The recent death of Harry Shorstein was a blow to Jacksonville’s legal fraternity.
Shorstein was a force in the law field for more than half a century.
I knew him well and what I remember most about Shorstein was his courage. He was a Marine officer in the Vietnam War and fought in the Siege of Khe Sanh.
That same courage stood him well when, as general counsel, he brought to a halt a deal that seemed unstoppable.
Offshore Power Systems was building a large facility on Blount Island to make nuclear power plants, a new and unproven technology. It was projected to cost $200 million and bring 10,000 jobs to town and other factors seemed to get overshadowed by those figures.
OPS had only one potential customer and talk began of JEA buying one or more of the expensive gadgets.
But when Shorstein analyzed the proposed contract, he declared it very risky for the city and highly favorable to OPS.
Business interests assailed Shorstein but he held his ground.
The deal came to a sudden halt and never was completed, which may have saved the taxpayers a fortune. Regulation and events such as the 1973 oil crisis doomed the venture. OPS went out of business.
Few knew Shorstein as well as Charles Arnold. They worked together as prosecutors, then Arnold followed Shorsteisn as general counsel for the city and later Arnold was a circuit judge while Shorstein was state attorney.
“He was the best,” Arnold told Eye on Jacksonville. “He knew how to put a case together. He knew how to argue a case and he related well to juries. They knew he was telling them the truth.”
