Miami lawyer H.T. Smith has been selected to receive FFLA’s 2026 Medal of Honor Award for a Lawyer, and philanthropist Dr. Sarah H. Pappas will receive the Medal of Honor Award for a Non-Lawyer. The Medal of Honor is FFLA’s highest honor. Rosemary Armstrong, a lawyer and co-founder of Crossroads For Florida Kids, will receive the 2026 Jane Elizabeth Curran Distinguished Service Award.
The Medal of Honor Award, sponsored by Florida Lawyers Mutual Insurance Company, is presented each year to a member of The Florida Bar who has demonstrated his or her dedication to the objectives of The Florida Bar as set out in the Rules Regulating The Florida Bar “to inculcate in its members the principles of duty and service to the public, to improve the administration of justice, and to advance the science of jurisprudence.” The Medal of Honor may also be awarded to a member of the public or a lawyer not actively engaged in the practice of law who has made outstanding achievements in improving the administration of justice in Florida.
H.T. Smith, Esq.
H.T. Smith, Esq., a Miami attorney and Inaugural Director of the Trial Advocacy Program at Florida International University College of Law, is being honored with the Medal of Honor Award for a Lawyer for his lifetime of distinguished advocacy, enduring contributions to justice and transformative service that has strengthened communities, expanded opportunity and elevated the legal profession.
“For more than five decades, he has not only practiced law at the highest level, he has modeled what it means to live a life anchored in service, courage, and a steadfast belief that the law can expand opportunity and strengthen communities,” wrote Monica Vigues-Pitan, CEO of Legal Services of Greater Miami, in her nomination of Smith. “His career reflects a legacy not simply of achievement, but of transformation.”
Born and raised in Overtown, Fla., during the era of segregation, Smith’s early life was shaped by a community constrained by structural barriers and experiences that would define not his limits, but his purpose. After earning a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from Florida A&M University, he was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the United States Army and served in Vietnam. Upon returning home, he earned his law degree from the University of Miami School of Law, becoming the fourth Black graduate in its history. He was admitted to The Florida Bar in 1973.
Smith began his legal career as a staff attorney at Legal Services of Greater Miami, representing low-income individuals and families. He went on to become Miami’s first Black Assistant Public Defender and later Miami-Dade County’s first Black Assistant County Attorney. He subsequently became a partner in the first Black law firm to establish offices in downtown Miami.
For more than 52 years, Smith has practiced in civil rights, personal injury and criminal defense. He has been recognized as a Top Trial Lawyer by the Dade County Bar Association and was inducted into the “Legal Legends” of Miami-Dade County.
“For over 52 years, Attorney Smith has redefined what it means to be a ‘citizen-lawyer’ in the State of Florida,” wrote Brendalyn V.A. Edwards, President of the Virgil Hawkins Florida Chapter of the National Bar Association, in a letter supporting his nomination. “H.T. Smith has not only changed the trajectory of cases, he has changed the trajectory of lives.”
Beyond the courtroom, Smith led the Boycott Miami campaign, which resulted in meaningful economic and educational opportunities for Black communities, including development of the first Black-owned, convention-quality hotel in the United States. In 1995, he spearheaded the effort to raise $5 million to build the NFL Youth Education Town Center in Liberty City, which continues to serve hundreds of children and families annually. His international impact was recognized in a personal letter from President Nelson Mandela praising his courageous leadership in the pursuit of justice.
His leadership within the profession has been historic and generational. Smith was founding President of the Wilkie D. Ferguson Jr. Bar Association and a founding member of the Gwen S. Cherry Black Women Lawyers Association. He served as president of both the Virgil Hawkins Florida Chapter of the National Bar Association and later the National Bar Association itself. He later returned to Legal Services of Greater Miami as a board member and president.
His impact on legal education is equally profound. As Inaugural Director of Florida International University College of Law’s Trial Advocacy Program, Smith built a nationally recognized program and personally mentored hundreds of young lawyers. At the University of Miami, which has a building that bears his name, he served on the Law Alumni Association board, the law school dean’s advisory committee and as vice chairman of the board of trustees.
“He builds bridges between communities, across generations, and within the profession itself,” Vigues-Pitan wrote. “His integrity and dedication to mentoring the next generation have left an indelible mark on our profession and our community.”
Smith has received numerous honors throughout his career, including the H. Kirk Haas Professionalism Award from The Florida Bar, the Stanley Milledge Lifetime Achievement Award from the ACLU of Florida, and the Equal Justice Award from the National Bar Association. In 2025, a stretch of Northwest 69th Street in Miami was co-designated “H.T. Smith Street” in his honor.
Dr. Sarah H. Pappas
Dr. Sarah H. Pappas, a retired educator and philanthropist from Sarasota, has been selected to receive FFLA’s 2026 Medal of Honor Award for a Non-Lawyer. Pappas is being recognized for her exemplary leadership, advocacy, and support of initiatives that enhance justice, institutional integrity, and access to the courts across Florida.
“Dr. Pappas exemplifies the spirit of this award through her extraordinary commitment to advancing justice for some of Florida’s most vulnerable citizens: individuals wrongfully convicted within the state’s prison system,” wrote Seth Miller, Esq., executive director of the Innocence Project of Florida, in his nomination of Pappas.
Born in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Pappas spent the first 13 years of her life in Latin America, where her father worked for U.S. Steel. She earned a master’s degree in social science education from the University of South Florida and a doctorate in curriculum and instruction from Nova Southeastern University. Over a 44-year career in public higher education, she served at three community colleges and the University of Central Florida. She became the first female president of what is now the State College of Florida.
Pappas was recognized as a 2024 Woman of Influence by Sarasota Magazine and has served on numerous boards throughout her career, including the John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art Foundation. She served as the president of the William G. and Marie Selby Foundation in Sarasota for nine years.
Pappas was introduced to the Innocence Project of Florida (IPF) in 2014, when she heard exoneree James Bain recount his 35 years of wrongful incarceration at a reception. A lifelong advocate for criminal justice reform, she was deeply moved by the realities of wrongful conviction and increasingly committed herself to the cause.
In the years that followed, she deepened her involvement with the organization until, in 2022, she made a $500,000 matching gift, the largest individual philanthropic investment in IPF’s history, establishing the Dr. Sarah H. Pappas Fund for Innocence.
The gift served as the catalyst for IPF to significantly expand their capacity by hiring two additional attorneys, a second investigator, a paralegal and a second social worker. In total, Pappas has contributed more than $700,000 to IPF’s mission.
“Sarah’s timely, vital gift providing this needed capacity was directly responsible for the freedom of all of our clients who survived their ordeal of wrongful incarceration and achieved release in the last four years,” Miller wrote. “Her investment has directly strengthened the systems through which wrongful convictions are investigated, litigated, and remedied.”
Beyond her financial contributions, Pappas has served as a public ambassador for IPF. She authored an op-ed in the Sarasota Herald-Tribune, organized community speaking engagements, and participated in fundraising events.
“Sarah has given IPF more than money. She has been involved in the journey,” wrote John Patterson, Esq., of Shutts & Bowen LLP, in a letter supporting Pappas’ nomination. “Her knowledge and enthusiasm have inspired many others to assist and support IPF. Wrongfully convicted persons would still be incarcerated if it were not for Sarah Pappas.”
The impact of Pappas’ investment is perhaps best understood through the experience of Stephanie Spurgeon, a paralegal at IPF who herself was wrongfully convicted.
“Dr. Pappas may not have stood in the courtroom during my hearings, but her commitment, advocacy, and support strengthened the very organization that fought for my freedom,” Spurgeon wrote in a letter supporting the nomination. “Because of her support, families have been reunited. Because of her commitment, innocent people have been given a second chance at life. I am one of those people.”
Rosemary Armstrong, Esq.
Rosemary Armstrong, Esq., co-founder and Director Emerita of Crossroads For Florida Kids, will receive FFLA’s 2026 Jane Elizabeth Curran Distinguished Service Award for her decades of unwavering pro bono service, her steadfast advocacy for vulnerable children and families, and her leadership in expanding access to justice across the state of Florida.
The Jane Elizabeth Curran Distinguished Service Award recognizes an individual who, over his or her career, has achieved meaningful, effective and lasting increases in access to civil justice for the poor in Florida.
Armstrong earned her bachelor’s degree from the University of Washington and her law degree from Columbia Law School, where she served as administrative editor of the Human Rights Law Review. In 1986, she began volunteering as a pro bono lawyer for Bay Area Legal Services in Tampa. She helped create a Family Law Mentor Project to recruit pro bono attorneys and mentors for family law cases, a model later replicated by other pro bono programs. She served on BALS’ board of directors for 22 years, including three terms as president. She chaired the 13th Judicial Circuit Pro Bono Committee.
In 2012, she received The Florida Bar’s Tobias Simon Pro Bono Service Award, the highest honor the Bar bestows for pro bono service. Afterward, Armstrong immediately turned her attention to a critical gap she had identified in Florida’s civil justice system: children in foster care and crossover youth who had no meaningful access to counsel advocating for their expressed interests. That same year, she co-founded Crossroads For Florida Kids, a pro bono organization in Hillsborough County devoted entirely to representing children in dependency, delinquency, criminal and related matters.
“Ms. Armstrong is a talented, passionate attorney who has devoted her career to advocating on behalf of the most vulnerable of our citizens, and particularly on behalf of children,” wrote Katherine Earle Yanes of Kynes Markman & Felman in her letter supporting Armstrong’s nomination. “She has achieved professional excellence and has used her time and talents to represent some of those in our society most in need of pro bono assistance: needy children.”
Over the next decade, Armstrong served as Crossroads’ full-time, unpaid executive director, building a comprehensive, trauma-informed model of representation that has become a blueprint for pro bono children’s advocacy in Florida. Under her leadership, more than 280 volunteer attorneys were recruited and trained, collectively contributing more than 55,000 pro bono hours to over 1,700 children. She has personally represented more than 150 children, many of whom had significant mental and physical health needs and complex challenges.
“There was no other attorney fighting harder for the rights of disadvantaged children in our community than Rosemary Armstrong,” wrote Lisa Kilbride of Zuckerman Spaeder LLP in a letter of support. “Rosemary’s commitment and professionalism in all aspects of her work is literally second to none.”
Armstrong’s dedication to children’s causes extends beyond Crossroads. She has advocated for ending solitary confinement for juveniles, expanding diversion programs and addressing issues related to the sex trafficking of juveniles.
Retired Circuit Judge Ralph C. Stoddard, who witnessed her work firsthand from the bench, noted that Armstrong’s background as a Columbia Law graduate and talented litigator could have led her to a path of great commercial success. “She chose to use those prodigious skills for not only nonprofit altruistic goals but in organizing and leading state and local groups to address and fill the need for ad litem and pro bono service,” Stoddard wrote.
Armstrong has been recognized locally, statewide and nationally for her contributions, having received the Tampa Bay Lightning Community Hero Award, the ABA Livingston Hall Juvenile Justice Award, the Hillsborough County Bar Association Margaret D. Matthews Mentoring Award, and the inaugural Florida Bar Young Lawyers Division Spirit of Excellence Award.
Today, Armstrong continues to mentor attorneys and guide the organization she built, ensuring that its culture of advocacy endures for the children who need it most.
FFLA will present the Medal of Honor Awards, the Jane Elizabeth Curran Distinguished Service Award and other honors at its award ceremony and breakfast at Signia by Hilton Orlando Bonnet Creek during The Florida Bar Annual Convention. Tickets are available at https://fundingfla.org/tickets/.
