Justice C. Alan Lawson: Called to Serve

Long before Justice C. Alan Lawson (’87) was appointed to the Florida Supreme Court, he contemplated careers in the military and medicine. As a high school student in Tallahassee, his goal was to become a pilot and he was a principal nominee to the U.S. Air Force Academy. 

Two weeks before Lawson was scheduled to report to the academy, his plans drastically changed due to a medical issue. During college, Lawson earned his EMT license and worked in the medical field. A business law course at Tallahassee Community College taught by former Florida Supreme Court Justice Fred Karl set Lawson on the path to law school.

“It really was listening to him talk about the impact that you could have in so many different ways with a law degree,” Lawson recalled. “That is when I decided I wanted to go to law school and wanted to be a lawyer.”

Although he was accepted to several Ivy League law schools, a conversation with the incoming dean, Sandy D’Alemberte, and a fellowship drew Lawson to FSU for law school. His public service mindset even led him to an unsuccessful run for a seat in the Florida Legislature as a law student. Lawson would fulfill a calling to public service after building a successful complex litigation practice at Steel Hector & Davis in Miami and Tallahassee.

Beginning in 1997, Lawson spent more than four years at the Orange County Attorney’s Office. Lawson’s first judicial appointment was to the felony division in the Ninth Judicial Circuit in 2002. He was then appointed on his first attempt to the Fifth District Court of Appeal in 2006, where he served for more than a decade, including two years as chief judge. Lawson became the Florida Supreme Court’s 86th justice in December 2016.

“I was ecstatic to the bone; it is a complete privilege to do what I do,” said Lawson. “I felt that way about the other levels of court and about being a litigator, but there is something about being the final arbiter about the most important issues in your state – particularly in a state this big – and about the governance role and responsibility that you have. You feel like you have an opportunity to really do good if you buckle down and work hard and strive for excellence.”

Lawson estimates that the volume of cases before him now is about two-and-a-half times what it was at the Fifth DCA. “In addition to the high-profile, very difficult cases that take a lot of time, there are prisoner petitions and writs, and every day you are voting on cases.”

Even though there are many cases that the court doesn’t accept for jurisdiction and other reasons, justices spend a great deal of time thoroughly reviewing each request. The Florida Supreme Court also handles direct-appeal jurisdiction, death penalty, public service commission, and lawyer and judicial discipline cases.

In addition to a heavy caseload, Lawson spends a great deal of time working on governance issues and on “court responsibilities,” such as serving as the Florida Supreme Court’s liaison to a host of groups, including the Trial Court Budget Commission and the Florida Board of Bar Examiners. On any given day, you will also find Lawson and his colleagues attending legal events, interacting with lawyers, law students and other citizens of Florida. Since joining the court, Lawson has many times walked the one block from his office – which has a picturesque view of FSU Law – to meet with students at his alma mater. He also was the featured speaker at the law school’s 2018 commencement ceremony.

“The education and training of young lawyers is the future of the profession,” said Lawson. “They are going to be the future judges and legislators and hopefully I can inspire them to never forget what we have in this country and the freedoms we have because we are a nation of laws. This is not just a job they are undertaking, but it is a responsibility to do justice well.”

One of Lawson’s greatest joys is serving on the court with his law school classmate, Justice Ricky Polston (’87). “It’s so much fun,” remarked Lawson, who took several classes with Polston and occasionally studied with him. 

“The education and training of young lawyers is the future of the profession,” said Lawson.

“He was a friend and somebody I really respected and liked in law school. When I’m sitting up on the bench in oral argument and look down and see him there, I just can’t help but think of some of those classes where we were sitting in the same row and I might have looked down and seen him there all those years ago. He’s a great friend and an outstanding person, and I’m enjoying the time together.”

In addition to meeting Polston during law school, Lawson fell in love with his wife of 31 years, Julie, while he was a law student. The two had met several years earlier as undergraduate students and married shortly after Lawson graduated from FSU Law. The Lawsons have two children – a son, Caleb, and a daughter, Leah – and two-year-old twin grandsons, Ashe and Ames. Julie still resides in Orlando to be near the grandchildren and Lawson travels to be with them most weekends.

“The biggest challenge of the job is we’re spending more time apart than either of us would like, but we’ve had a concerted effort of trying to make sure that when we are together, we do things that keep us together and keep us strong in our relationship,” said Lawson. “When I’m at home, we’ll walk in the mornings together. We bought ourselves kayaks for Christmas and we’ve done some camping and hiking on the weekends. We love paddle boarding and really like the outdoors.”

Much of their free time is spent eating family dinners and playing with their grandsons. That means getting down on the floor with them and frequent “horse rides” for the toddlers on their grandparents’ backs. The Lawsons also love to travel and have been to Honduras many times for service work. Lawson even took a group of judges and lawyers to Honduras for a community service trip in 2018.

Lawson has a long history of service within the profession, serving on numerous bar and judicial committees going back more than 30 years.

“I think one of the things that makes those extra things so rewarding is the relationships that you build with others who are contributing their time,” he said. “There are just so many good lawyers and people in this state who give so freely of their time to make the system better.”

From his first days in the profession, Lawson has been doing his best to be counted among that group.

As printed in the 2019 issue of Florida State Law magazine.