1925: JJ Williams Jr. moves to Sarasota and opens the Firm

JJ Williams Jr. arrived with his wife, Money, and their three children in Sarasota in 1925. He was a 38-year-old, well-experienced attorney from Memphis looking for a new start. The 1922–1926 Great Florida Land Boom was at its height, and Sarasota had rapidly developed from a sleepy fishing village to a modern resort town known for its weather, beaches, and wealth.

Williams possessed an enviable pedigree. He was a college and law school graduate of the University of Virginia (LL.B.1909), where he also played football. The son of the mayor of Memphis, Williams spent his formative years observing his father attempt to manage the boisterous commercial hub that Memphis was then. His father inaugurated the Greater Memphis Plan, a major infrastructure project that successfully eradicated yellow fever.

Having received a Florida law license in the fall of1925, Williams briefly had an office in Sarasota’s downtown Commercial Court building, a gorgeous three-story Mediterranean Revival complex located just north of the site of today’s Selby Library. By April 11, 1926, he had joined forces with Sidney Rawson Perry and Henry Lee Williford to practice as Perry, Williams & Williford.

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