Director of FIU Law’s Trial Advocacy Program, H.T. Smith, is among a list of ‘Who’s Who?’ that includes 22 lawyers and judges from around South Florida who were recognized with The Daily Business Review’s Lifetime Achievement Award. The awards ceremony was held on April 14, 2015 at the Coral Gables Country Club. Smith and his fellow nominees were recognized for their outstanding service to the Florida legal community.
Smith’s legacy and passion for helping to level the playing field for African American lawyers and for defeating all forms of discrimination is more than four decades strong. Born in Miami’s Overtown community, Smith grew up under the restrictions of the Jim Crow laws. Despite the segregation he experienced as a young boy, he went on to do great things. Smith graduated from Florida A & M University and then went on to serve in the Vietnam War. While overseas, he decided he wanted to attend law school. He put his passionate, principled advocacy to the test when he convinced the University of Miami to admit him despite not taking the LSAT. He advocated that it would be unfair to punish a man for not taking a test that was not being administered in Vietnam.
After earning his Juris Doctorate from UM Smith became a trailblazer for the African-American legal community. He was the first African American assistant public defender, Miami-Dade County’s first African-American assistant county attorney and the founding president of the Black Lawyers Association.
For more on H.T. Smith visit http://lawdev.wordpress.fiu.edu/faculty/directory/h-t-smith/