S P E C I A L
F E A T U R E
by Mike Hooker - Phelps Dunbar LLP
Continued from page 23
Q: I understand that music has played an essential
role in your life ... going all the way back to your days
as a trombonist with the Marching Band at UF. Do you
still play?
A: Yes, I play for fun at home regularly and it’s just
been something I’ve always enjoyed doing and I still
enjoy doing. My daughter plays the string bass, my son
plays the trombone, and my wife plays the piano. So
sometimes we’ll put together a little 30-second quick
little Christmas song as a group, just for fun.
Q: What else do you like to do to relax and have fun
when you’re away from the office?
A: I like to travel. I’ve been to 49 states and six
continents. I still need to go to Oregon and Africa. But
that’s something that I like to do in my free time. And I’ve
been pretty involved in kids’ activities also, Boy Scouts,
Youth Orchestra, swimming with my daughter. But they
are older now; she just started college, and my son’s a
junior in high school, so I’m doing less of that.
Q: Any of your vacation trips stand out in particular?
24
A: Yes, the trip we did this summer to Poland, where
we visited Auschwitz. That was pretty moving to see what
was really going on there.
Q: Last question, Judge — what have you found to
be the single most fulfilling aspect of your distinguished
legal career?
A: I think as a judge you have the ability to learn
how things work from the inside, so if you are doing a
business case, you learn how a particular business works.
If you’re doing a family law case, you can learn how a
dysfunctional family works and might fix its issues or not.
If you’re doing a criminal case, you learn what criminals
are thinking and why they do what
they do, and why the police do what
they do. So that’s what is most
fulfilling to me is to learn about all
these different aspects of our world
from the inside, as opposed to
watching from the outside. n
Author: Mike Hooker - Phelps
Dunbar LLP
JAN - FEB 2020
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HCBA LAWYER