Akerman LLP, a top 100 U.S. law firm serving clients across the Americas, is pleased to announce that the Florida Bar Foundation named Richard C. Milstein as a 2019 recipient of the Medal of Honor, the highest award bestowed by the Foundation.

Milstein has devoted years of his practice to protecting the civil rights of vulnerable members of the South Florida community, particularly children, the elderly, and same-sex couples. He regularly serves as a court-appointed guardian, representing local foster youth and children in custody battles. He was named among the Daily Business Review’s 2016 Most Effective Lawyers for helping secure a precedent-setting decision that gives teens in Florida the choice how to identify themselves on their birth certificate.

His pro bono work has led to multiple honors, including the Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts Champion award by the Arts & Business Council of Miami, the Legacy Award by the Dade County Bar Association at its inaugural "LGBTQ + Pride Celebration," as well as The Florida Supreme Court’s Tobias Simon Pro Bono Service Award, and The Florida Bar’s President’s Pro Bono Award. In his honor, The Dade County Bar Association established the “Richard C. Milstein Award of Excellence.”

Established in 1977, the Medal of Honor Award program recognizes a member of the Florida Bar who has "demonstrated his or her dedication to the objectives of The Florida Bar as set out in the Rules Regulating The Florida Bar: '…to inculcate in its members the principles of duty and service to the public, to improve the administration of justice, and to advance the science of jurisprudence.'"

Milstein, a partner focusing on fiduciary litigation in Akerman’s Trusts and Estates Practice in Miami, concentrates his practice on complex and high-conflict trust, probate, estate, and guardianship litigation and administration, and family law matters. He is a Florida Bar Board-certified Elder Law expert and a certified mediator. 

He will be formally presented with the award at the Foundation's annual dinner on June 27 in Boca Raton.

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