Celebrated criminal defense attorney Neal Sonnett dies at 81
Neal Sonnett was heavily involved in the ABA's response to the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks. At the 2006 ABA Midyear Meeting, he spoke in favor of a resolution opposing warrantless wiretapping for domestic surveillance. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson)
Neal Sonnett, a renowned criminal defense attorney and active leader in the ABA, died on Thursday at the age of 81.
Sonnett founded his own firm in Miami in 1993, and earned a national reputation for his defense of white collar, corporate and complex criminal cases. According to LinkedIn, he graduated from the University of Miami School of Law in 1967, and served as an assistant U.S. attorney and as chief of the Criminal Division for the Southern District of Florida earlier in his career.
In the ABA, Sonnett served on the Board of Governors and in the House of Delegates. He was a past chair of the Criminal Justice Section and the Section of Civil Rights and Social Justice. He was currently serving as a delegate to the House of Delegates for the Criminal Justice Section, where he and Stephen Saltzburg were longtime advocates together.
“We were the kind of partners who worked well together,” Saltzburg told the ABA Journal in an email. “We fought hard for CJS resolutions, for justice, for equal rights, and for the things that make the members of the American Bar Association proud. We were effective as delegates because the entire House of Delegates respected Neal, loved to hear him speak, and knew that the words he spoke were persuasive and true. Over all the time we worked together, we didn’t always start out agreeing on how to deal with the problem. But we always agreed in the end.
Neal Sonnett won a number of awards for his service to the legal community, including the Florida Bar Foundation Medal of Honor. (Photo from the Florida Bar Association)“Neal was a warrior in the best sense of the word. He knew the things that we should fight for, he knew how to fight for them. And always he made me proud to be his colleague.”
“I have watched Neal as we served the Criminal Justice Section together for decades,” wrote Ronald Goldstock, a special advisor to the section’s council, in a 2022 testimonial about Sonnett. “His was always a leading voice in ensuring that we encouraged policies that not only made our section more inclusive but that we used our voices, our Standards, and our resolutions to ensure respect for the law and for every individual who found themselves in its courts or the subjects of enforcement actions.”
After the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, Sonnett spoke often about civil, constitutional and human rights, and chaired several association task forces that addressed those issues. He chaired the ABA Task Force on Treatment of Enemy Combatants for eight years, served as the ABA’s observer for the Guantanamo military commission trials and chaired the Task Force on Domestic Surveillance in the Fight Against Terrorism.
In a feature marking the 10th anniversary of the attacks, Sonnett told the ABA Journal that as he watched the news footage that day, “I was getting more and more concerned not just about the security of this country and how we were going to react, but about the possible threats to the Bill of Rights that could arise.”
“If our American system of justice and our constitution are to be respected around the world, we have to provide due process to the worst of the people, not just the best, whether citizens or enemy combatants,” Sonnett said.
In 2008, Sonnett received the ABA’s John H. Pickering Achievement Award, which celebrates its recipients for their pro bono advocacy, dedication to equal justice and promotion of ethics and professionalism in the law. And in 2018, he received the Solo, Small Firm and General Practice Division’s Lifetime Achievement Award.
“Neal Sonnett was quite simply the finest trial lawyer I have ever known,” Ed Shohat, his friend and former law partner, told Law.com. “No one—not judges, prosecutors or witnesses—could outmaneuver Neal’s intellect or quick wit in a courtroom.”
“Neal was such a brilliant lawyer, incredible advocate and leader of our profession,” Carolyn B. Lamm, a past ABA president, told Law.com. “It’s a profound loss of someone who really made a difference.”
Hilarie Bass, another past ABA president, also said this about Sonnett: “I loved listening to Neal argue—whether in the courtroom or the [House of Delegates]. He will be missed.”
Sonnett served as president of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers as well as the American Judicature Society, Florida Bar Foundation, Florida Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers and Dade County Bar Association, his LinkedIn profile says.
Michael Heiskell, president of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, said in a statement that Sonnett “was indeed a legend whose laudable impact on the legal landscape was tremendous.”
“Neal changed the face of criminal defense and embodied everything good about being a criminal defense lawyer,” Nina Ginsberg, a past president of NACDL, also said in the statement. “You couldn’t ask for a better friend.”
