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Ask Scherer how he met Anne, his grade-school sweetheart and wife-to-be. He describes “divebombing” across the school playground in fifth grade to steal peeks at Anne when she first arrived from out of town. He tells how he teases the staunchly Democratic, Irish-born priest at St. Anthony Catholic Church, where he and his family attend Saturday evening Mass, about converting him to the Republican Party. “I think I could just as easily have been a Democrat,” muses Scherer, whose father was a Democrat and a union man. Al Gore probably wishes that Scherer had stayed in the fold. Scherer raised more then $100,000 for Gore’s opponent, George W. Bush. His heated advocacy of Bush’s position during the Broward election recount battle got him barred from a recount site. Perhaps in gratitude for his efforts, Gov. Jeb Bush recently appointed him acting general counsel for the Florida Department of Professional Regulation. “People think I’m more conservative than I am because of my work with the Bushes,” Scherer protests. Scherer’s former colleagues laughingly dismiss the “could’ve been Democrat” statement as somewhat disingenuous. But both friends and foes agree that he’s no conservative ideologue. He can’t afford to be—not in heavily Democratic Broward County. No one can remember Scherer letting politics stand in the way of a good deal for himself and his clients. To the 53-year-old managing partner, bipartisan political connections and goodwill are a valuable part of what he offers clients. Scherer has steadily collected and cashed in political chits to win approval for clients’ lucrative real estate projects, like the controversial New River Village high-rise development in downtown Fort Lauderdale. Streets of Gold After getting his law degree from Indiana University in 19972 and completing a clerkship for an Indiana Supreme Court justice, Scherer secured a clerkship in Fort Lauderdale with U.S. District Judge Charles B. Fulton, chief judge of the Southern District of Florida. Once the clerkship was over, Scherer had planned to return with his wife, Anne, and their new baby, William III, to practice law in the Midwest.But on his first day of work, Scherer, recalls, he pulled into the Fort Lauderdale courthouse parking lot and did a double take at the sight of a well-dressed black lawyer emerging from a Rolls-Royce. “It didn’t take long to see that this was the land of opportunity for a youg lawyer from Indiana,” Scherer says. The man in the Rolls, W. George Allen, laughs at Scherer’s tale. “He’s a hardworking guy, an all-American success story,” says Allen, a solo practitioner in Fort Lauderdale. Scherer entered private practice in 1974 as an associate at Druck Grimmett Norman & Weaver in Fort Lauderdale. “I volunteered for any kind of cases that got me into court and before juries,” Scherer says, ticking off car accident cases and other unglamorous assignments. In 1980, with Scherer well entrenched as partner, his versatile firm was renamed Conrad Scherer & James, for partner Gordon James III and Rex Conrad, who served as a mentor to Scherer and James. Hole in the Chest The firm later faced some rocky moments. James left the firm in an acrimonious 1995 split. But the firm’s most significant transformation came in 1991, when Conrad’s retirement prompted an exodus of partners and associates concerned about compensation and the new leadership hierarchy under Scherer.Among those who left at that time was James S. Haliczer, today a partner at Fort Lauderdale’s Haliczer Pettis & White. Haliczer explains that with the retirement of Conrad, to whom he reported, he was unsure where he stood and decided to jump to another firm. But Haliczer hastens to add that he liked working with Scherer. If Scherer has a problem with you, Haliczer says, he addresses you face-to-face, never behind your back. “Bill Scherer would never stab you in the back, but he might blow a hole in your chest,” he says. The firm, now called Conrad & Scherer, handles medical malpractice defense, real estate, maritime law, and commercial and corporate civil litigation. Among Conrad & Scherer’s corporate clients are AIG and Florida Lawyers Mutual Insurance Co. One of the firm’s most notable law-suits was filed on behalf of residents of the Hampshire Homes subdivision of Miramar, where several houses had been built over a trash pit. Neither Conrad Scherer nor defendant Lennar Homes Inc. disclosed the terms of their 1997 settlement, but the payout to the plaintiffs was estimated at $10 million. Influence Scherer’s firm also serves as counsel for various governmental bodies and municipalities, including Sunrise and Lauderhill. One of the firm’s political helpers was Broward Sheriff Ken Jenne, who was a partner at the firm while serving as a Democratic state senator. Jenne’s influence gave Scherer needed pull during Democratic Gov, Lawton Chiles’ eight-year administration.Another ally is legendary Broward developer Hamilton Forman, a longtime heavyweight on the North Broward Hospital District board. In 1988, Forman helped get Scherer named general counsel for the district, a lucrative position for which there is no competitive bidding. In that position, Scherer brings his firm $2 million a year in legal fees, and farms out &3 million a year in legal work to other law firms. Scherer has survived at least two efforts to unseat him as district general counsel, the most recent in 1999. To disarm his opponents, he agreed to lower his fees from $185 to $125 an hour. He credits his long run as general counsel not to politics but to the quality of his work. Michael W. Moskowitz, president of Moskowitz Mandell Salim and Simowitz in Fort Lauderdale and a hospital commissioner since 1997, agrees, but also calls Scherer a nimble politician. “Let’s face it, if you’re a Republican in Broward County with a law firm that solicits government business, you’re a person that needs to be able to cross the political boundaries,” says Moskowitz, an influential Democrat. Election Showdown Scherer says his biggest personal and professional failing is a lack of subtlety. He believes that hurt him during the presidential recount battle, during which he observed as the local attorney for the Bush campaign.Scherer blasted the Broward County canvassing board for conducting the manual vote recount without authorization or direction from the Florida Supreme Court, and for recounting an estimated 500 absentee ballots. As the board scrambled to meet the Florida Supreme Court’s deadline for completing the manual recount, Scherer persisted in his objections. “You’re trolling for voters here because it’s clear that you can’t win this election,” Scherer told Broward Circuit Judge Robert W. Lee, the board chairman. “Mr. Scherer, you’re out of line,” Lee replied, then ordered Scherer barred from the recount room. Scherer insists that he acted appropriately on behalf of his client, and that his remarks weren’t personal. But when asked if he has spoken to Lee since that day, Scherer offers a tense no. “I don’t know the man,” he says. Since the election, Scherer insists no one in the George W. Bush administration has offered him any position in Washington D.C. He says he loves Fort Lauderdale and his current job, and would be out of his element in the fierce partisan battles inside the Beltway. “I am a trial lawyer,” he says. “I’m suited for that. But I don’t know if I’m suited for much else.” |
