Two Members Inducted into Hall of Fame
hCba congratulates two of its members who were inducted in october into the stetson university College of Law hall of fame— Luis Prats and Leslie reicin stein. as a young trial lawyer, Prats won the case of Mason v. state of florida before the florida supreme Court, making law on whether a mentally impaired person can receive the death penalty. During the 1980s, he established a career as a top construction lawyer in the state. he won one of the biggest judgments in a construction case in the florida Panhandle. named among florida’ s top 100
Lawyers by super Lawyers several times, Prats was inducted into the invitationonly american College of Construction Lawyers, and is listed among the best Lawyers in america, florida trend’ s Legal elite, and in the Chambers usa guide to america’ s Leading business Lawyers. Prats has served as a leader of several organizations, including habitat for humanity, the american bar association forum on Construction Law, the american College of Construction Lawyers, and the greater tampa Chamber of Commerce. Prats is a shareholder and the construction practice group leader at the Carlton fields law firm. after graduating from law school, stein was associate general counsel of the university of south florida, where she taught as a lecturer and instructor, and became president of the association of state university systems attorneys. in 1980, she began a 24-year career at gte florida, negotiating the first nationwide collective bargaining unit contract and serving as an international technology lawyer. she also served as director of the Children’ s home, chair of the City of tampa Civil service board, national vice chair of the national Conference of Christians and Jews, president of both the florida and hillsborough associations for women Lawyers, and as an adjunct faculty member at stetson Law where she taught for more than 20 years. she worked for special Data Processing Corporation as senior vice president for human resources and general counsel, at Publix as special projects counsel, and opened her own firm in 2009. stein has received awards including florida’ s outstanding Young woman of the Year, the hillsborough association for women Lawyers Leader in the Law, and the hCba’ s outstanding Lawyer award.
Congratulations to both of these deserving members!
RPPTL Luncheon / CLE
on october 12, the real Property, Probate and trust Law section held a CLe regarding resolving professionalism complaints. richard Martin and thomas newcomb hyde with the thirteenth Circuit Professionalism & ethics Committee spoke on a number of topics, including the florida rules of Professional Conduct and aba Model Code of Professional responsibility. the section would like to thank its luncheon sponsor:
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