. She received a B.A. in Legal Studies with a minor in Psychology in 1988. She was active on campus with Kappa Delta Sorority and Tau Kappa Epsilon Fraternity where she began to volunteer for such worthwhile charities as the National Association, for the Prevention of Child Abuse and St. Jude's Children's Hospital.

She received her J.D. from Mercer University School of Law in Macon, Georgia in 1991. While at Mercer she was active with the Environmental Law Society and Women in Law.

She practices law with her husband, Conrad C. "Sonny" Bishop III and her father-in-law, Conrad C. Bishop, Jr. with offices in Perry and Lake City. She handles primarily probate, guardianship, wills, corporations and Social Security Disability cases.

Ms. Bishop is active with both the local and state bar associations. She currently serves on the Florida Bar Board of Governors, Young Lawyers Division (1998-present). She was voted Most Outstanding Young Lawyer by the YLD Board of Governors in 2000-2001. She served as president of the Third Circuit Bar Association (1997-98) and serves on the Third Circuit Judicial Nominating Commission (2000-present), Third Circuit Committee on Professionalism, Third Circuit Pro Se Committee, Taylor County Law Week (Chair) and Taylor County Bar Association. She has also served as chair for the Third Judicial Circuit Bar Young Lawyers Committee "Lawyers for Education" project, which provides school supplies to 12 primary schools in the Third Judicial Circuit.

Ms. Bishop served on the board of directors for Three Rivers Legal Aid and volunteers in their pro bono program. She felt honored and humbled to receive this award. Her pro bono efforts have not resulted in large settlement awards but cover a wide range from drafting wills and durable powers of attorney, probating estates, handling stepparent adoptions, establishing nonprofit corporations to serving as the attorney ad litem for cases involving Adult Protective Services. In particular, one estate that she handled involved a sole heir who live in Mexico. Her inability to communicate with the heir was frustrating, but she found her colleagues on the YLD Board of Governors and her friends in the community most generous in offering their time to translate. The case lasted about two years due to unforeseen complications with the IRS, but the heir finally received' her inheritance in excess of $25,000.

Ms. Bishop believes that "not only the cases that make the headlines deserve recognition, but also the small cases that lawyers handle every day to help others, cases that make a difference in our profession and in our communities. The efforts of the legal profession serving our clients, our communities and our colleagues are the foundation of dignity in the law."

Katherine Bliss Para

Jacksonville, Florida

Fourth Judicial Circuit

Katherine Para received her Juris Doctor with honors from Florida Coastal School of Law in December, 2000. During law school, she was listed as a Dean's Scholar, was on the Dean's List, and served on Law Review. Ms. Para completed internships for Judge Gerald B. Tjoflat, U.S. Court of Appeals, Eleventh Circuit, and for the Office of General Counsel for the City of Jacksonville. Ms. Para was admitted to The Florida Bar in April...