Annual Judicial Reception Honorees
Honorable Stanford Blake, Retired
Recipient of the 2018 Community Service Award
For most of his 22 years on the bench, Stanford Blake presided over some of Miami’s biggest criminal cases with a blend of humor, calm and legal gravitas.
Stanford Blake has been honored by the Family Bar with the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers “Jurist of the Year” and by the Civil Bar with the Judge Steve Levine Award for Fairness, Integrity and Professionalism. He received many other awards while on the bench including, but not limited to: The Judge William Hoeveler Lifetime Achievement Award, The Florida Supreme Court Chief Justice Award for Judicial Excellence, The Conference of Circuit Judges Chair’s Award, The Justice Gerald Kogan Judicial Distinction Award, The Alan Schwartz Judicial Excellence Award, The League of Prosecutors Justice Award and the University of Miami School of Law Alumni Achievement Award. He was also honored to receive the highest bar approval rating ever from the Dade County Bar Association with nearly 99 percent of the attorneys rating him "exceptionally qualified/qualified" in 2012.
Blake has always been involved with education. He has been an adjunct professor at the University of Miami School of Law teaching litigation skills for nearly 20 years and teaches at the new judges mandatory program yearly. He has also been a regular instructor for the Circuit Court Conference and Advanced Judicial Studies during his tenure on the bench. He was a presenter for the Association of Family and Conciliation Courts 48th Annual Conference and a lecturer for the Department of Justice in Washington, D.C. for a national symposium on indigent defense in the United States.
Stanford Blake has also served our community for many years. He was the President of the Board of Directors of the Haven School for the Developmentally Disadvantaged, President of the Kiwanis Club of Biscayne Bay as well as a Board Member of Lauren’s Kids. Having donated a kidney to his brother in 1996, he became active in the Transplant Foundation.
Burton Young, Esq.
Recipient of the 2018 Honorable Theodore “Ted” Klein Lifetime Achievement Award
Born in Philadelphia in 1927, Burton Young was raised in Miami Beach and graduated from Miami Beach Senior High School. The husband of one of his high school teachers encouraged him to attend law school. He received his J.D. from the University of Miami School of Law.
He founded Young, Berman, Karpf & Gonzalez, P.A. His practice areas are wide and far-reaching, and include family law, complex commercial trials, legal ethics, professional responsibility and general civil litigation. Known as a “lawyer’s lawyer,” he has represented and counseled many of the state’s finest professionals, along with those who couldn’t afford his services.
Young was an Assistant State Attorney with Richard Gerstein. He championed the implementation of legal services for the poor. As the first Jewish president of The Florida Bar in 1970, he helped establish a merit selection/retention plan for judges. He fiercely defended diversity in the practice of law, and was a pioneer in pushing for opportunities for minorities in the bar. Young chaired the Florida Supreme Court’s Selection Committee to Study the Florida Board of Bar Examiners in 1996 and the Supreme Court Chief Justice’s Advisory Committee in 1997. He was a law professor at both University of Miami School of Law and University of Houston.
Young is also the Dean of Family Lawyers in Florida. In 1998, he received the Medal of Honor from The Florida Bar Foundation and the President’s Award from The Florida Bar. For 23 consecutive years in a row, he has been recognized in Naifeh & Smith’s “The Best Lawyers in America.” In 2011, he received the American Defense Lawyers Torch of Liberty Award.
Above all, Young is passionate about his family and the law. Proud husband, father and grandfather, he has woven into his every endeavor compassion, understanding, and humor.
