Few people have done as much good for their country, their state and their profession as Chesterfield Smith did during the long life that ended in a Miami hospital this week.
His national fame owed to his outstanding, outspoken leadership of the American Bar Association during the Watergate crisis, when his forceful remark that "No man is above the law" contributed to the appointment of a new special prosecutor and ultimately to President Nixon's resignation.
Long before, however, Smith had been instrumental in modernizing the rural Florida into which he had been born. He chaired the Constitution Revision Commission of 1965-67 that recommended to the Legislature what became the new Constitution of 1968. One of the specific reforms that he championed gave Florida something unique to the nation: Every 20 years, another commission is appointed to study the Constitution and recommend changes directly to the people, with the Legislature having no power to stop it. This had been inspired by Gov. LeRoy Collins' long struggle to exact a fair reapportionment, and a modern Constitution, from an unwilling Legislature.
Former Gov. Reubin Askew, former Attorney General Janet Reno and other prominent Floridians have spoken of Smith's profound influence on their careers. But he also touched the lives of a myriad of anonymous Floridians through the pro bono services to which he committed the Holland & Knight law firm, as well as the Bar at large, and was instrumental in advancing the status of women as lawyers and jurists.
So long as Smith lived, no one he knew was allowed to forget the importance of an independent judiciary. Floridians who want to honor his memory will make that their cause too.
