Florida State University Prof. Talbot 'Sandy' D'Alemberte Receives American Bar Association Medal

6/24/2003

From: Nancy Cowger Slonim of the American Bar Association, 312-988-6132; e-mail: slonimn@staff.abanet.org web: http://www.abanet.org/media

CHICAGO, June 24 -- Talbot "Sandy" D'Alemberte, professor and president-emeritus of Florida State University, will receive the highest honor bestowed by the American Bar Association, the ABA Medal, for 2003, in recognition of his exceptionally distinguished service to the cause of American jurisprudence. The medal will be presented in August, during the ABA Annual Meeting in San Francisco.

"The ABA Medal has honored leaders in American jurisprudence since 1929. But this year, our recipient offers inspiration on a grander scale. He is known worldwide as a visionary who has helped bring hope and security to people who had known only repression and totalitarianism, through introduction of the rule of law as a fundamental concept of government," said ABA President Alfred P. Carlton Jr., in announcing the selection.

"Sandy had the wisdom and strength to recognize an opportunity created by the fall of the Iron Curtain, and the vacuum in government that was created, and to devise an initiative to fill that vacuum with governments restrained by law and answerable to the people they serve" Carlton said.

"In 1990 he used his credibility as president-elect of the ABA to help create a volunteer program that would export the rule of law to emerging new democracies in Central and Eastern Europe. That program, now known as the Central European and Eurasian Law Initiative, has spawned similar undertakings in Africa, Latin America, and Asia. At a news conference this Law Day, May 1, Sandy and I launched its newest progeny, the Iraq Initiative, to help that country establish a working, viable legal system to enforce the rule of law, and to develop an independent judiciary and reestablish a court system, law schools and libraries, and an independent legal profession.

"The beauty of these programs is that they have brought to millions of people across the world government by law, not by despot. The programs function through volunteer lawyers teaming with citizens in countries where they are assigned to form new democracies that can nurture commerce, create economic growth and enable their people to move beyond survival to fulfilling their human potential," said Carlton.

D'Alemberte, president of FSU from 1994 until this January, has established an impressive record of public service in many other venues. He has been the lead counsel in four capital post-conviction appeals, one before the Supreme Court of the United States, and initiated a petition to the Florida Supreme Court for the Florida Comprehensive Pro Bono Plan. The plan requires all lawyers licensed in the state to report their pro bono, or volunteer, legal service activity.

D'Alemberte was a leader of efforts in the late 1960s and early 1970s to reform the Florida court system, instituting merit selection for judicial vacancies and for appellate court judges, consolidating trial courts, and introducing uniform rule-making procedures and jurisdiction in the state's courts.

As president of FSU, he helped create a Center for the Advancement of Human Rights. He is the principal investigator for a $1.9 million grant from the U.S. Agency for International Development in a project on distance learning for legal education in Central and Eastern Europe, a three-year assignment that began in 2002.

D'Alemberte was dean of the FSU College of Law in 1984-89, and has taught courses in the law school covering U.S. and state constitutional law, First Amendment law and trial advocacy since 1984. As dean, he initiated and was president of the Caribbean Law Institute, a joint program of the law college, the university and the Faculty of Law, University of the West Indies, that was funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development. He also founded the Dispute Resolution Center, a joint project with the Florida Supreme Court to conduct research and training in dispute resolution techniques, and established the Capital Post-Conviction Resource Center, also in cooperation with the state supreme court, to recruit, train and support lawyers who volunteer to represent inmates appealing death sentences.

During D'Alemberte's tenure as dean at FSU College of Law, he worked with students to establish a requirement that all students of the law school provide volunteer public legal service, only the second such program by a law school in the country, and developed funding sources to launch the Collins Center for Public Policy at the law school. He previously taught at the University of Miami College of Law.

In 1990 D'Alemberte was chief counsel to the U.S. Senate Banking Subcommittee Investigating the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. In Florida he was chief counsel to the Florida House Impeachment Committee in 1975. D'Alemberte served in the Florida House of Representatives from 1966 to 1972, and chaired the Judiciary and Ad Valorem Taxation committees. He chaired the Florida Commission on Ethics in 1974-75, and the Florida Constitution Revision Commission in 1977-78.

D'Alemberte was president of the American Bar Association in 1991-92 and of the American Judicature Society in 1982-84. He has practiced law with the firm of Steel Hector & Davis in Miami and Tallahassee since 1962, except during his tenure at FSU and at FSU College of Law.

D'Alemberte received his law degree from the University of Florida, where he received numerous honors. He is a graduate of the University of the South in Sewanee, Tenn., and attended public schools in Tallahassee and Chattahoochee.

The American Bar Association is the largest voluntary professional membership association in the world. With more than 410,000 members, the ABA provides law school accreditation, continuing legal education, information about the law, programs to assist lawyers and judges in their work, and initiatives to improve the legal system for the public.

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Editor's Note: Reporters are invited to cover all events at the ABA 2003 Annual Meeting. For information on registering for the Annual Meeting, contact Adrianne Claybrooks at 312-988-6171 or Robert Snoddy at 202-662-1093.