by Richard Prior
Staff Writer
Most attorneys probably wouldn’t confess to thinking of themselves as aristocrats, but that was the compliment paid to about 300 of them last week at the inaugural Breakfast of Champions sponsored by Jacksonville Area Legal Aid.
“The Florida Supreme Court has asked you to report what you do in pro bono work,” said Talbot “Sandy” D’Alemberte. “It has asked you to provide support for legal services and has asked you to provide financial support where you can. Florida lawyers have responded in quite incredible terms.
“It seems to me the Florida lawyers who are responding this way, and the people in this room who have responded to the appeals . . . have a claim to be the aristocrats Alexis d’Toqueville talked about.”
Nearly 50 local law firms bought tables for the Breakfast of Champions, with all proceeds benefiting JALA’s Campaign to Maintain Justice.
Michael Figgins, executive director of JALA, told the crowded room at the Radisson that he “woke up grateful.”
“I know why you’re here,” he said. “You’re here for breakfast and fellowship. You’re also here for Legal Aid.”
The “champions,” he said, were those seated around the breakfast tables, as well as those at the head table.
Figgins said he considered JALA “the legitimate offspring of this bar association,” adding he couldn’t imagine what would happen without the bar’s support.
“You are the natural, and sometimes only, support of Legal Aid,” he said. “I just ask you to reflect that, as we speak, the poor are entering the offices of JALA, seeking justice. I have the task of going back to JALA today and telling the staff that they do not toil alone, and we have tremendous support from the Jacksonville Bar.”
In addition to Figgins and D’Alemberte, those at the head table were master of ceremonies Henry M. Coxe III, Joseph P. Milton, William J. Sheppard and Robert F. Spohrer.
Coxe said he considered D’Alemberte “a modern-day Atticus Finch,” and DeVault referred to him as “a real giant of American law.”
“Sandy has always been an effective spokesperson to promote legal aid and pro bono service,” said DeVault.
D’Alemberte represented Dade County in the Florida House of Representatives from 1966 to 1972. He chaired the Florida Commission on Ethics (1974-75), the Florida Constitution Revision Commission (1977-78) and originated the Florida Comprehensive Pro Bono Plan petition that was submitted to the Florida Supreme Court.
He was dean of the Florida State University College of Law (1984-89) and president of the university from 1994 to 2002. He was president of the American Bar Association from 1991-92.
D’Toqueville intended to study the prison system in the new nation but quickly took an interest in broader social issues, D’Alemberte said.
Unlike Europeans, the visitor noted, Americans formed civic organizations and helped their neighbors in what he called “habits of the heart.”
“I think it’s a wonderful phrase to summarize what is so prevalent in American society,” said D’Alemberte. “Americans really do care about their neighbors . . . and they support their communities and their neighbors by giving of themselves.”
D’Toqueville also suggested that lawyers were “a great connecting link” between society’s extremes, belonging “ to the people by birth and interest and to the aristocracy by habit and taste.”
Aristocrats in that 18th century sense, “cared about their community and had a special obligation to their community,” said D’Alemberte.
Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis noted a change in attitude by the early 20th century:
“Instead of holding a position of independence between the wealthy and the people,” he wrote, “prepared to curb the excesses of either, lawyers have, to a large extent, allowed themselves to become adjuncts of great corporations and neglect the obligation to use their powers for the protection of people.”
That “disconnect” has not been apparent in Florida, D’Alemberte said. And the connection is still strong in Jacksonville.
“I keep seeing Jacksonville show up again and again as I look over the history of the provision of legal services and how much has been developed in the state and how much of it has to be attributed to people in Jacksonville,” he said.