Women on the Rise - Levin College of Law - University of Florida

In Others’ Eyes…
with 5,000 voters had just as much representation as
Miami with 400,000 people.”
At a 20-year reunion of commission members,
Smith said he was proud of the revision which
“cleaned up language that was discriminatory to
races and sexes; created the belief that no section of
the state could gain control of the state because of
provisions for automatic review of the Constitution
and initiative for amendments and constitution conventions;
established home rule for cities and counties
as a local rather than a statewide issue; and
strengthened and modernized the Legislature and
made it a more responsive element of government.”
Smith served as trustee of the UF Law Center
Association, president of the Law Review Alumni
Association, and member of the Center for
Governmental Responsibility’s board of advisers. He
chaired his class of ’48 reunion in 1983.
As Smith aged, his passion for justice never
waned. He continued to voice his opinion about
modern-day legal issues, including his opposition
to criminal penalties for marijuana possession
and “slow-motion justice,” which he saw as the
“greatest single evil connected with administration
of criminal laws.”
Following Smith’s retirement from Holland &
Knight, the law firm donated $100,000 to establish
the Chesterfield Smith Professor of Law fund and
helped raise the remaining portion of the $250,000
initial endowment. That endowment now funds
three professorships. (See page 22.)
“Mr. Smith has been a generous, devoted and
loyal friend of this school,” said Dean Robert Jerry.
“One of his greatest legacies to our students and
prospective attorneys everywhere is the very high
bar he set through personal example of the necessity
of active, effective involvement in the civic and charitable
life of their communities.”
Smith took pride in his status as a longtime
Floridian, spending 31 years in Arcadia, 31 in Bartow,
and his last 21 in Miami-Dade. Survivors are his wife
of 16 years Jacqueline Allee, two children by his first
wife of 43 years (childhood sweetheart Vivian who
died of cancer) – Rhoda Smith Kibler and
Chesterfield Smith Jr., both of Tallahassee – and two
grandchildren, Taylor and Chesterfield III. Jacqueline
Allee is a ‘78 UF Law grad, and served the College
1978-80 as Assistant Dean for Academic Affairs.
Information pages 20-23 compiled, written and/or edited by
S. Camille Broadway, UF College of Journalism, and Stan
Huguenin, Editor and Director, Law Communications.
Washington Post (Associated Press)
(JULY 18, 2003)
Chesterfield Smith, 85, a prominent
Florida lawyer who as president
of the American Bar Association in
1973 became a critic of President
Nixon’s efforts to avoid the stains of
the Watergate scandal, died in Coral
Gables after a heart attack…
The day after what became known
as the “Saturday Night Massacre,”
Mr. Smith, a longtime corporate
lawyer who had supported Nixon’s
1968 and 1972 presidential campaigns,
released an American Bar
Association statement: “No man is
above the law,” it said, and urged an
independent special prosecutor to
investigate the president.
Miami Herald (JULY 17, 2003)
Chesterfield Smith reigned as
South Florida’s preeminent lawyer for
half a century. He was a power broker
and he was a champion of free
legal services for the poor. He was
candid and he was principled…
He defined law as “the major bulwark
between man and his government.”
He said lawyers must have an
“unselfish involvement in public
service.” He told student lawyers:
“If you don’t intend to work to
improve the quality of justice, then
I hope you flunk your exams.”
“He cared so much for the law
and was one of the best lawyers I
ever knew,” said Janet Reno, whose
friendship with Smith began in 1971
and extended beyond her eight-year
tenure as U.S. attorney general.
“Chesterfield Smith was one of the
finest people I’ve ever known.”
Editorial Tampa Tribune (JULY 18, 2003)
When Chesterfield Smith walked
into a room, people took notice.
Crowds parted for the stentorian legal
legend who was always ready to
dispense advice or share his opinion.
As head of Holland & Knight, now
one of the biggest law firms in the
country, he ran with a heady crowd –
Supreme Court justices, judges, senators
and presidents – but he never
forgot his rural, small-town America
roots, regaling reporters and others
with stories of growing up a Cracker
in backwoods Florida (Arcadia)…He
would later use his political connections
to help elevate women and
minorities into positions of power…
Smith honored the rule of law better
than most. For him there could be
no finer epitaph.
“Top 50 Most Important Floridians of
20th Century” Lakeland Ledger / 1999
In 1975, Time magazine suggested
Americans look in new
places for presidential candidates. It
named Chesterfield Harvey Smith,
a 32-year Bartow resident who
has devoted himself to improving
the quality of justice in Florida
and the nation…
Effervescent, outspoken and a
hard-working charmer with a proud
Florida drawl, the former ABA president
perfected the art of aggressive
candor. In 1973, when he was one of
the Bar’s youngest presidents, Smith –
unlike many of his predecessors –
welcomed the opportunity to speak
out on controversial issues. He suggested
periodic testing of lawyers to
weed out incompetents, and he was
an early advocate of equal rights for
women and minorities…
Business Wire (JULY 16, 2003)
Chesterfield Smith exhibited
amazing clarity in a complex era in
the 1960’s. With this clarity came the
courage and ability to recognize
and embrace societal change.
Unconcerned about the contrary
opinions of others, he often spoke out
against racial discrimination. And,
despite growing up in the segregated
South, Smith was one of the first to
recruit minorities…(He) believed in
the responsibility of individuals to take
an active role in the civic and charitable
life of their communities…
Supreme Court Justice
Ruth Bader Ginsberg
In 2002, Justice Ginsberg
presented Smith with the Laurie D.
Zelon Pro Bono Award in a formal
ceremony conducted in the Great
Hall of the United States Supreme
Court. “He has devoted his extraordinary
talent and enormous energy to
the improvement of the legal profession
– to making the profession
more honorable, more responsive to
the people law and lawyers serve,”
Ginsberg said. “He is, in sum, among
the brightest, boldest, bravest,
all-around most effective lawyers
ever bred in Florida and the USA.”
continued page 23
FALL 2003 | UFLAW
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