34 apply to lead new counsel offices

By COLLEEN JENKINS
Published July 7, 2007

TAMPA  

Two lawyers from Tampa and one from St. Petersburg are among the 34 people who applied by Friday's deadline to lead the state's five new regional conflict counsel offices.

The offices represent indigent criminal defendants who have a conflict of interest with a public defender's office, plus parents who can't afford an attorney for child dependency and guardianship cases.

In the Tampa area, the local regional counsel will direct lawyers in 14 counties, including Hillsborough, Pinellas and Pasco.

Tampa lawyer Belinda Noah, an adjunct professor at Stetson College of Law, practices estate planning and criminal, civil and bankruptcy law. She made an unsuccessful bid for the U.S. Senate last year.

The other Tampa applicant, lawyer Charles Scruggs III, has served as a municipal judge and circuit judge. He has run his own general practice since 1979, losing another bid for the circuit bench in 1996.

St. Petersburg lawyer Eric C. Pinkard practices corporate litigation, international and business law, and white-collar criminal and constitutional defense, according to his law firm's Web site. He worked as a prosecutor in Hillsborough for four years and seven years litigating death penalty cases.

Applicants will be interviewed July 19 and 20 in Tampa.

Colleen Jenkins can be reached at 813 226-3337 or cjenkins@sptimes.com.

[Last modified July 7, 2007, 00:24:14]