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A Consummate Lawyer Published on the Life and Legal Career of Carlton Fields' William Reece Smith, Jr.
01/11/2010
TAMPA – Carlton Fields is pleased to announce that the biography, A Consummate Lawyer, on the life and legal career of William Reece Smith, Jr. was released. Published by Carolina Academic Press, the book is authored by Michael I. Swygert, a professor emeritus at Stetson University College of Law.
William Reece Smith, Jr. was born in Athens, Tennessee, on September 19, 1925. He is chair emeritus and the senior member of Carlton Fields, P.A., one of the largest law firms in Florida and the Southeast.
Raised in Plant City, Florida, Smith graduated in 1946 from the University of South Carolina, earning a Bachelor of Science degree 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 the law firm of Carlton Fields where he has remained for fifty-seven 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 from August 1976 to September 1977 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’s interest in education is further evidenced by serving as a member of advisory boards at the University of Tampa, and of three law schools at Florida State, Miami, and Stetson universities. He addition, he has been vice-chair of the Executive Committee of the Council on Legal Education Opportunity (CLEO), co-chair of the Task Force on Missions and Goals of the University of South Florida, chair of the Council of Advisors, University of South Florida, vice-chair, The New College Foundation, Sarasota, Florida, trustee and vice-chair, Board of Trustees, Bethune-Cookman College, Chair, Florida’s Joint Legislative-Executive Commission on Post Secondary Education, member, National Advisory Council, University of South Carolina, co-chair, Committee on Public Finance of the Board of Regents of the State University System of Florida, and, more recently, a member, Board of Trustees of Stetson University. His education honors are legion including twelve honorary degrees from eleven colleges and universities.
He has chaired a Committee of the ABA’s Section on Legal Education & Admissions to the Bar, served two terms on The Florida Bar’s Standing Committee on Professionalism, and has been member of the ABA – American Law Institute Committee on Continuing Professional Education. His service for years on the governing Council of the American Law Institute includes oversight, direction, and review of scholarly research in law and sociology.
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 Association’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. As ABA president, Smith put expanding legal services for the poor at the top of his agenda.
Smith is nationally known for organizing successful opposition to President Reagan’s goal to abolish the national Legal Services Corporation (LSC), created by President Nixon to provide grants to non-profit organizations that provide legal services to the poor. Over 100 bar leaders from 43 states made a “march on Washington” and descended upon the U.S. Senators and members role is considered a primary reason that the Legal Services Corporation enjoys bipartisan support in Congress today.
Smith’s service to his law firm, the community, Florida, the nation, and to international lawyers can hardly be overstated. Indeed, his biography is aptly titled: A Consummate Lawyer.
Please contact Jennifer Mitchell for an interview with Mr. Smith or Mr. Swygert.
Jennifer L. Mitchell, Communications Manager
813.229.4124
Click here to purchase a copy of A Consummate Lawyer: William Reece Smith, Jr.
A Consummate Lawyer: William Reece Smith, Jr. by Michael I. Swygert (Hardcover - Nov 1, 2009) can be purchased at www.amazon.com
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