Past President's Q&A

Smoot's roots suit his route

by colby keefe, esq.

While Tom Smoot, III’s roots run deep in Fort Myers, they run even deeper in Florida at large. “Six generations in southern Florida,” he recounts. “At this point, I think we’re practically indigenous.” Smoot has been a member of the Lee County Bar Association for about 30 years, joining as a member when he started practicing law in 1991. He served as the president of LCBA in 2006. The role of president was another item added onto his plate; his presidential term coincided with his year as president of the Edison Festival of Lights. Despite juggling multiple roles, Smoot was able to accomplish an impressive schedule of events and initiatives, and made it clear this was not a solo effort. As he recounted LCBA’s accomplishments during his term, he stopped himself at one point to credit the collaborative Board of Directors: “Of course, if I say ‘I’, it means ‘we.’ It is a full executive committee that’s working together and serving the membership.” As a second-generation attorney in Fort Myers, he remembers what he called the “personal capital” that helped him rally attendance at LCBA events during his term. “I was on the phone calling people before every meeting and every event,” he recalls. “Part of the fun was seeing ‘new but old’ faces at the events – attorneys who have been practicing for years but that you hadn’t seen in a while.”

“An essential part of the Bar is the socialization and camaraderie,” he said. Expanding and encouraging the Practice Sections of LCBA encouraged that meaningful socialization among members. While the interest and involvement in Practice Sections ebbed and flowed in the years leading up to his term, Smoot recalls his executive committee reignited those efforts and expanded the number of Sections to serve additional practice areas. Like everywhere, Smoot notes, Lee County is seeing an increase in population, which necessarily means more attorneys are practicing in our area. This takes the form of not only new attorneys who individually relocate here, but also an increase in satellite offices. One of the future challenges he sees is sustaining socialization and camaraderie by blending the newer practices with those which are fixtures in the legal community. A potential solution to this hurdle is emphasizing involvement not only in the LCBA, but in Practice Sections. As Smoot aptly explains it: “Smaller groups foster familiarity, improving the relationships among lawyers. In the end, that’s what it is really about. Lawyers need good personal relationships with one another so that they’re able to see a person on the other side of an email.”

As an attorney who is new to Lee County myself, I found my conversation with Smoot reassuring. With a career spanning over thirty years, he is perhaps becoming one of those “new, old faces” in LCBA, and is cognizant of the role he and others can play in helping bridge the gap between the seasoned and new members of the Lee County legal community.

Colby Keefe practices as a real estate attorney at Henderson Franklin Starnes & Holt, P.A. Her practice is focused in community association law, both residential and commercial. She is a member of LCBA and also serves on the Board of Directors of the Lee County Association for Women Lawyers.