Download Magazine - Levin College of Law - University of Florida

my new car…when I got my first new car hewas the first person I called…I’m crying. Icry when I talk about Andy.”Sitting in his chambers, Owens proudlypoints to the photos on the shelves of Owens-Philhowerand the other men and womenwho have successfully turned their livesaround in the Drug Court program.“That’s the driving force,” Owens said.“You see by saving a mother, you save afamily. I can’t tell you the number of successesthat we’ve had like that.”His own life would appear to any observerto be one long winning season.When his playing career at UF endedand Owens graduated with a bachelor’sdegree in finance, he wasn’t exactlysure what he wanted to do. He’d beenselected in the National Basketball Associationdraft, but as a seventh roundchoice, there was no guarantee hewould make the team and the moneywasn’t exactly great.Eschewing an uncertain futurein basketball, Owens decided to takeadvantage of a scholarship he’d beenoffered by the NCAA and immediately enteredlaw school at UF. But Owens, whohad always done well in school, wasn’t preparedfor the academic rigors of law school,and his grades in his first year suffered.“I think the lessons that you learn in athleticsapply well to life, and primarily persistence,”said Owens, who quickly got himselfback on track academically. “And I think ifyou’re willing to do the work and are persistent,you can achieve desired goals. Andthat’s just what I had to do was buckle downand start working. I was not gifted intellectually,so I had to spend some time and read andstudy and re-read and study some more.”Owens counts himself as fortunatethat both his parents were college graduates.His father, Doug Owens, graduatedfrom Georgia Tech and was an engineer.His mother, Dottie, graduated from AgnesScott. They instilled the importanceof education in their children, says Owens,whose sister, Elizabeth Kaplon, hasa doctorate in speech pathology, while hisbrother, Parker, is a certified public accountantin Tampa.“Education was pushed in our homefrom the time we were born,” Owens remembers.“You were always pushed thatyou were going to go to college, and evenbeyond the four-year degree.”Born in Atlanta, Owens’ moved as achild with his family to Tampa, where hisfather opened an auto parts business, OwensTire Company.That’s where Owens sports careerbegan, initially on the North SeminoleLittle League baseball fields, wherehis teammates on Lou Boyles’ Phillips66ers included two future judges,Stan Morris (JD 71), a longtime circuitjudge in Gainesville, and Bobby Simms,a circuit judge in Tampa who diedin 2004.“He believes thataddicts and alcoholicsdeserve a secondchance. Not a lot ofjudges care about us.Everything that I doin my life is because ofJudge Owens.”Owens turned his attention to basketballin the 7 th grade, when he led his team to thecity championship. After winning the titlegame, Owens invited his teammates to hishouse for a barbecue. It was there that hismom, much to her son’s initial embarrassment,challenged the boys to a pick-up basketballgame in the backyard.“Well, as it turned out, my mother beatall of us,” Owens recalls with a laugh. “Andshe had actually played college basketballfor Agnes Scott. She could really shoot, andshe had a two-handed shot, and none of uscould do that. That was kind of fun.”Owens distinguished himself as a prizedbasketball recruit at Hillsborough High ashe led his team to the state finals his lasttwo years. College programs from aroundthe country offered him a scholarship, andOwens narrowed his list to the traditionalpowerhouses North Carolina and Kentucky,along with the University of Florida, whichhad yet to really distinguish itself as a basketballprogram.Staying close to home, so his parentscould continue to watch him play, was a majorfactor in his choice to come to Gainesville.He looks back on it now as a great decisionthat would impact the rest of his life.Owens’ playing career at UF coincidedwith what was a golden era for college basketballin the state of Florida. While Owensand Neal Walk lit up the scoreboardsin Gainesville, Artis Gilmore was helpingturn Jacksonville University into a nationaltitle contender and Dave Cowens wasdominating the backboards at Florida StateUniversity.After graduating from UF Law, Owensbegan practicing law with a firmin Punta Gorda. The experience was areal eye opener for Owens, who recallshe had no clue what he was doing. Owensquickly learned the ropes under thementorship of former Judge ArchieOdom, mainly handling small criminalcases, and in 1977 moved withhis wife to Sarasota, where he begana civil trial practice representinginsurance companies with the lawfirm of Dickinson & Gibbons.Although he was often so nervouswith energy and anticipation beforebasketball games that he was sickto his stomach and could hardly eat,Owens enjoyed the competition involvedin playing sports, and battlinganother attorney in the courtroom broughtmany of those same feelings back.“I just switched courts,” he says.Along with that sense of competitioncame long hours of preparation, however,and something eventually had to give. Inthis case, it was Owens’ marriage. Followingthe split, he continued working allthe time. Luckily, it was then that Owenscaught a big break, a new circuit courtjudgeship had opened up in Sarasota, andfriends encouraged him to apply.Owens credits “some really outstandingpeople” who helped him and pushedhis application in front of Florida Gov.Bob Graham, and says it probably didn’thurt that both he and Graham went to UF.In fact, Owens feels his connections toUF have been the key to his success andthe reason he’s a circuit judge today.Although he’d made his living in thecourtroom for more than a decade, his appointmentto the circuit bench in 1983 allowedOwens to see things from a differentperspective. Those nervous feelingshe had known before basketball gamesand prior to big cases as an attorney retunedonce again as Owens prepared totake his seat behind the bench.“My stomach was just as upset, I wasjust as nervous that first day in court,” said28 UF LAW