Attorneys from Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Palm Beach, the Keys honored for their free work
Domestic abuse victims, tenants facing eviction, and communities where legal help doesn’t fit into the budget are among those served by South Florida attorneys’ work honored with Florida Bar’s annual pro bono service awards.
The awards were presented Jan. 20 at the Supreme Court of Florida.
In alphabetical order...
Judge Bonnie T. Helms, Monroe County
Helms, the chief judge of the 16th Judicial Circuit, was given the 2022 Distinguished Judicial Service Award for “outstanding and sustained service to the public especially as it relates to support of pro bono legal services.”
According to the Bar, getting pro bono help to the many Monroe County residents who needed it was much tougher before Helms got involved with the 16th Judicial Circuit Pro Bono Committee five years ago. Legal Services of Greater Miami’s Monroe County division didn’t have an office, potential clients didn’t know how to get help or how they would get to meetings with someone who could provide help.
Now, the Bar said, Keys residents can thank Helms for monthly pro bono events in all parts of the Keys; training pro bono attorneys in areas where that help is most needed; events hosted by social service agencies and faith-based organizations that help connect attorneys and clients of need; and better connections between attorney volunteers and the communities that need them.
Tremaine Hemans, Fort Lauderdale
Hemans, who graduated FIU School of Law and joined the Florida Bar in 2019, received the 2022 Florida Bar Young Lawyers Division Pro Bono Service Award for service by a lawyer under 35 or with less than five years of practicing experience.
The Jamaican-born head of The Hemans Law Group has a pro bono asylum case in immigration court, the latest part of her fight for fellow immigrants. The Bar said she has handled cases of getting permanent residency for domestic violence victims free of their abusers as well as work on cases involving the Violence Against Women Act.
Hemans’ mentorship program, LegallyTrem, assists college students, especially first generation ones, who might need help dealing with the path through undergraduate and graduate work.
Steven Kellough, Miami
Kellough was the Bar’s honoree out of the 11th Judicial District, Miami-Dade County.
Kellough retired in 2019. That didn’t mean he retired from volunteering with Legal Services of Greater Miami, where he works in the Consumer Unit. The Bar says since October 2020, he’s done more than 413 hours of pro bono work and worked on over 450 cases.
“He has helped low-income clients who are facing foreclosure or garnishment of wages and bank accounts, as well as clients with lemon-law cases, student loan issues, credit debt, and bankruptcy,” the Bar said.
Richard Malafy, Marathon
Malafy, of Campbell & Malafy, was the Bar’s honoree out of the 16th Judicial Circuit, Monroe County.
The Bar says Malafy not only works in Legal Services of Greater Miami’s pro bono clinics in Key Largo, Marathon and Key West, but civic groups and churches.
“Malafy’s efforts have resulted in favorable outcomes for tenants facing eviction, homeowners still trying to rebuild after (2017’s Hurricane) Irma, and clients whose lives have been upended by COVID-19,” the Bar said. “He has dedicated countless hours of pro bono services helping low-income residents rebuild their shattered community after each disaster.”
Ryan Tyler, Boca Raton
Tyler was the Bar’s honoree out of the 15th Judicial Circuit, Palm Beach County.
Tyler, with Ratzan, Weissman & Boldt firm, has done work on Guardian ad Litem cases and helped legal aid groups. Through seven appeals, Tyler’s stayed with two appellate cases he picked up in October 2020 through Legal Services of Greater Miami.
“The two cases involved an unscrupulous nonattorney landlord who violated the eviction moratorium and defied the Rules of Court by ignoring Court Orders,” the Bar said, “engaging in ex parte communications with the court, moving to recuse multiple judges on the same case, harassing the tenant client and terminating the tenant’s electricity.”
Morgan Weinstein, Fort Lauderdale
Weinstein, an attorney with Twig, Trade, & Tribunal, was the Bar’s honoree out of the 17th Judicial Circuit, Broward County.
Weinstein wrote a Florida Bar Journal article on the need for pro bono representation of domestic violence victims. And he puts his time where his pen is, the Bar said, writing a pro bono brief on behalf of a Jacksonville woman who got out of a marriage with an abusive husband.
Weinstein also has worked 500 hours with the Statewide Guardian ad Litem Office on 36 appeals for the Defending Best Interests Program.
“Through his work with the GAL Program, Weinstein has helped more than 60 children reach permanency,” the Bar said.
The Wilkie D. Ferguson Jr. Bar Association, Miami
This group, headed by president Trelvis Randolph, received the 2022 Voluntary Bar Association Pro Bono Award as a Florida voluntary bar that has made a “significant contribution in the delivery of legal services to individuals or groups on a pro bono basis.”
The association worked with other groups to open legal clinics in Liberty City, Miami Gardens, Brownsville, Coconut Grove and Opa-locka and outside normal working hours so as to be accessible to the working class people the attorneys wanted to serve. The Bar said, they “were advertised to provide three hours of free services for each session; but in reality, operated as long as there were visitors who requested services.”
Also, in company with Legal Services of Greater Miami’s Tenants’ Equal Justice Clinic, the Wilkie D. Ferguson Jr. Bar Association has given “free legal advice to low-income individuals whose landlord has not returned a security deposit or clients who are living in unsuitable, unsafe or unhealthy living conditions.”
