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ORLANDO’S JAMIE BILLOTTE MOSES HONORED WITH TOBIAS SIMON PRO BONO SERVICE AWARD

Jamie Billotte Moses

Jamie Billotte Moses, a pro bono volunteer through the Legal Aid Society of the Orange County Bar Association (LASOCBA) for more than 25 years, is the recipient of the 2024 Tobias Simon Pro Bono Service Award, the Supreme Court’s highest recognition of a private lawyer for pro bono service. The award will be presented by Chief Justice Carlos G. Muñiz in a Jan. 18 ceremony streamed live by the Supreme Court of Florida.

For more than two decades, Moses has served as a Guardian ad Litem (GAL) volunteer through LASOCBA, representing more than 26 abused, abandoned and neglected children in Orange County. Moses has represented these children with compassion and determination to provide the most fierce and effective legal advocacy she can.

Moses, a board-certified appellate lawyer, has consistently been a front-runner in pro bono service with the Defending Best Interests Project (DBI) since its inception in 2017. The project, an initiative of the GAL office, protects the legal interests of children by recruiting pro bono attorneys to prepare answer briefs in appeals of cases where a judge has determined that a termination of parental rights is in the child’s best interests.

In the past 13 years, Moses has donated almost 400 hours to brief more than 30 cases. In the past two years alone, she has had 14 cases decided in which she provided pro bono appellate briefs.

Moses’ contributions to pro bono service can also be measured by the number attorneys she’s inspired to service. During her term as LASOCBA president for the Board of Trustees, Moses relentlessly advocated for those who could not advocate for themselves and promoted reforms within the Orange County Bar to ensure that members fulfilled their obligations for pro bono service as part of their membership.

The Tobias Simon Pro Bono Service Award commemorates Miami lawyer Tobias Simon, who was a tireless civil rights attorney, a crusader for prison reform and an appellate authority. The award is intended to encourage and recognize extraordinary contributions by Florida lawyers in making legal services available to people who otherwise could not afford them, and to focus public awareness on the substantial voluntary services rendered by Florida lawyers.

This year’s awards ceremony, which also honors Circuit, Voluntary Bar, Law Firm, Young Lawyers Division, Distinguished Judicial Service, and Distinguished Federal Judicial Service pro bono efforts, takes place at the Florida Supreme Court on Thursday, Jan. 18, at 3:30 p.m. Watch it live on Facebook, WFSU: Gavel to Gavel and the Florida Channel.