Buchanan’s Bob Butterworth to Receive Daily Business Review’s Lifetime Achievement Award

Ft. Lauderdale, FL – April 13, 2015 – Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney attorney Robert A. Butterworth will be presented with a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Daily Business Review’s inaugural Professional Excellence Awards at the Coral Gables Country Club on Tuesday, April 14, 2015. The event and special section of the publication will honor 22 attorneys and judges for outstanding service to the Florida legal community.

Butterworth is receiving the award due to his many successful endeavors, including being voted the top attorney general in the nation for his accomplishments as Florida’s chief legal officer from 1987 to 2002. He was also a leader in the multi-state litigation against the tobacco industry, which brought $11 billion to Florida. He was responsible for the passage of numerous Florida statutes and was the impetus behind amendments to Florida's Constitution expanding open government laws to all three branches of government and reforming the state's antiquated Cabinet system.

He is renowned for his game-changing leadership of Florida’s Department of Children and Family Services, where he gave foster children a seat at the table, instituted unprecedented transparency and accountability and professionalized the department’s corps of lawyer. He recently received the Florida Bar Foundation’s 2014 Medal of Honor, the foundation’s highest award.

Butterworth became a go-to advisor for Florida governors in need of a troubleshooter. He was tapped to head the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles, the parent agency of the Florida Highway Patrol, to reform that police force and implement diversity within its ranks. He also served as interim mayor of a South Florida city plagued by political corruption. In addition, Butterworth has served as a county judge, circuit judge, prosecutor and Broward County Sheriff.

After leaving public office in 2006, he became dean of the College of Law at St. Thomas University in Miami Gardens, where he worked to advance the science of jurisprudence and instill a sense of duty and service to the public in the school’s students, leaving his mark on future generations of lawyers. He is now of counsel with Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney.

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