S P E C I A L F E A T U R E: P R O B O N O A W A R D S Authors: Antina Mobley – Hillsborough County Public Defender’ s Office & Tori Simmons – Hill Ward Henderson
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In 2025, the firm’ s Tampa office contributed 4,062.5 hours of pro bono service. These hours reflect a broad range of matters and demonstrate the firm’ s willingness to take on complex, time-intensive cases requiring skill, compassion, and persistence. As evidence of the firm’ s long-term commitment to Crossroads For Florida Kids, Inc., many of these hours were spent representing our community’ s most vulnerable children in juvenile delinquency, dependency and mental health court. Carlton Fields exemplifies meaningful, sustained, and impactful pro bono service.
Outstanding Pro Bono Service By A Young Lawyer: Richard Anderson II
Richard Anderson II maintains a commitment to vulnerable youth that predates his legal career. As a law student at the University of Florida Levin College of Law, he founded, coordinated, and enacted the university’ s first two Gator Law Adoption Days, where over 50 children were adopted into their forever families in just two days.
Now a practicing attorney and head of his own law firm, Anderson Trial Law, PLLC, Mr. Anderson still devotes time to helping others. In 2025, he contributed 150 hours of pro bono legal services across two representations through Crossroads For Florida Kids, including an intensive extended appointment in Juvenile Mental Health Court that became one of the most notable successes of the year. Specifically, Mr. Anderson represented a young man who experienced significant trauma, struggled with mental health issues, and had difficulty trusting the systems around him. Mr. Anderson built a rapport with the child and approached the case with a trauma-informed lens, gifted the youth a skateboard to assist with transportation issues, and even leveraged his own personal network to arrange a job-shadowing opportunity which provided practical experience in the child’ s desired profession. Ultimately, the youth completed the conditions in Juvenile Mental Health Court and his charges were dismissed. With Anderson’ s intervention, the youth improved in academics, personal relationships, and
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