Smotkin received this year’s Pro Bono Award posthumously for his pro bono lawyer for Meds & Food for Kids, an organization that addresses malnutrition in Haiti. When the organization was founded, Smotkin voluntarily handled the legal work in setting up the nonprofit, getting its tax-exempt status, overseeing construction contracts, advising on employment issues at both the St. Louis and Haiti facilities, and more.
Smotkin was the “voice of common sense and reason” for Meds & Food for Kids for nearly 20 years and was instrumental in building it from the ground up, said Hon. Michael W. Wolff, who nominated Smotkin for the award. Wolff is a retired Supreme Court of Missouri judge and professor emeritus and former dean of Saint Louis University School of Law.
“This remarkable organization in large part owes its existence and its ability to render its services to Howard Smotkin, who truly has been the organization’s unpaid and essential ‘wise man.’” Wolff said. “He has been for this Meds & Food for Kids organization – as he has for many of his regular clients – a true hero, a great model for the kind of servant-leaders and generous professionals that we want lawyers to be.”
Click here to learn more about annual awards presented by The Missouri Bar, The Missouri Bar Foundation, and other entities. Read here for other 2022 award winners.
