Coral Gables litigator Ervin Gonzalez plans to run next March. The deadline for nominations is December. Two other members of the Bar’s board of governors are considering runs. Gwynne Young, a shareholder in Carlton Fields’ Tampa office, said she is interested in the position. Samuel Grier Wells, an attorney in GrayRobinson’s Jacksonville office who has been mentioned as a potential candidate, could not be reached for comment. The successful candidate would serve as president-elect beginning in June 2010 and take over as president in 2011. The emergence of multiple candidates could indicate the end of a string of uncontested elections going back to the late 1990s. Orlando City Attorney Mayanne Downs, who is a shareholder at King Blackwell Downs & Zehnder, became president-elect designate after an uncontested election late last year. Both Gonzalez and Young said they’re ready for the challenge of becoming president of the 86,000-member group. Gonzalez has been a member of the Bar’s board of governors for nine years and Young since 2003. Gonzalez, a shareholder at Coral Gables-based Colson Hicks Eidson, handles plaintiff medical malpractice, personal injury and products liability cases. He is a former president of the Dade County Bar Association and the Dade County Trial Lawyers Association and is a member of the board of trustees of St. Thomas University. Young is a past president of the Hillsborough County Bar Association and the Hillsborough County Bar Foundation and is a former member of the University of Tampa board of trustees. Both highlight the importance of diversity in Bar leadership, and both see court funding as the biggest issue facing the Bar. "We’re facing in the judiciary significant budgetary issues and matters of great impact on the judiciary," Gonzalez said. Young said, "I’m a big proponent of the Bar’s maintaining its commitment to diversity in the legal profession, not just more women in leadership [but] more minorities involved in leadership in the Bar." She is a civil litigator who works on insurance coverage disputes, real estate issues, land-use matters and family law. Wells focuses on alternative dispute resolution, as well as commercial, construction and employment litigation and insurance defense work. Two potential candidates for president-elect designate of The Florida Bar have confirmed interest in the job.