E X E C U T I V E
D I R E C T O R ’ S
M E S S A G E
J o h n F. K y n e s - H i l l s b o r o u g h C o u n t y B a r A s s o c i a t i o n
Diverse Group of Local Voluntary Bar
Leaders Work to Help Members and
Advance the Legal Profession
Voluntary Bar Associations are “Stronger Together.”
— HCBA President John Schifino
O
ver the years, people have come to
recognize Tampa’s rich cultural and
ethnic diversity as one of its major
strengths, and not a weakness.
It’s something that makes our community unique and
special. It sets Tampa apart.
In fact, former Tampa mayor Bob Buckhorn once
remarked that Tampa’s population is like paella, the classic
Spanish entrée served at the Columbia Restaurant.
For the uninitiated, paella is a delicious mix of seafood,
pork, and chicken combined with rice and a variety
of seasonings.
“[Tampa is a] paella, if you will, of a community, in all
its shades and ethnicities and genders and orientations and
backgrounds and languages,” Buckhorn told Tampa
Magazine in January.
“The folks who came here from somewhere else, and
the folks who have been here for generations. Like a
paella, if you laid it out on a table, you’d say, ‘This will
never work.’ But once you put it in a dish, it’s delicious,”
Buckhorn said.
Similarly, there is broad cultural and ethnic diversity in
Tampa’s legal community.
At last count, there were more than 26 local voluntary
Bar associations located in the Tampa Bay area.
Some voluntary Bar associations, like the HCBA, have
been around for a long time. Formed in 1896, the HCBA
currently has more than 3,600 members.
Other local ethnic and specialty Bar groups only
recently have formed, with some having fewer than
50 members.
Continued on page 9
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