Stephen Zack, Boies Schiller Flexner

Steve Zack is worried that civility is being lost in today's fast-paced legal world.

To Zack, being an attorney is more than a job; it's a state of being, a comprehensive lifestyle. He worries that high school students are graduating with little to no civic education, that anonymity is disconnecting attorneys from their colleagues.

Attorneys enforce rule of law in the United States, he believes, so attorneys should have a passion for justice and a deep interest in society's ills.

"Civility sets us apart from other professions," said Zack, a partner at Boies Schiller Flexner in Miami. "There are ethics we are bound by. Civility is tied to those ethics. If you aren't an ethical lawyer, you aren't a civil lawyer."

The Cuban refugee was separated from his parents in Miami after his family fled Cuba in 1961. He said the experience subconsciously pushed him into law, and his legal career has always been equal parts practice and promoting social justice.

Zack keeps a copy of Cuba's constitution as a "reminder that our constitution is just words," and attorneys play a major role in enforcing the ideas behind the U.S. Constitution.

After earning his undergraduate and law degrees at the University of Florida, Zack landed a job in Washington as a legislative aide to Democratic U.S. Rep. Claude Pepper. His foray into the practice of law came when he was hired by Miami litigation firm Frates Floyd & Pearson, where he stayed for 20 years.

By the time he met Boies Schiller chairman David Boies in 2000, Zack had established himself as an elite trial attorney and was running his own 40-lawyer firm, Zack Kosnitzky.

Zack and Boies worked closely, often for 20 hours a day, as part of Al Gore's legal team during the 2000 presidential election recount.

Boies knew Zack through his work with the Florida Bar but never worked alongside him. In a dramatic cross-examination of a key expert during a state trial, Zack impressed Boies.

"I always thought cross-examination is the epitome of trial work," Boies said.

A year after the case concluded, Zack merged his 30-attorney firm with Boies Schiller, establishing the firm's base in Florida. The two remain close friends and share joint ownership of a vineyard in Napa, California.

"Steve always tries to make sure that everybody has the opportunity that has always been the promise of America, especially as somebody who came to this country with literally nothing," Boies said.

Zack was the first Hispanic and youngest president of the Florida Bar. He also was the first Hispanic president of the American Bar Association and chairs Boies Schiller's global diversity effort. Following an $800,000 gift earmarked for the promotion of diversity, the University of Florida named a law school building in his honor.

Zack is also president of the ABA's not-for-profit arm, the American Bar Endowment, where he spearheaded an effort to bring more attorneys to the U.S.-Mexico border to assist immigrants in court.

"I think I have made ours a more diverse profession, hopefully a more civil profession," he said. "And I tried to maintain the professionalism of the law, as opposed to simply the business of the law."

Zack will be honored with a lifetime achievement award Dec. 4 at the American Lawyer Industry Awards recognizing excellence in the profession. The event will be at The Roosevelt in New York.