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Completed nomination forms for each nominee should be submitted on or before April 15, 2022.
Nomination Information
The purpose of The Florida Bar’s Claude Pepper Outstanding Government Lawyer Award, originated in 1989, is to recognize a lawyer who has made an extraordinary and exemplary contribution as a practicing government lawyer. The award is named in honor of the Honorable Claude Pepper, a Florida attorney, United States Senator, and United States Congressman, who was an advocate on behalf of the people, and who represented the highest ideals of government service through twelve presidential administrations. This prestigious award will be presented at The Florida Bar’s Annual Convention.
Nomination Criteria
Nominee must be a member of The Florida Bar in good standing and currently a practicing government lawyer, who has provided legal services at least ten (10) years in full-time government employment. The nominee should exemplify the highest ideals of dedication, professionalism, and ethics in service to the public. The nominee should have made outstanding contributions in providing legal services for the public interest. (Elected officials or judges currently serving in that capacity are not eligible.)
Selection Procedure
Nominations are reviewed by the Claude Pepper Award Nominations Committee, which selects semi-finalists to be submitted to the Claude Pepper Selection Committee. Nominees from the previous year will be included for consideration of the award. The recipient of the award will be chosen by the Selection Committee, which is comprised of the President of The Florida Bar, the Chair of the Government Lawyer Section, and the Chair of the Claude Pepper Award Nominations Committee. Additionally, two other members from the Government Lawyer Section Executive Council will be selected as alternate members of the Nomination or Selection Committee, and who will only vote in the event of a conflict of interest of one or more members of a committee.
A “conflict of interest” is presumed and the committee member must recuse him or herself if one or more of the following factors occurs: 1) member is the employer of the nominee; 2) member is the employee of the nominee; 3) member is a co- worker of the nominee; or 4) member is a relative of the nominee. “Relative” for the purposes of this procedure means any nominee who is the father, mother, son, daughter, husband, wife, brother, sister, father-in-law, mother-in-law, son-in-law, or daughter-in-law of the committee member.
If a question arises as to the applicability of this provision, it shall be referred to the Chair of the Section for resolution. If the question relates to the applicability of this provision to the Chair of the Section, it shall be referred to the Chair-Elect of the Section for resolution.
Each year, selected nominees from the two previous years will be “rolled over” and eligible to be considered for the current award.