Bill McBride was in the audience that afternoon as Smith, his boss and mentor, told a U.S. Senate subcommittee that a corporate lawyer can serve both his clients and the public good. Now, 28 years later, Smith's pithy remark epitomizes McBride's challenge as he tries to make the transition from corporate lawyer to governor of Florida. McBride, 57, is not nearly as plainspoken as Smith. In fact, he is as cautious as Smith is indelicate. But in the nine years that McBride led Holland & Knight, he turned it into a global empire with even more corporate clients that Smith...