“We are the champions of justice. We are the guardians of this democracy. And we are needed now more than ever. Welcome to the law.”
Robert W. Kelley, Founding Partner at Kelley | Uustal Trial Attorneys received the Distinguished Alumni Award from Nova Southeastern University Shepard Broad College of Law at an orientation ceremony on campus this week.
The Dean of NSU Shepard Broad College of Law Olympia Ross Duhart, commenced by reflecting on the privilege and responsibility of practicing law Remove paragraph break “You are entering a profession that demands excellence, courage, integrity and service. It requires intellectual rigor, emotional intelligence, global awareness, and unwavering ethical standards to set the bar high” Dean Duhart said, emphasizing that entering law school is the beginning of a journey that not only will challenge but ultimately transform the students.
Dean Duhart introduced Bob Kelley, a 1981 NSU Law graduate who served as editor in chief of the Nova Law Review and would go on to become one of the top trial attorneys in the United States.
A Champion’s Career: Verdicts that Held Corporate Giants Accountable
Dean Duhart told the story of Kelley’s case against General Motors. after a 13-year-old boy was killed after a fuel tank fire in a 1983 Oldsmobile Cutlass Cruiser. “That trial, which received media coverage around the world, exposed a massive corporate coverup involving long hidden GM documents,” Duhart said. “The trial resulted in a $60 million verdict, which became the largest personal injury wrongful death judgment ever paid by the automaker.”
Duhart also recalled Cindy Naugle’s case against Philip Morris. “Bob Kelley won a trailblazing $300 million verdict against the cigarette company Philip Morris, which was the largest product liability verdict in the United States that year,” Duhart said. “That launched a new wave of litigation against the cigarette industry, which up to that time had appeared to be immune to suit due to its immense wealth and scorched earth litigation tactics.” At the time, it was the largest award ever given to an individual suing a tobacco company. Naugle died before she could receive the lung transplant she needed to survive.
Learn more about Kelley | Uustal’s landmark cases.
Bob Kelley’s Advice to the Next Generation of Lawyers
“Never forget that the law is a profession, not a business,” Kelley said. “Somewhere out there right now is a person who’s going to need a lawyer in the future, and who doesn’t know yet that it’s going to be you. They’re going to walk into an office frightened and out of their depth, and they’re going to look across the desk at you and ask you to stand between them and something terrible. You can be a champion for them.”
He closed by asking the class of 2029 to look around the room.
“Remember, on that day in the not too distant future when you are finally sworn in as members of this honorable profession, that you will remember your lineage and the great lawyers and leaders who came before you. Never forget who we are and what we stand for. We are the champions of justice. We are the guardians of this democracy. And we are needed now more than ever. Welcome to the law.”
A NSU Law’s Distinguished Alumni Award Winner
Bob Kelley graduated from Shepard Broad in 1981. He founded K | U Trial Attorneys alongside John Uustal in 2006, winning catastrophic injury, wrongful death, and products liability cases across the country, for those who couldn’t afford to lose.
K | U congratulates Bob on the Distinguished Alumni Award and on welcoming NSU Law’s newest class to a profession he’s spent years shaping.
