Under his direction, the program has grown from a three-attorney office with a $250,000 budget to a regional law firm of 73 attorneys with a budget of $12 million. After three years at Seattle Legal Services, Karrat joined Legal Aid Service of Broward County as a branch office supervising attorney before being named executive director in 1976.
Karrat is a graduate of the University of Notre Dame and the George Washington University Law Center. Tony’s selfless and unassuming manner belie his depth of dedication to the administration of justice for all.” His life’s work evidences total devotion to improving the lives of so many. “Unstoppable and compassionate, he has been the face of Legal Aid Service of Broward County for the past 45 years. Diner in a letter supporting Karrat’s nomination. “Tony is a relentless, tireless advocate for the poor,” wrote former Florida Bar president Jesse H. In 2014, Salcines received the Florida Prosecuting Attorneys Association’s Lifetime Achievement Award.įor devoting a lifetime to ensuring the civil legal rights of low-income communities and his strong and steady leadership, professionalism, and integrity leading the charge for those individuals and families who would otherwise have no voice and no access to the judicial system, Karrat will be awarded the Foundation’s 2021 Jane Elizabeth Curran Distinguished Service Award. He is a member of the 13 th Circuit’s Conviction Review Unit’s independent review panel. He co-founded the Tampa Bay American Inn of Court in 1993.
Salcines is the author of Trial Manual on Predicate Questions, published by the National District Attorneys Association, which is now in its third edition. He has had a close relationship with the University of South Florida since the 1970s, where he educated campus police officers, established the first Latino Community Advisory Committee and raised funds to develop their Latino Student Scholarships. He received honorary doctor of law degrees from Florida Southern College in 2002 and from Stetson University College of Law in 2008. He was a champion for minorities at a time when that was not easy or appreciated.”įrom 1974 to 2009, Salcines was a visiting lecturer at Northwestern University’s law school. He hired the first prosecutor with disabilities, well before the ADA was in effect, and made changes to the office to provide wheelchair access. “He also hired the first female prosecutor, Gwynn Young, who later went on to become president of The Florida Bar. Corvo in a letter supporting Salcines’ nomination. “During Judge Salcines’ tenure as the elected State Attorney of the 13 th Judicial Circuit, he hired the first African American prosecutor, George Edgecomb, who later became a county judge,” wrote Judge Vivian T.
For 10 years, he served on the State Medical Examiners Commission, and spearheaded two national conferences on forensic sciences. He was also appointed as Florida’s first statewide prosecutor and advisor to the first statewide grand jury investigating narcotic smuggling. There, he created a pilot program to divert first-time nonviolent offenders from the trial court process to a counseling and probation program, which led to the establishment of Florida’s Pre-Trial Intervention program.
He then served as the first Hispanic prosecuting attorney in Hillsborough County from 1968 to 1985. Department of Justice for the Middle District of Florida. For the next four years, he served as the Assistant U.S. Salcines graduated from South Texas College of Law in 1963 and was admitted to the Florida and Texas Bars that year. “He is truly deserving of the Medal of Honor Award.” “Judge Salcines joined the legal profession to serve the community and that has been his focus over the decades, honoring his parents to ‘haz bien’ – do good, do good deeds, whatever you do, do the right thing,” wrote Hernando Bernal Jr., president of the Tampa Hispanic Bar Association, in the organization’s nomination of Salcines.