by Richard Prior
Staff Writer
A past president of the American Bar Association, former legislator and a legal educator with an international reputation has been named guest speaker at the 2004 Breakfast of Champions, the biggest fund-raiser of the year for Jacksonville Area Legal Aid.
Talbot “Sandy” D’Alemberte will join JALA’s board of directors for the breakfast, being held from 7:30 to 9 a.m. April 28 at the Radisson.
D’Alemberte was dean of the FSU College of Law from 1984 to 1989 and served as president from 1994 to 2002. He still teaches law at FSU and is preparing a course in international human rights he will teach this summer at Oxford University.
“I’m learning a lot,” he said. “I hope the students learn something. I didn’t know how intricate some of these procedural rules are, dealing with agencies in human rights.”
Society and the courts have a long way to go before “liberty and justice for all” mean just that, D’Alemberte said.
“It’s a very sad commentary on the American justice system how far short of our ideals we are in our practice,” he said from his office at FSU. “We profess to care an awful lot about having a justice system open to everyone. It’s how we end our Pledge of Allegiance.
“But If we begin to look at the reality, we find that many people who are in poverty simply don’t have access to the justice system. Efforts like those being made in Jacksonville allow us to recite the Pledge without blushing.”
At FSU, he has taught on Constitutional law, the First Amendment and a role-playing course in appellate practice.
From 1966 to 1972, D’Alemberte represented Dade County in the Florida House of Representatives. His colleagues and close associates included Gov. Lawton Chiles, Sen. Bob Graham and former U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno.
He chaired the Florida Commission on Ethics (1974-75) and the Florida Constitution Revision Commission (1977-78).
The articles and volumes published over the years have tackled varied topics, including legal ethics and free speech. “The Florida Constitution,” which he wrote, was published in 1991.
He also originated the Florida Comprehensive Pro Bono Plan petition that was submitted to the Florida Supreme Court.
D’Alemberte was chief counsel to the Florida House Impeachment Committee in 1975. In 1990, he was chief counsel to the U.S. Senate Banking Subcommittee that investigated the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
He was president of the American Bar Association from 1991 to 1992.
Michael Figgins, JALA’s executive director, had plenty of praise for his high-profile speaker as well as for those responsible for bringing him to the breakfast.
“I would like to comment on the effort of the Jacksonville Bar, not only to make this event a success by attracting someone like Professor D’Alemberte,” said Figgins. “But it also shows how important and respected the Jacksonville Bar is by being able to get him to come out here.
“It shows the very special relationship JALA has with the members of the Jacksonville Bar. I don’t know that any other bar association that could make this happen. Ours did.
“If you look at who was asking, I think that’s what it’s all about.”
D’Alemberte was a co-founder of the Central and East European Law Initiative (CEELI), founded in 1990 as a project of the American Bar Association. A CEELI Institute has been created in Prague, Czechoslovakia, to educate judges and attorneys through modern education methods and facilities.
His many awards include a 1985 “Emmy” from the American Academy of Television Arts and Sciences for his work in open government; the 1996 American Judicature Society’s Justice Award; the 1998 ABA World Order Under Law Award; the 1998 ABA Section of Legal Education Robert J. Kutak Award; and the 2001 Wickersham Award, given by the Friends of the Law Library of Congress.
All proceeds from JALA’s Breakfast of Champions will benefit the 2004 Campaign to Maintain Justice. Tickets are $25 each or $250 for a table of 10.
For tickets, call the JALA Development Office at 356-8371,
Ext. 316.