Distinguished Alumni
2009 UF Distinguished Alumnus Award
The Hon. Ben F. Overton
Class of 1952
Bringing quiet reason and cooperative resolution to a world filled with conflict is a special skill few can boast. The Hon. Ben F. Overton, however, is a master at diffusing discord and mediating a path to common ground.
When appointed by Governor Reubin O. Askew (JD 56) appointed Justice Overton to the Florida Supreme Court in 1974, he was the first Florida Supreme Court justice selected under the merit selection process designed to remove politics from Florida's judicial system and to improve the quality of the state's courts. When he retired in 1999, Justice Overton was the senior member of the Florida Supreme Court — having served as a justice for more than 25 years, and as chief justice from 1976 to 1978.
Early in his career, Justice Overton served nearly 10 years as a circuit judge in both the civil and criminal divisions of the Sixth Judicial Circuit Court of Florida, and was the chief judge of that circuit for more than three years. In 1973, Justice Overton chaired the Florida Conference of Circuit Judges. During his tenure as chief justice, 14 Citizen Dispute Settlement Centers were implemented. While he was chief justice, he was also a member of the Executive Committee of the Conference of Chief Justices and was chair of the conference's special committees on Cameras in the Courtroom and Judicial Education. The standards adopted by those committees have now been implemented in most states.
In addition, Justice Overton was chair of the Florida Supreme Court Matrimonial Law Commission (1981-86), whose recommendations on mediation, arbitration and equitable distribution have been substantially adopted by the Florida legislature and the Florida Supreme Court.
Justice Overton, a double Gator, earned both his bachelor's and law degrees from the University of Florida. In 1994, he earned his LL.M. in jurisprudence from the University of Virginia, and he is a certified circuit civil mediator in the state of Florida, having received his training at the Duke University Dispute Resolution Center. He has a long history of service to the legal profession and to Florida jurisprudence, having served on a variety of governmental commissions, and in legal, educational, bar, historical and professional activities. Among others, he is the former chair of the Dispute Resolution Section of the American Bar Association, and a fellow of the American Bar Foundation. He has been honored with the 1995 Tradition of Excellence Award by the General Practice Section of The Florida Bar, the 1992 Guardian of the Constitution Award, and The Florida Bar Medal of Honor in 1984.
Never one to rest, even after retirement from the bench, Justice Overton now enjoys an active second career as a mediation panelist and arbitrator and as an adjunct professor of law at the University of Florida College of Law.