Download Magazine - Levin College of Law - University of Florida

Allen, left, and Andrew Hallreturned to Poland in 1993with their families to revisittheir childhood haunts.street. That cousin had come to Munichto take the brothers back to Palestine afterreceiving a letter from Andrew asking forhelp. The family was reunited at last.COMING TO AMERICAOn Feb. 6, 1947, the reunited family flewto New York and to freedom. They firstlived in Newburgh, N.Y. before movingto Miami.Both brothers earned their undergraduatedegrees from the University of Florida.Allan worked as a builder after graduation,and Andrew was pre-med, but botheventually entered UF Law.“I took the LSAT on a lark and basicallybacked in,” Andrew Hall said. “I don’tknow if this is true anymore, but if you got ahigh enough score, you were automaticallyadmitted, so all of a sudden taking the LSATas a lark — it was on a dare — I got automaticallyadmitted into law school. I figuredthat must mean something.”Hall graduated from UF Law in1968; if he had passed a Spanish class inundergrad, he and Allan would’ve beena part of the same class. Instead, Allanfinished a semester before Andrew.Andrew Hall clerked for Judge JoeEaton before going to work for a firm inMiami. In 1975, he opened his own firm,now known as Hall, Lamb & Hall.ANDREW HALL TODAYAlthough Andrew Hall once wanted tobe a doctor, he has become an exceptionallawyer, Allan Hall said.“In my opinion, he has one of thebest legal minds,” Allan Hall said. “Iconsider myself a good lawyer, but heleaves me in the dust.”Since winning the Chad Hall case,Andrew Hall has represented numerousother victims of state-sponsored terrorismincluding the families of the victimsof the USS Cole bombing.“I had no idea that it would start meon a 16-year journey that would be asdifficult and complex as it has been,”Hall said. “But the fact of the matter isit’s one of those things that once I startedit, I’ve never looked back; I’ve neverregretted it.”And although state-sponsored terrorismcases are just a small part ofHall’s practice, he takes a lot of pride inhelping the victims.“They’re more visible, so thestakes are higher. It’s the one casewhere if I walk into a cocktail partyand there’s a guy in the military that’sthere, he will routinely walk over, shakemy hand, and thank me for the casebecause he knows that there are civiliansout there fighting,” he said. “That’sthe whole point. Notwithstandingthe fact that I’m a civilian, it allowsme to basically fight, in my way,against terrorism.” ■FALL 2008 25