Ervin Gonzalez received the Florida Bar’s G. Kirk Haas Humanitarian Award posthumously at the Bar’s annual convention, held recently in Orlando.
Gonzalez, a prominent civil trial attorney in Miami, died in June 2017. His wife, Janice, accepted the award on his behalf. Gonzalez was a board-certified specialist in civil trial law and business litigation with more than 30 years of experience. He won 33 multimillion-dollar verdicts and was renowned not only in his hometown of Miami and the state of Florida but also nationally.
Michael J. Higer, the outgoing president of the Bar, who presented the award, said those success stories, however, did not define Gonzalez.
“What defined him is that, wherever there was an injustice, he fought brilliantly and with unrelenting passion to right the wrong,” Higer said. “And he did so while giving selflessly to his civic and legal communities.”
Gonzalez served as the president of the Dade County Bar Association and president of the Dade County Trial Lawyers Association, and he was a longtime member of The Florida Bar’s Board of Governors. He was an adjunct professor at his alma matter, the University of Miami School of Law.
The G. Kirk Haas award was established in 1998 by then-Bar president Edward R. Blumberg, to recognize a Florida Bar member for meritorious service to the legal profession. Kirk Haas practiced law in Miami and was recognized for his humanity, legal ethics, skill and professionalism. The award recipient is selected by the president of The Florida Bar. The recipient then selects a Florida law school, and a scholarship is awarded to a second-year student who demonstrates an exceptionally high degree of integrity, ethics, professionalism and concern for others.
