John R. Hargrove (attorney)
John R. Hargrove is the senior shareholder of the Boca Raton law firm, Hargrove Pierson & Brown. He handles complex civil litigation, including First Amendment issues, probate and trust matters, elder law and appeals.
In 2001 Hargrove was elected to the board of trustees of Butler University in Indianapolis, Indiana, served as board chair from 2008 to 2011, a period which included Butler's appearance in two NCAA basketball national championship games. In 2014 he was named Butler's first Board of Trustees Chair Emeritus.
Hargrove was born on January 20, 1947, in Chicago, Illinois. He graduated from Butler University in 1969, and Indiana University School of Law, where he graduated magna cum laude in 1972. Hargrove was a senior editor of the Indiana Law Review and at graduation was named by the law school faculty as the most outstanding student in his graduating class. Following graduation, he served a two year federal judicial clerkship for Roy L. Stephenson, United States Court of Appeals Judge for the Eighth Circuit.
Hargrove also holds a master's degree in public administration from Harvard University, where he guest lectures in negotiations each semester. In the spring of 2014, Hargrove lectured on contextual leadership at The United States Military Academy located at West Point, New York. Beginning in 2015, he will be an adjunct lecturer on law office management at the graduate school of professional studies of George Washington University.
Over the years, Hargrove has been involved in a number of noteworthy cases, including First Amendment matters representing print and broadcast media, has litigated probate and trust matters both for institutional clients and high-net-worth individuals, and has championed the rights of senior citizens having served as lead counsel for plaintiffs in national class actions. He is also noted as being one of the lawyers who represented the Estate of Doctor Sam Sheppard in the late 1990s when attorney Terry Gilbert of Cleveland, Ohio, pursued litigation on behalf of the Sheppard family in the Ohio courts. The suit filed by Gilbert was an effort to clear Dr. Sheppard's name through the use of DNA evidence. The Sheppard murder, which took place on July 4, 1954, is commonly viewed as the inspiration for "The Fugitive" television series and 1993 movie. Hargrove was a classmate of Dr. Sheppard's son, Sam Reese Sheppard, at Culver Military Academy in Indiana.
In recognition of his career as a lawyer, Hargrove is named in Best Lawyers in America in four categories, appeals, commercial litigation, First Amendment law and trusts and estates. For the 2015 edition of Best Lawyers, Hargrove has been named Florida's "First Amendment Lawyer of the Year." He has also been listed in Florida Super Lawyers each year since the inception of that publication.
Hargrove has been married since 1972 to Mary Cheryl (Fuller) Hargrove, who shares his commitment to the community. She has been an active volunteer in a number of capacities, including President of the Junior League of Greater Fort Lauderdale, a founding board member and President of SOS Children's Villages of Florida and an original member of Impact 100 of Palm Beach County. She is the great granddaughter of Matt Winn, former president of Churchill Downs and widely considered responsible for making The Kentucky Derby "the most prestigious race in the world." Mary Cheryl received her undergraduate degree from Rollins College located in Winter Park, Florida, and holds a master's degree from Harvard.
The Hargroves are parents of two children: John Ashby Hargrove (Johnny), 1976-2013, and James Fuller Hargrove (Jimmy), 1978-2009. Like his father, Johnny graduated from Butler University. He was awarded his master's degree posthumously in May 2014 from George Washington University. Jimmy graduated from New York University with a degree in creative writing. Both sons graduated from Tilton School located in Tilton, New Hampshire.
Around the time of Jimmy's death in 2009, Hargrove gave up his role as managing partner of Gordon, Hargrove & James, a law firm he had co-founded in Fort Lauderdale, Florida in 1988. He then significantly reduced the size of his practice which he relocated closer to his home in Boca Raton, Florida. The change has enabled the Hargroves to devote a greater amount of their time pursuing their passions for working in the non-profit sector. Hargrove is currently working with Indiana University in conjunction with its School of Law and School of Philanthropy to establish an appellate litigation clinic modeled after the Supreme Court Litigation Clinic founded by the Law School at Stanford University.
The Hargroves spend their summers in their home in Crystal Downs Country Club located at the base of the Leelanau Peninsula near Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore in northern Michigan.