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Maximum professional impactW. Reece Smith Jr. (JD 49)BY SPENSER SOLISSmith“I was seekingto enhanceaccess to thelegal systemfor societalpurposes. Thepoor and thedisadvantageddid not havethat access.”With a legal career spanningmore than 50 years,William Reece Smith Jr.(JD 49) shows few signs of slowingdown.His impact on the legal professionand society as a whole hasbeen a lasting one achieved throughserving as president of The FloridaBar, the American Bar Association(ABA) and the International BarAssociation (IBA). Smith has alsoserved as attorney for the City ofTampa and president of the GreaterTampa Chamber of Commerce.“I am very devoted to the law andto the contributions that it can maketo a civilized society,” Smith said.Smith, who grew up in PlantCity, Fla., gained an understandingof the importance of helping othersfrom a grandmother who was fullyengaged in community affairs.“She was a very active woman,interested in literature and higherlearning,” he said. “She was a leaderand I observed her.”Upon graduating from the Universityof South Carolina, Smith wascommissioned by the Navy in 1946.While aboard ship, he read a book byHoward Fast about the pioneers’ relationshipwith the American Indian.“Reading Fast’s book about howwe mistreated the Indians raised mysocial consciousness,” he said.Smith came out of the servicein 1946 still unsure about what todo with his life. Although he wastrained as an engineer, he decidedagainst a career in math and sciences.“My gifts, if any, were in thehumanities, coming from the trainingthat my grandmother had givenme years before,” he said. “I decidedto go to law school and went to theUniversity of Florida.”Entering law school in 1946under the G.I. Bill, Smith didn’t immediatelycatch on to the lingo ofthe legal field.“When they talked to me abouta legal instrument, I was a bit befuddled,”he said. “An instrument to me,from my engineering training, was ascrewdriver or something like that.”At UF Law, Smith served aspresident of the Student Bar Associationand was selected as a member ofFlorida Blue Key.During his senior year, a professorurged him to apply for a RhodesScholarship.“I thought it would be wise todo what my professor suggested,”he said. “To my surprise, I was selected.”Before heading to Oxford, Smithstarted a law office as a sole practitionerin Plant City with only his lawbooks and a vacant office. He hadonly one client who paid him a fee.“There was no public defenderin those days and no organized legalaid, so I defended indigents accusedof crime.”After studying private internationallaw at Oxford, he was invitedby Dean Henry A. Fenn to teach atUF Law.“I taught for over a year and thenI was recruited by the firm that I’mstill with, Carlton Fields,” Smith said.Smith became curious about theABA at the beginning of his career.“Nobody at Carlton Fields at thattime was a member of the ABA,” hesaid. “A lot of lawyers weren’t.”The ABA has continued to growin importance and now plays a powerfulrole in improving the legal fieldas the national voice of the profession,Smith said.“It certainly has an influence onlawyer conduct and lawyer training,”he said.When he first became involvedwith the ABA, Smith joined whatwas then known as the Junior BarConference. As a member of the conference,Smith networked with andbefriended other young lawyers fromdifferent parts of the country.“I sort of worked my way tothe top and became chairman of theJunior Bar Conference two yearsdown the road.”One might say he did the samein 1980, when Smith served as presidentof the ABA. As ABA president,Smith was instrumental in establishinglegal aid entities in private barsettings across the country.“I was seeking to enhance accessto the legal system for societal purposes,”he said. “The poor and the disadvantageddid not have that access.”During his term as ABA president,Smith led a march of bar associationson Washington, D.C. The bar associationmembers lobbied Congressto maintain funding of the LegalServices Corporation (LSC), a congressionally-sponsored,non-profitcorporation that provides legal servicesto the poor across the country.“President Reagan didn’t likethe LSC and his attorney generalannounced that they were going todefund the program,” Smith said.“We called upon our representatives,senators and congressmen and madeour pitch on behalf of the LegalServices Corporation.”Reagan’s measure was ultimatelydefeated. To this day, the LSC continuesto assist the poor.By virtue of becoming involvedwith the organized bar, Smith hasbeen able to make contributions tothe legal profession and to the communitythat he could not have otherwisemade, he said.“I became interested very earlyin legal aid and ultimately that becamesort of an avocation for me.”Smith believes that a lawyershould possess a strong character, acommitment to society and professionalimprovement, and a high levelof professional competency.“Don’t go into law solely to makemoney,” he said. “A lawyer must bewilling to make a contribution to theprofession and to society.” ■44 UF LAW