Stetson’s annual Inns of Court honors Bay Area Legal Services leader
Stetson University College of Law’s annual Inns of Court Banquet on Jan. 24 in St. Petersburg honored Bay Area Legal Services pioneer Richard C. Woltmann with the Wm. Reece Smith Jr. Public Service Award. Stetson established the Wm. Reece Smith Jr. Award in 1990 to honor outstanding contributions to public service, the justice system, and the community.
Woltmann established the elder law programs at Bay Area Legal Services in 1976, becoming chief executive officer/president of the organization in 1980. Prior to joining Bay Area Legal Services, he served for three years in the Peace Corps in West Africa and for one year as a VISTA lawyer in Washington State.
University of North Carolina Chapel Hill Reef C. Ivey II Distinguished Professor of Law Deborah Weissman presented the Wm. Reece Smith Jr. Distinguished Lecture. Professor Weissman’s teaching and scholarship focuses on human rights, immigration and immigration rights, gender violence, and the lawyer as public citizen.
Stetson’s Wm. Reece Smith Jr. award and lecture honor the late Wm. Reece Smith Jr., a champion for justice and national leader in the legal aid movement. Smith is a member of the Stetson Law Hall of Fame, the namesake of Stetson’s Tampa Law Center Wm. Reece Smith Jr. Courtroom, and was a longtime member of both the Stetson Law Board of Overseers and Stetson University Board of Trustees.
The Inns of Court banquet, with roots in the English mentoring program for barristers, presents Stetson Law students with an opportunity to interact with prominent lawyers on current topics in the law and ethics.
Post date: Jan. 28, 2019
Media contact: Kate Bradshaw
[email protected] | 727-430-1580