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There is a good lunch crowd early on
a Monday afternoon at the Seineyard
Restaurant south of Tallahassee. As the
hostess leads the group to their table,
heads turn up and one man nudges his
wife, motioning her attention toward
the four gentlemen, all of whom have
been key players in Floridaʼs rich political history and
fixtures in this area for more than a half century. Among them
are retired appellate court Judge Tom Barkdull (JD 49),
former Florida Sen. William Dean “Wig” Barrow (JD 53),
former Senate President and Speaker of the House Mallory
Horne (JD 50), and prominent local attorney Dexter
Douglass (JD 55).
As everyone tears into a delicious lunch of broiled and
fried seafood, the men continue a discussion that began 20
minutes earlier when Barkdull stopped to pick up Douglass
outside his office on
Call Street. The talk
skips easily from plans
to go fishing to wild
camping trips long past,
and, of course, politics.
Douglass, legendary for
his intensely competitive
nature both in the
courtroom and in the political arena, spends much of his time
listening to the stories being passed around, interjecting a
comment here and there, and smiling and laughing often with
the men he has known for much of his life.
Barrow goes back the longest, meeting Douglass
65 years ago when they were young boys growing up in
Panhandle town of Crestview. He recalls the time when they
were 11 or 12 years old and challenged two local teenage
girls to a game of strip poker. The boys lost badly,
giving up as they were down to their underwear. The
girls hadnʼt shed a stitch. “I believe they were cheatin,ʼ”
Barrow says.
Douglass entered law school in 1950 when Florida
graduates were admitted to the Bar upon graduation, the
“diploma privilege.” He interrupted his education to serve
in the Korean War, returning to graduate in 1955. Douglass
came to Tallahassee, launching his law practice literally one
day after graduating from UF Law.
He represented his first criminal defendant client for free.
Fred Wallace was a black janitor who stood accused of stealing
$400 by his employer, the Tallahassee Elks Lodge. Douglass
won an acquittal.
“For a number of years in my practice I might be in the
Supreme Court today, in the small claims court tomorrow,
and federal court next week,” he says. “So in the course of
my practice, I guess Iʼve handled just about everything you
could handle.”
Though he now counts Douglass among his closest friends,
Horne had the misfortune many years ago of getting to know
his courtroom style as an adversary. Douglass, he says, is not
a lawyer you want to see on the opposing side.
“Heʼs very intense and focused to the point where he just
makes everyone around him go crazy, especially if youʼre the
opponent,” says Horne, who has known Douglass for more
than 55 years. “He really develops a dislike for you during
that experience. And, in disliking you, he takes pleasure in
making your life miserable.”
Horne calls Douglass a brilliant man with a retentive
memory, as well as an avid reader with immense knowledge
of Florida political history and legal history. “Heʼs
just maddening.”
Barrow says Douglass is “a man who was raised on the
land and the soil,” recalling how the two of them made money
in their younger days cutting paper wood with a crosscut saw.
Douglassʼ intelligence
and integrity allow him
to stand out, he says.
“I heard about him ... They said
“Dexter Douglass
from childhood on
had the ability of
total recall,” Barrow
says. “Heʼs absolutely
brilliant. The other thing
that set Dexter apart was, he always told it like it is. He told
you exactly like it is whether you liked it or not. Heʼs very
good at expressing himself, and heʼs absolutely fearless. He is
the last of a vanishing breed.”
there’s this freshman boy who’s
going somewhere.”
REPRESENTING LEADERS
At 77, Douglass can look back on a career that has left
an indelible imprint on Florida, particularly on government.
He served as general counsel to his old friend, the late
Gov. Lawton Chiles, and represented U.S. Vice President
Al Gore in his challenge to the 2000 presidential election
in Florida.
Perhaps his greatest legacy will be his service on the two
Florida constitution-revision commissions, including being
chairman in 1998 when the 37-member commission crafted
13 revisions to Floridaʼs governing document—12 of which
were approved by voters.
The results of that effort included restructuring the Florida
Cabinet, merging several agencies into the Florida Fish and
Wildlife Conservation Commission, ensuring voters could
continue electing circuit judges until changed by the voters,
and affirming Floridaʼs commitment to high-quality public
schools. Douglass said the bi-partisan spirit and make-up of
the commission—19 Democrats and 18 Republicans—had a
significant impact on the commissionʼs success.
“That turned into a great job, a lot of fun,” Douglass says.
“We had a good group of people and got a lot done.”
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