Lawyers — young and old — from the Keys to Miami to Palm Beach honored for pro bono work
Lawyers representing children, and an octogenarian who has spent the Florida revival of his law career as a Legal Aid attorney are among the South Florida attorneys honored during the 2025 Florida Bar President’s Pro Bono Service Awards. In addition to an attorney from each Florida judicial district and a Florida Bar member working outside the state, there are awards for law firms, young lawyers, judicial service, federal judicial service and voluntary bar associations.
Michael Stern, 15th Judicial Circuit, Palm Beach County
Juno Beach’s Michael Stern Jr. didn’t come from Syracuse to Palm Beach County to retire, at least not the way most people think of retiring. Stern, now 85, started work on a sequel to his previous life in New York, making a secondary plot point the main thing. After graduating from Syracuse University, then State University of New York-Buffalo Law School, Stern worked part time as an Associated Press photographer, then the Syracuse Post-Standard, said an Editor & Publisher obituary of his father, former lawyer and reporter Michael Stern Sr. E&P noted Stern Jr. “went straight into newspaper management training after graduation, limiting his practice of law to pro bono representation.” So, after retiring as Post-Standard production director in 2007, when Stern Jr. moved to Florida, he did what most retiring lawyers gleefully celebrate that they’ll never have to do again: took a bar exam. Stern was admitted to the Florida Bar in 2007, reached out to Legal Aid Society of Palm Beach County and resumed pro bono work with no hindrance from another job.
“For the past 17 years, Stern has dedicated at least 20 hours each week to his work with the Legal Aid Society, where he is known for taking cases Legal Aid might not otherwise have been able to take in-house,” the Florida Bar said. “The Legal Aid Society estimates Stern has donated 17,000 hours to helping more than 850 clients.”
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