After nearly four decades, Florida Lawyers Mutual Insurance Company ushers in a new era of leadership

Tampa’s Lansing C. Scriven is only the second person to serve the chair of FLMIC’s board since the company’s founding in 1987

Lansing C. Scriven of Tampa, a former member of The Florida Bar Board of Governors, succeed Ray Ferrero, Jr., as chair of FLMIC’s Board of Directors.

In a historic transition at Florida Lawyers Mutual Insurance Company, longtime legal leader Lansing C. Scriven has officially assumed the role of board chair, succeeding founding Chair Ray Ferrero, Jr., who retired after guiding the company since its inception in 1987. The leadership handoff marks the end of an era — and the beginning of a new chapter for the professional liability insurer created by The Florida Bar.

Scriven officially began his new role leading the FLMIC’s Board of Directors in late June during FLMIC’s Annual Meeting.

“It is a true honor to succeed a leader as dedicated as Ray Ferrero, Jr., the company’s first founder and a true legend in our community,” Scriven remarked last year upon his election. “I look forward to continuing his great legacy of service to Florida lawyers.”

Ferrero, following the election, added, “I am personally gratified to know that after almost 40 years of service, I have in my successor a lawyer as distinguished, accomplished, and respected as Lanse Scriven.”

FLMIC was created by The Florida Bar during the professional liability insurance crisis of the 1980s. After establishing the mutual company entity, assembling a board of directors, and hiring staff, The Florida Bar unconditionally divested its ownership and terminated all operational management and control of the company.

Scriven is the principal of Lanse Scriven Law in Tampa where he concentrates his practice in the area of Bar disciplinary defense/professional ethics advice. He has also served since 1994 as counsel to the Florida Judicial Qualifications Commission. During the span of his career, Scriven has earned an AV rating by Martindale-Hubbell and has been recognized in Best Lawyers of America, Florida Trend’s Legal Elite, and Thomson Reuter’s Florida Super Lawyers. He is also the recipient of the 2018 Outstanding Lawyer Award from the Hillsborough County Bar Association. In 2024, the Criminal Law Section of the Hillsborough County Bar Association awarded Scriven its annual Marcelino “Bubba” Huerta III Award for Professionalism and Pro Bono Service.

Scriven served on The Florida Bar Board of Governors from 2009 to 2017 representing the 13th Judicial Circuit. He served variously as chair of the Budget Committee, vice chair of the Board Review Committee on Professional Ethics, and as a member of the Board of Governors Executive Committee.

Scriven is a past president of the Hillsborough County Bar Association, Virgil Hawkins Florida Chapter National Bar Association, and the George Edgecomb Bar Association. He is also one of 30 recipients of this year’s Medal of Honor from the Virgil Hawkins Florida Chapter National Bar Association, “awarded to individuals whose exceptional leadership, advocacy, and unwavering commitment to diversity and inclusion have profoundly advanced the cause of justice within the legal profession.”

Scriven joined the FLMIC board in 2020 and has served on its Underwriting Committee, Compensation Committee, and Claims Committee.

“Mr. Scriven has been a staunch advocate for our members, our company, and the legal community in Florida for many years now,” said Cathleen Sargent, FLMIC president and CEO. “Chair Scriven’s commitment to ethical conduct and his well-deserved standing in the legal community are just some of the reasons why we are thrilled to officially welcome him as chair of our board of directors. All of us look forward to having his sound guidance and leadership of the board as we continue serving and supporting our members for years to come.”

Ray Ferrero

During the professional liability insurance crisis of the 1980s, a large number of Florida lawyers found themselves without professional liability insurance or faced rate hikes as high as 70%. Leadership at The Florida Bar responded to the crisis by forming the captive insurance company “for lawyers, by lawyers.” FLMIC’s primary objective is to provide qualified attorneys practicing in Florida with a financially sound, stable, and perpetual source of attorney professional liability insurance. The work began several years prior to the company’s formation in the late 1980s when the Board of Governors asked Ferrero, who became the first president of FLMIC, to head a special committee to address the insurance issue.

The first task was to capitalize the captive insurance company by raising the $3 million needed to receive a certificate of insurance from the state.

“We went around the state meeting with lawyers and asking them to buy certificates in the amount of $500 to start the funding of this,” Ferrero told the News in a 2014 interview. “We had to go from Key West to Pensacola to get this done. We came up with $2.5 million.”

The Bar’s Board of Governors agreed to buy a $500,000 certificate in order to reach the $3 million mark. With a handful of employees occupying a few offices in the basement of The Florida Bar building in Tallahassee, the company began issuing policies effective January 1, 1989.

Today, FLMIC exists as a mutual entity unto itself, owned entirely by the lawyers it insures. FLMIC is also an approved member benefit provider of The Florida Bar.

FLMIC’s original board of directors included founding members Donald Braddock, Philip A. Disque, Ray Ferrero, Jr., John F. Harkness, Jr., Ronald LaFace, Sr., Dennis K. Larry, William E. Loucks, Lake H. Lytal, Jr., Jesse J. McCrary, Jr., Stephen Rappenecker, Edwin T. Rumberger, C. Lawrence Stagg, Michael A. Tartaglia, and Clyde H. Wilson, Jr.