Tampa lawyer to receive The Florida Bar Young Lawyers Pro Bono Award
Monday, January 08
- Organization: The Florida Bar
Mac Richard McCoy, of the Tampa office of Carlton Fields, P.A., has been selected as the recipient of The Florida Bar’s Young Lawyers’ Division Pro Bono Service Award. The award will be conferred at a January 25 ceremony at the Florida Supreme Court.
Since joining Carlton Fields in November 2003, McCoy has contributed more than 670 pro bono hours, through the American Bar Association (ABA) Death Penalty Representation Project, Bay Area Legal Services Volunteer Lawyers and the American Civil Liberties Union. In addition, he has spent numerous hours independently researching a potential pro bono initiative involving children with autism.
In July 2005, the ABA representation project asked Carlton Fields to represent a Florida death row inmate in filing a motion for post-conviction DNA evidence testing. McCoy volunteered to take the lead in evaluating, developing and directing the litigation, which required more than 458 pro bono hours. Preparation included reviewing more than 20 boxes of litigation files, depositions, court transcripts, pleadings, exhibits and other materials relating to the case.
Despite carrying a heavy caseload as a young trial lawyer, McCoy has conducted intake interviews and consultation with prospective pro bono clients for Bay Area Legal Services. Much of his recent pro bono hours have been spent representing an elderly client who was exploited, abused and defrauded by his wife. Over the course of their three years of marriage, the client’s wife evicted him from the marital home, which he had owned before the marriage, sold or gave away all of his tangible property and assets, emptied his bank accounts and incurred thousands of dollars of loans and credit card debt in his name without his knowledge or consent. As a result, the client was rendered penniless and homeless.
McCoy ultimately succeeded in winning a final order restoring the client’s full ownership of his home and ordering the wife to pay fraudulently incurred debts.
The awards ceremony will be held at 2 p.m., Thursday, January 25 at the Florida Supreme Court in Tallahassee.
Since joining Carlton Fields in November 2003, McCoy has contributed more than 670 pro bono hours, through the American Bar Association (ABA) Death Penalty Representation Project, Bay Area Legal Services Volunteer Lawyers and the American Civil Liberties Union. In addition, he has spent numerous hours independently researching a potential pro bono initiative involving children with autism.
In July 2005, the ABA representation project asked Carlton Fields to represent a Florida death row inmate in filing a motion for post-conviction DNA evidence testing. McCoy volunteered to take the lead in evaluating, developing and directing the litigation, which required more than 458 pro bono hours. Preparation included reviewing more than 20 boxes of litigation files, depositions, court transcripts, pleadings, exhibits and other materials relating to the case.
Despite carrying a heavy caseload as a young trial lawyer, McCoy has conducted intake interviews and consultation with prospective pro bono clients for Bay Area Legal Services. Much of his recent pro bono hours have been spent representing an elderly client who was exploited, abused and defrauded by his wife. Over the course of their three years of marriage, the client’s wife evicted him from the marital home, which he had owned before the marriage, sold or gave away all of his tangible property and assets, emptied his bank accounts and incurred thousands of dollars of loans and credit card debt in his name without his knowledge or consent. As a result, the client was rendered penniless and homeless.
McCoy ultimately succeeded in winning a final order restoring the client’s full ownership of his home and ordering the wife to pay fraudulently incurred debts.
The awards ceremony will be held at 2 p.m., Thursday, January 25 at the Florida Supreme Court in Tallahassee.
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