Mitchell Panter Elected President Of The B’nai B’rith Bench & Bar Miami Chapter
ONE OF MIAMI’S COMMUNITY NEWSPAPERS – MARCH 1- 15, 1999 PINECREST TRIBUNE
BY AMAURY ALFONSO
Mitchell J. Panter, of the Pinecrest law firm Panter, Panter & Sampedro, P.A., was elected, in January, president of the B’nai B’rith Bench & Bar Miami Chapter. The Honorable William Turnoff, a founder of the organization, performed the installation ceremony at a group meeting in which former Florida Supreme Court Justice Gerald Kogan was guest speaker.
“As president I hope to continue to have the organization run as smoothly as possible, and involve students, lawyers and members of the judiciary in our program with the spirit of Judaism and the law together,” Panter said.
Panter, who practices personal injury and wrongful death litigation, said he “will preside over dinner meetings where we hope to have speakers promote our causes and plan for the future by inviting students.”
B’nai B’rith is the world’s oldest and largest Jewish organization. The mission of B’nai B’rith is to bring Jewish people together to work in friendship, to improve harmony, to strengthen the Jewish community, to combat racial and religious intolerance, and to help the less fortunate.
B’nai B’rith Bench and Bar, an organization consisting of Jewish lawyers and judges from the local area, involves itself in resolving dilemmas within the community and educating lawyers and judges to Jewish issues within the law. The organization has in excess of 100 active members.
Panter and his brother, Brett, established Panter, Panter & Sampedro, P.A. seven years ago. Both are board-certified civil trial lawyers, and their firm has experience in all courts of the state including county courts, circuit courts, appellate courts, the Florida Supreme Court, and federal courts within the State of Florida.
Panter, 37, did his undergraduate studies at the University of Michigan, and he attended the University of Miami Law School. During his junior year in college, Panter attended Wagner College in Bregenz, Austria as part of a foreign exchange program. He has been practicing law since 1986.
At age 31, Panter argued the case of American Aerial Lift v. Jose Perez in the Florida Supreme Court, addressing the issues of strict liability and product liability. This precedent-setting resulted in a $1.7 million ver-dict obtained by Mitchell and Brett Panter in the trial court for Perez, who was injured on a scissor lift.
Panter has received awards such as Attorney of the Year from the Law Related Education Association for outstanding contributions in the field of law related education benefiting Florida youth and the legal profession. He also taught paralegal studies as a professor at Miami-Dade Community College from 1991 to 1992, and was producer/host of television’s Trial Talk and At Issue, both of which are sponsored by the Dade County Bar Association.
B’nai B’rith Bench and Bar meetings are held at Biscayne Bay Marriott every other month on Monday evenings. Panter said anyone wanting to learn more about the organization is welcomed to attend the meetings. If you would like more information about B’nai B’rith Bench and Bar you can contact Mitchell J. Panter at Panter, Panter & Sampedro P.A..
