As a 10-year-old who fled Castro's communist revolution in the Pedro Pan program in 1961, Frank Angones says he "came to appreciate very early the importance of the rule of law and human rights and civil rights."
Four months after landing in Miami, Angones was joined by his parents and sister and has lived in south Florida since. The Miami litigator, to be sworn in as president-elect of the Florida Bar in June, will be the first Cuban-born attorney to hold the state Bar's top post.

A 1976 graduate of the University of Miami School of Law (his wife, Georgina, is an assistant dean there), Angones developed a practice in commercial litigation and tort defense in south Florida. And he's been an active player in professional groups.

Among other things, he is past president of the Dade County Bar and Cuban American Bar and served on the judicial nominating committee for the federal court. He was passed over when he applied to be a state appellate judge but remains attracted to the bench. "I would not put it out of the question," he says. "But I'm very happy doing what I'm doing."

When he takes office in 2007, he hopes to foster better cooperation between the Bar -- under the judicial branch -- and the legislative and executive branches. "We should concentrate on the things we can agree on," he says.

He plans to promote diversity, encouraging minorities and women to take part in Bar activities. Angones sees lawyers as protagonists who make the rule of law reality. "I like lawyers," he says.