Remembering a Great Lawyer: Harold L. "Tom" Sebring (Legal History Series)

Price 39.95 - 74.40 USD

EAN/UPC/ISBN Code 9781600420160




Pages 140

Year of production 2007

This book provides a biography of Harold L. Tom Sebring. He was one of the most capable and versatile individuals in the history of the State of Florida and the nation. While at the University of Florida he attended and graduated from its law school. He practiced law in Florida, became a trial judge, then a Justice of the Supreme Court of Florida. After the Second World War President Truman appointed him to serve as a Judge at Nuremberg for the war crimes trials of members of the Nazi regime. He was a member of the panel of three judges who tried the medical case, involving 23 defendants, mostly medical doctors who had conducted experiments on inmates of concentration camps. He and the other two members of the panel wrote an opinion setting out minimum standards for medical experimentation on human beings. Modern medical standards for experimentation on human subjects are based largely on that opinion. Sebring s reputation in Florida was such that many wanted him to run for Governor and were certain that he would win, but following Nuremberg he returned to the Florida Supreme Court and became its Chief Justice for a term. Then, at the height of his career he resigned from the Court and became Dean of the Stetson University College of Law. Stetson at that time was a small, under-funded, law school, but Sebring built it into a strong institution. Also, while Dean, he was probably the most important member of the Constitutional Revision Commission, which produced Florida s current Constitution. His leadership skills, his integrity, and incredible ability made him a very significant force in the history and development of the State of Florida from 1921 until his death in 1968. He truly was a unique soldier, athlete, coach, lawyer, judge, and law dean.