Setting Precedent, part I 

“Why don’t you practice it, Laura?” people would ask. “You should be a lawyer,” I’d often hear after a debate.

Mom, brother, sister-in-law, college roommate, friends – I was happy to study vicariously through them all.

So when I made a little trip to north Florida last month to hear Larry speak, I didn’t know I’d have the chance to combine two of the things that intrigue me most.

“I’m Herman Laramore,” said the man with an outstretched arm and firm handshake. “I believe you’re coming by my place today.”

Herman is a staple in the Marianna, Fla., community. He’s been there his entire life and I’d heard his cattle were the kind I would want to see before I traveled back south.

As we walked through the crowd I noticed people noticing him but it wasn’t until he had to apologize for the many phone calls he would get that morning that it made sense: “I’m the elected public defender for the Fourteenth Judicial Circuit of the State of Florida,” he said.

As rancher and public defender, Herman’s days are in true conflict. On one side there is life, growth and productivity; on the other, death, ill will and heinous acts by man.

His day to day is a bit different than most of the ranchers I know and, believe me, the majority wouldn’t trade places for a second, but it’s in the balance he tells me he finds variety and an escape from the status quo.

“Well that’s what makes life interesting. It’s not the same ole same ole. You mix it up.”

In addition to the six guys who work full and part time at Bar L Ranch, Herman’s responsible for more than 50 attorneys and private investigators spanning six counties.

At 74, he’ll say it sure didn’t fall into his lap or start out as a pretty picture. He grew up on a 40-acre piece of land connected to the main place now where his dad worked in town and dabbled in cows. But Herman had a vision and the tenacity to aim for it.

“This was almost all woods,” he says looking across the land that now spans four miles. “I wore out two bull dozers on this place.” Not to mention the hours spent piling roots by hand.

He had grown fond of cattle as a child and wanted them in his life, but he also wanted good ones and land for them to roam, and knew that would require cash.

“I always liked the cattle, but when you’re starting out and wanting to grow, you have to have a subsidized livelihood. I knew if I was ever going to have anything, I was going to have to work to get it. I wasn’t going to inherit it.”

So he went to law school. And for years he purchased neighbor’s land and later his own cattle. Throughout it all, he worked.

“I’d come in on a Friday night from Florida State University and I would plow all night. Then my brother, Gordon, would take the next morning and disk all day. I’d work Saturday night, sleep and then drive back to Tallahassee ready for school on Monday,” Herman says.

Young, married and in school, he often chose the path of discipline for the sake of a far off dream rather than the immediate golf games and nights out on the town with friends.

“I read all the time. When I didn’t have to read law books, I picked up books and magazines about agriculture,” he says. “I might spend money, but I was also taking the chance that I could make money. I was building something of value.”

Check in tomorrow to hear about the heard he built and the cattle lessons he’s learned.

Thanks for allowing me to tell your story,

Laura

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