TAMPA – Carlton Fields is pleased to announce that the firm’s chair emeritus William Reece Smith, Jr. was recognized with the International Commerce Award from the World Trade Center Tampa Bay (WTC-TB) during the WTC-TB’s Annual Dinner on Friday, September 24 at the University Club in downtown Tampa. Smith and Betty Castor were both honored with this year’s prestigious awards for their significant contributions and service as community leaders who foster, encourage, and enrich international commerce, education, and culture in the Tampa Bay community. Smith was unable to attend the awards banquet and firm President and CEO Gary L. Sasso accepted the award on Smith's behalf.
For more information about the World Trade Center Tampa Bay, please visit http://www.wtctampa.com
SMITH
Smith was born in Athens, Tennessee in 1925. Raised in Plant City, Florida, he graduated in 1946 from the University of South Carolina, earning a B.S. in Naval Science and receiving contemporaneously a commission in the United States Naval Reserve. After serving as an Ensign in the Navy, Smith attended the University of Florida College of Law where he graduated first in his class and with high honors in 1949. After law school, as a Rhodes Scholar, Smith attended Oxford University in England. Upon returning to Florida, he joined the University of Florida law faculty. Then, in 1953, he was hired by Carlton Fields where he has remained for 57 years and counting.
During his career, Smith has held key leadership positions in the organized bar, including president of the Hillsborough County Bar Association, The Florida Bar Foundation, The Florida Bar, Florida Legal Services, Inc. the American Bar Association (ABA), and the International Bar Association (IBA). He is the only American lawyer to have been a president of a local bar, a state bar, the ABA, and the IBA. Additionally, Smith is a lifetime member of the ABA House of Delegates, and past president of the American Bar Endowment, the National Conference of Bar Presidents, and the American Bar Foundation.
Smith served for one year as interim president of the University of South Florida. He declined to become a candidate for the permanent post to seek – successfully – the presidency of the ABA. Since 1991, he has been a Distinguished Professorial Lecturer at Stetson University College of Law where he teaches a course on Legal Ethics & Professional Responsibility.
Smith has published extensively in learned journals, professional publications, and newspapers on matters of law, the legal profession, and higher education. He has testified on various occasions before committees of the U.S. Congress and the Florida Legislature. He has spoken to religious, educational, civic, and professional organizations in every state of the Union and in numerous foreign countries.
Smith has been recognized in numerous ways for his leadership and service to the legal profession and by countless organizations, including the rarely given ABA’s Gold Medal – the ABA’s highest recognition – for “exceptionally distinguished service to the cause of American Jurisprudence.” He also received the ABA Pro Bono Publico Award, the Herbert Harley Award of the American Judicature Society, and was the first recipient of “The William Reece Smith, Jr. Special Services to Pro Bono Award,” created in his name by the National Association of Pro Bono Coordinators.
Throughout his career, Smith has dedicated himself to improving the delivery of legal services to the poor and disadvantaged. He was instrumental in founding Bay Area Legal Services, Inc., a non-profit publicly funded entity providing legal representation to indigent individuals. He later helped to establish Florida Legal Services, Inc., a statewide legal services program that provides legal services to certain indigent populations and provides support to more than 40 legal services programs in Florida, serving as its first president.
Smith currently serves as chair emeritus and the senior member of Carlton Fields, P.A., one of the largest law firms in Florida and the Southeast.