ORLANDO’S THOMAS A. ZEHNDER HONORED WITH TOBIAS SIMON PRO BONO SERVICE AWARD
Thomas A. Zehnder
Thomas A. Zehnder, is the recipient of the 2025 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. 16 ceremony streamed live by the Supreme Court of Florida.
Zehnder has been a pro bono volunteer with the Legal Aid Society of the Orange County Bar Association since 1996, and in that time, he has provided more than 1,100 hours of pro bono services to clients. Zehnder’s professional leadership by example is unmatched, yet he remains both humble and committed to improving the lives of those who need pro bono representation.
Zehnder has handled the most difficult, exhausting, and heart-wrenching Guardian Ad Litem cases in the 9th Circuit throughout his almost 30-year career, and he has never turned down any case. Zehnder steps up to even the greatest of challenges, serving as a fierce and tireless advocate for abandoned, abused, and neglected children.
In one case, Zehnder advocated for nine siblings, each with individual needs and interests that had to be carefully considered. In another case, Zehnder represented children who were being administered psychotropic drugs. In one particularly horrific case, the mother of a young girl was denying medical care for her child, requiring the intervention of multiple medical experts to get the child the lifesaving care she needed.
Zehnder, the son of a Lutheran minister, learned early about the importance of service. The living embodiment of this spirit of service, Zehnder continues to pass these lessons on to other lawyers, who are inspired to follow in his footsteps. Among those inspired by Zehnder’s example are the 30 past presidents of the Orange County Bar Association who endorsed the nomination of Zehnder for this award.
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. 16, at 3:30 p.m. Watch it live on Facebook, WFSU: Gavel to Gavel and the Florida Channel.
EDITORS: Please note The Florida Bar is not an association and "Association" is not part of our name. Proper reference is "The Florida Bar." Local bar organizations are properly termed "associations."