Bar puts forth JNC nominees.

It may look like a routine function, but conditions underscored the importance as the Bar Board of Governors acted May 30 to nominate three lawyers for each of the state's 26 judicial nominating commissions.

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The specific situation is that the Supreme Court Judicial Nominating Commission in the next several months will nominate candidates to replace four of the current seven Florida Supreme Court justices, giving it a high visibility profile.

"This is by circumstance a very important appointment," Bar President Frank Angones told the board as it considered applicants for the Supreme Court JNC. "It wasn't when it was advertised, but it has become so."

That's because while it was known that Justice Harry Lee Anstead would leave the court in January because he's reached the mandatory retirement age for judges and Justice Charles Wells will be retiring in March for the same reason, recently Justices Raoul Cantero and Kenneth Bell have announced they will be leaving this fall.

That means the Supreme Court JNC will be in the unprecedented position of nominating to Gov. Charlie Crist three to six candidates for each of those upcoming vacancies.

Board members looked at a list of 31 applicants for the high court JNC, considered the recommendations of a screening committee, and then voted to nominate Coral Gables attorney Katherine Ezell, West Palm Beach attorney Louis Silber, and incumbent Diana Santa Maria of Cooper City to Crist. The governor will make the final appointment for the four-year term that begins July 1.

The board then turned its attention to nominating candidates for the remaining JNCs. (In a handful of JNCs, the nominations were made by the Executive Committee shortly after the board meeting because of an inadequate number of applicants.)

Below is the list of nominees for the other JNCs:

* Charles Wayne Alford of Jacksonville, Michael J. Glazer of Tallahassee, and Ned Irwin Price of Jacksonville for the First District Court of Appeal JNC.

* David M. Caldevilla of Tampa, Joshua Magidson of Clearwater, and David A. Wallace of Sarasota for the Second DCA JNC.

* Roberta G. Mandel and Lauri Waldman Ross, both of Miami, and Catherine Vogel of Key West for the Third DCA JNC.

* Harold G. Melville of Ft. Pierce, Gerald F. Richman of Palm Beach Gardens, and Rafael J. Roca of Jupiter for the Fourth DCA JNC.

* R. Lee Bennett of Orlando, Shannon McLin Carlyle of Leesburg, and Mary Ann Morgan of Winter Park for the Fifth DCA JNC.

* Bryan F. Aylstock and James Richard Barnes, both of Gulf Breeze, and Sally Bussell Fox of Pensacola for the First Circuit JNC.

* Elizabeth Bevington of Lamont and William Howard Davis and Michael P. Donaldson, both of Tallahassee, for the Second Circuit JNC.

* Angela M. Cancio of Live Oak, George T. Reeves of Madison, and James E. Willingham, Jr., of Jasper for the Third Circuit JNC.

* Hugh Cotney of Jacksonville, Charles P. Pillans of Fernandina Beach, and Joseph W. Prichard, Jr., of Jacksonville for the Fourth Circuit JNC.

* Julia Roberts Law of Groveland, Jack Arthur Moring of Dunnellon, and Michael John Rogers of Mount Dora for the Fifth Circuit JNC.

* C. Bryan Boydstun, Jr., Robert H. Dillinger, and Thomas D. Masterson, all of St. Petersburg, for the Sixth Circuit JNC.

* Edwin D. Davis II of Ormond Beach, Allison Leigh Morris of Deland, and Tance E. Roberts of St. Augustine for the Seventh Circuit JNC.

* Marcia Davis of High Springs, Leonard E. Ireland, Jr., of Gainesville, and Richard M. Knellinger of Evinston for the Eighth Circuit JNC.

* Patrick T. Christiansen of Orlando, Wayne L. Helsby of Winter Park, and Richard E. Mitchell of Windermere for the Ninth Circuit JNC.

* Melodie Johnson-Lopez of Winter Haven, and Rodney Kent Lilly and Jeffrey Sullivan, both of Lakeland, for the 10th Circuit JNC.

* Melanie Damian of Coral Gables, Elizabeth M. Hernandez of Miami Beach, and Rayfield M. McGhee, Jr., of Miami Gardens for the 11th Circuit JNC.

* Morgan R. Bentley of Sarasota, Henry Roger Lutz of Holmes Beach, and Michel E. Siegel of Sarasota for the 12th Circuit JNC.

* Richard C. Alvarez, Edward W. Gerecke, and Joseph Franklin Kinman, all of Tampa, for the 13th Circuit JNC.

* William Charles Henry of Panama City Beach, Kathi Lee Kilpatrick of Sneads, and Robert S. Sombathy of Lynn Haven for the 14th Circuit JNC.

* Nancy S. Lavista of Juno Beach, and L. Louis Mrachek and Lynn Solomon, both of West Palm Beach, for the 15th Circuit JNC.

* Loriellen Roberton, Robert Blake Shillinger, and Val Ellsworth Winter, all of Key West, for the 16th Circuit JNC.

* Ileana M. Almeida of Ft. Lauderdale, Terrence Patrick O'Connor of Lighthouse Point, and Glenn Jerrold Waldman of Weston for the 17th Circuit JNC.

* Harold Turner Bistline of Indian Harbour Beach, Anthony James Hall of Sanford, and Janice L. Merrill of Geneva for the 18th Circuit JNC.

* George W. Bush, Jr., of Palm City, Robert J. Gorman of Ft. Pierce, and Louis B. Vocelle, Jr., of Vero Beach for the 19th Circuit JNC.

* Jack Owen Hackett II of Charlotte Harbor, Russell T. Kirshy of Punta Gorda, and D. Keith Wickenden of Naples for the 20th Circuit JNC.