A Times Editorial

Leading the American Bar

© St. Petersburg Times, published July 12, 2000

In 1973, there weren't a lot of women practicing law in Florida. This was still a small Deep South state where women were slow to challenge traditional male bastions of power. But Martha Barnett, straight out of Pasco County and fresh out of law school, was smart, ambitious and undaunted by the good ol' (elite) boy network that controlled the legal profession in Florida. She got a job at the prestigious firm of Holland & Knight -- the first woman ever hired in their Tallahassee office -- and proceeded to take on some of our most difficult issues, including compensation for the victims of the Rosewood massacre.

Now Barnett is taking over as president of the 400,000-member American Bar Association, only the second woman in 122 years to lead that body. Her elevation continues the progressive shift in the ABA's priorities.

Barnett's interests as a lawyer reflect an increasing concern for social justice. She has served on a special ABA task force looking into why it is that while more than half of law school students are women, their earnings still lag behind men's. Along with Holland and Knight colleague Steve Hanlon, she represented the survivors of one of Florida's most appalling racial atrocities and won compensation for them. In 1923, a white mob, angry over reports that a black man had raped a white woman, attacked the little black community of Rosewood, burning houses and beating and shooting residents. It took until 1994 for the state of Florida to acknowledge complicity and, thanks to Barnett and Hanlon, award survivors $150,000 each.

Most recently, Barnett is supporting the call for a moratorium on capital punishment. The ABA says that in the light of a Columbia University study suggesting inequities in sentencing, no one should be put to death until the system can be thoroughly evaluated to see if the convicted have received adequate representation.

It is encouraging that the ABA chose Barnett to preside for the next year. Practicing law in Florida has given her first-hand knowledge of the tangled issues, including incompetence in capital cases, unresolved racism in the judicial system and continuing sexism in the legal profession, that confront the Bar today. But, given her distinguished record, no one is better placed to lead American law into the 21st century.

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