Talk:Holland & Knight

Mostly a cut-and-paste from the firm's website
Clearly, a lot of work has gone into repurposing content from the law firm's website, but article currently has a number of problems which I have placed in a consolidated box. KevinCuddeback (talk) 01:20, 26 March 2008 (UTC)
 * Global Reach is an inherently POV way of saying "Office Locations". Reasonable people could dispute whether offices clustered on the East Coast of the USA plus China, Mexico, Israel, and Venezuela represent "Global Reach".  The section is essentially cut and paste of - Global Reach. I will re-title this section "office locations"
 * Rankings and awards section lacks NPOV. It contains only rankings which reflect favorably on the firm. This section would not be an encyclopedia writers first choice for what to say about a subject
 * History section of this article is simply an unsourced rehash of the company's own history of itself to be found at Holland & Knight - Our History
 * Diversity section is an unsourced reworking of Holland & Knight - Embracing Diversity

Article Contains Inaccurate Informaton
The article seems to imply that Spessard Holland was the first native Floridian to serve as Governor. That is not correct. Holland served as Governor from 1941 to 1945. According to Allen Morris' The Florida Handbook (2001-2002 ed.), the following native Floridians served as Governor of Florida prior to that time:

Frederick Preston Cone (1937-1941), born in Columbia County, Florida Doyle Elam Carlton (1929-1933), born in Wauchula, Florida John Wellborn Martin (1925-1929), born in Plainfield, Marion County, Florida Cary Augustus Hardee (1921-1925), born in Taylor County, Florida Napoleon Bonaparte Broward (1905-1909), born in Duval County, Florida Francis Philip Fleming (1889-1893), born in Duval County, Florida William Dunnington Bloxham (1881-1885), born in Leon County, Florida Ossian Bingley Hart (1873-1874), born in Jacksonville, Duval County, Florida

The article is in the nature of a commercial advertisement (and an inaccurate one at that). It should be removed. —Preceding unsigned comment added by John Paul Parks (talk • contribs) 15:03, 8 May 2008 (UTC)

As numerous as the article's faults are, in the "first floridian" it only is a clarity problem, not a factual one. The article is using a conjunctive "both" (he was the first native Floridian who was both governor and senator...not that he was the first native governor and first native senator). I'll try to fix that. KevinCuddeback (talk) 15:21, 8 May 2008 (UTC)

If the article is attempting to say that he is the first native Floridian to hold both offices, then, assuming that is a true statement, the article does need clarifying, because he was not the first native-born U.S. Senator either. Nathan Philemon Bryan served as U.S. Senator from Florida from 1911-1917, and he was born in present-day Lake County, Florida, and Charles Oscar Andrews served a U.S. Senator from Florida from 1936-1946, and was born in Holmes County, Florida. There may have been others, but citing two examples will demonstrate that Holland was not the first native-born U.S. Senator from Florida. My source for that information is the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress http://bioguide.congress.gov

Thanks for your response and for your efforts.

Diversity
As long as Holland & Knight is going to claim credit for its efforts to promote diversity, I think it should be pointed out that its co-founder, Spessard Holland, was one of the United States Senators who signed the Southern Manifesto in which it was declared that Brown v. Board of Education, the decision which declared racial segregation in public schools to be unconstitutional, was an "unwarranted decision of the Supreme Court" and was "bearing the fruit always produced when men substitute naked power for established law." I am glad to know that Holland & Knight does not share that view, but I wonder if Mr. Holland ever changed his position on the issue. —Preceding unsigned comment added by John Paul Parks (talk • contribs) 16:12, 8 May 2008 (UTC)