Florida Supreme Court group posthumously honors late Miami lawyer Susan Rosenblatt
Susan and Stanley Rosenblatt, the Miami wife-and-husband legal team who won a David-versus-Goliath victory against “Big Tobacco” in 2000, have been recognized for their landmark achievement by the Florida Supreme Court Historical Society.
Susan Rosenblatt, an appellate attorney who died last November, was posthumously given the society’s Lifetime Achievement Award at a ceremony in Tallahassee last week.
The historical society also renamed the award in her name to recognize her distinguished legal career and dedication to its mission. The first Susan Rosenblatt Lifetime Achievement Award was presented to her husband, Stanley Rosenblatt, during the society’s 2022 annual dinner on Thursday.
“The society’s board wanted to honor Susan’s memory with our greatest appreciation and highest honor,” Society President Scott R. Rost said.
Also receiving a 2022 Susan Rosenblatt Lifetime Achievement Award was retired Supreme Court Justice Major B. Harding. Harding was the 74th justice on Florida’s Supreme Court, serving from 1991 to 2002, including as chief justice from July 1, 1998, to June 30, 2000.
The legal landscape of cigarette smoking — along with societal habits — has changed dramatically over a generation, partly because of the Rosenblatts. Back in the 1990s and early 2000s, they took on Philip Morris, R.J. Reynolds and other tobacco giants and won $145 billion in damages on behalf of thousands of Floridians sickened from smoking — the highest punitive judgment awarded in a personal-injury case in U.S. history.
Susan and Stanley Rosenblatt became active members of the Florida Supreme Court Historical Society’s Board of Trustees in the late 1990s and are among the organization’s greatest benefactors. Both served as chairs of various committees, and the trustees elected Susan Rosenblatt to multiple officer positions in recent years. She was poised to become the society’s president before her struggle with leukemia placed that move on hold.
Susan Rosenblatt graduated from the University of Miami with a bachelor’s degree in economics at age 17 and received her law degree with honors from the University of Miami the month she turned 21.
As a young lawyer, she was an associate of the Miami law firm of Colson & Hicks. She later devoted her practice to civil appeals, working extensively with legal giant Robert Orseck of the Podhurst Orseck firm.
In 1980, the Rosenblatts married and began practicing together. Beginning in 1991, they devoted their law practice to handling the two major tobacco class-action cases, known as Broin and Engle. Both cases included multiple appellate proceedings, all of which were handled by Susan Rosenblatt.
In recent years, Susan Rosenblatt focused her time on FAMRI, a nonprofit created through tobacco litigation that funds research seeking cures for diseases caused by smoking and exposure to secondhand smoke.
Rosenblatt died on Nov. 14, 2021, at the age of 70 after battling acute myeloid leukemia for three years.
Her friend and historical society past president, Hank Coxe, said honoring her was an important recognition of her lifetime of work. “I believe the name change is the society’s appreciation for everything she did. She will be sorely missed.”
Florida Supreme Court Historical Society Lifetime Achievement Award Honorees
2022: Major B. Harding and Susan Rosenblatt
2021: Joseph W. Hatchett
2018: Jack Harkness
2017: Janet Reno
2015: Sandy D’Alemberte
2014: Rosemary Barkett
2013: Gov. Reubin Askew and Wm. Reece Smith Jr.
2012: Dexter Douglass
2010: Robert Ervin and Mark Hulsey
2009: Russell Troutman
This story was originally published April 11, 2022 at 1:43 PM.
