The legendary trial attorney Neal Sonnett loved the law and inspired legions of up-and-coming attorneys to share that devotion.
“Over the past couple of decades, and particularly since 9/11, there has been a steady erosion of rights in this country," Sonnett said in an interview in 2007. "It is important to fight against that, to preserve the Constitution. Democracy does not work, and freedom cannot thrive, unless we are willing to protect the rights of everyone—the best of us and the worst of us. We must focus on preservation of the rule of law."
As a UM student, Sonnett served as senior class president, attorney general of the student body, president of Young Democrats, and president of Tau Kappa Alpha, the national honorary speech society. He was also active in Iron Arrow and Orange Key.
After graduation, he joined the U.S. Attorney's Office in Miami, rising quickly to chief of the criminal division. Then, in 1972, Sonnett went into private practice, starting his firm defending corporate, white-collar, and complex criminal cases.
Sonnett's devotion to the practice of law and the University of Miami was a lifelong passion. His friend and former partner Ed Shohat, B.A. '69, J.D. '72, admired "Neal’s devotion to the growth and protection of the profession.
"He worked tirelessly to help fellow lawyers individually and as a group. As an example, when in the late 1980s Congress enacted the first federal anti-money laundering law, Neal and Albert Krieger, another giant of the profession, successfully lobbied Congress on behalf of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, to create a safe harbor for legal fees in the statute. This was an enormous accomplishment that protected every criminal defense lawyer in the country," Shohat wrote in a remembrance of his friend.
Sonnett served as president of the Dade County Bar Association and the Florida and National Associations of Criminal Defense Lawyers and as chair of the American Bar Association Criminal Justice Section; he is also past president of the University of Miami Law Alumni Association. He has been honored by the National Law Journal as one of the nation’s “100 Most Influential Lawyers” and “Top White-Collar Criminal Defense Lawyers.” He has been included in every edition of The Best Lawyers in America since its inception. Among many other awards, Sonnett was named the University of Miami School of Law’s 2007 Alumnus of Distinction and received the Florida Bar Foundation Medal of Honor, the highest award to a lawyer by the legal profession in Florida, in recognition of "dedicated service in improving the administration of the criminal justice system and in protecting individual rights precious to our American constitutional form of government."
"Neal was such a brilliant lawyer, incredible advocate, and leader of our profession," said Carolyn Lamm, partner at White and Case and Distinguished Faculty Chair of the International Arbitration LL.M. "It’s a profound loss of someone who really made a difference."
