Navigation The presidents of the Florida State Bar Association who shaped Florida’s legal legacy
As The Florida Bar commemorates 75 years as an integrated, mandatory Bar, it’s worth pausing to recognize the remarkable legal minds who helped lay the foundation — not just through committee work and reform efforts, but through leadership.
Between 1907 and 1949, the Florida State Bar Association — the voluntary predecessor of today’s Florida Bar — was led by an extraordinary group of lawyers. Many were trailblazers of their time: state senators, Supreme Court justices, U.S. senators, judges, professors, war veterans, authors, civic leaders, and bar reformers. Their careers spanned disciplines, counties, and causes — and their collective impact continues to echo through Florida’s legal institutions today.
From the first president, Robert Lockridge Anderson of Ocala — who would later become a circuit judge — to Richard H. Hunt, the final president before integration, these leaders not only guided the voluntary Florida State Bar Association during its formative decades but also shaped the legal, political, and judicial evolution of a growing state. Many of their names still resonate today.
