We lost one of our greats this weekend; Gene Zenobi passed away.
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| A dapper Gene circa late 1970s doing what he did best |
Gene was old school. He was from a time when a man's word mattered. He was a deep thinker who approached a trial the way a grandmaster approaches a chess match. He had many theories about jury selection developed over a lifetime of trying cases in Miami Courtrooms. He understood before most of the rest of us that jurors form alliances and he crafted his jury selection to pick jurors who would form alliances for not guilty. He lectured generations of lawyers about jury selection, and his number one maxim- that jury selection starts from the moment you park your car and walk towards the courthouse, is a rule all of us should follow every time we show up for voir dire- we never forget it or Gene when we walk into the REGJB to pick 6 or 12 to start a case.
Gene had a successful private practice; he was there at the start of the cocaine cowboy era in the 70s-80s. A simple kid from an Italian family in Pennsylvania, he rose through hard work, study and skill to the top of his profession both in the Dade Public Defenders Office, and in private practice. In his later years Gene took a struggling and rudderless Regional Counsel Office and turned it into a powerhouse of lawyers who tried and won cases. The foundation of lawyers he recruited and kept remains today, providing world-class legal services to indigent clients.
Gene defended over thirty death penalty cases; argued before the US Supreme Court in Jackson v. Metropolitan Edison Power, 419 US 345 (!974); had a vast amount of knowledge about history and literature- (we agreed William Shirer's The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich was the most significant historical work of the 20th Century); loved jazz; and was the single best horse-handicapper I ever met- and I've met many. He could also be found at many a lawyers-home-poker-game in Miami from the 1980s through the 2010s and beyond. He scooped his fair share of pots.
His, my friends, was a life very well lived. And if you never had a chance to sit at a big Italian dinner and drink great wine and listen to his war stories, well, you missed out on a once in a life-time type of experience. He was a soft-spoken raconteur.
Gene was a colleague and a friend, and in the end, perhaps the best thing we can say about him, from the hundreds of things that come to mind, was that when he was your friend, you could never have a better one; and if he was your lawyer- you had the best.
Rest in peace my friend.
6 comments:
A beautiful tribute Rumpole … great lawyers like Gene and you are few and far.
Honorable. Integrity. Strategic thinker. Personable. Kind. Generous.
Gene will be greatly missed.
He and Mr. Gaer will be the guardian angels for the young “kids” rising through the Justice Building ranks.
He once wrote:
"In these startingly unique days when no one seems to know what is next, who is
leading and why not just give up, I reflect on all you folks. Your goodness,
your dedication, your existence defines my worth. You cannot fail because you
have each other. You will succeed because the need to love is greater than to be
loved, and that my friends is what it is all about."
Miss you & love you, always.
If Sy Gaer liked you like a son he would call you “kid!”
He was also quite affable...a friend to anybody
I had the honor and privilege of working closely with Gene Zenobi for so many years. Today is a very sad day for the South Florida legal community.
I first came to know Geno through my work with the Screening Committee for the Private Court Appointed Counsel (PCAC) program. We served together on that Committee for decades. Gene became Chair, and I eventually became Vice-Chair. More recently, when Gene was no longer able to attend our meetings, I assumed the position of Chair. But Gene never really left us. We continued to include him on all of our Committee emails, and we proudly referred to him as our Chair Emeritus.
In addition to our work on the Screening Committee, there were the many years we worked side by side on the Indigent Services Committee. Gene was always front and center, speaking on behalf of the more than 450 attorneys who were part of the PCAC Registry. He fought for better pay for court-appointed counsel. He fought for reduced caseloads for Assistant Public Defenders, alongside Bennett and Rory, and later Carlos. Gene was a tireless advocate for the lawyers who represented the indigent accused and for the criminal justice system as a whole.
And somehow, while practicing criminal defense and devoting countless hours to these committees, Geno always found time to give back in other ways. He mentored young attorneys. He volunteered his time conducting seminars throughout South Florida and across the state, including at FACDL statewide seminars. He taught on the death penalty, voir dire, and so many other subjects. He generously shared his knowledge and experience with generations of criminal defense lawyers.
But some of my fondest memories of Geno have nothing to do with the practice of law.
Gene owned a 40-acre ranch in Ocala, west of I-75 near Mile Marker 350. I was fortunate enough to spend many weekends there. Gene knew that I liked to make the occasional trip to Gainesville for a Gator football game—I’m a Double Gator—and he generously offered the use of his ranch to me and my son whenever we were heading up for a game. My son and I spent hours walking through the stables and visiting with the horses. Those are wonderful memories that I will always cherish.
And then there was Derby Week.
Every year, I would call Geno during the week leading up to the Kentucky Derby. We would talk horses, discuss who he liked to win, and I would share my picks with him. I always looked forward to those conversations.
I will miss Gene Zenobi very much.
There is something especially poignant—and spiritually comforting—about the fact that I went to Gainesville this past weekend to watch the Gator game and spend time with my freshman son. Driving home yesterday, as I passed Mile Marker 350 on I-75, I thought about Geno, just as I always do whenever I pass that spot.
I will continue to think about him every time I pass it.
Rest in peace, my friend.
May his memory be a blessing.
Rick Freedman
I am heartbroken. Gene and I became colleagues and then friends later in our lives and careers at Regional Counsel when it was run by someone else. When he became Regional Counsel I saw the true measure of the man. He was fearless in his pursuit of justice for our clients. In his first budget meeting with the Governor’s office every Regional Counsel from across the state was on the call falling all over themselves to say they could lower their budget ask. They wanted to curry favor and get reappointed. Gene then stunned them all by asking for about another million dollars. We had a bunch of big new cases coming in and for him it was about the clients and if he got fired for doing the right thing he could not have cared less. He had a quiet way of exercising his authority that was truly a master class in how to be a boss and run an agency. And there was the other side of Gene. He was a true renaissance man. We would talk about baseball, then wine, then analyze Nixon’s decision to turn over the tapes, then the best moves when facing a certain poker hand. I didn’t know much about the music he liked but he always had something interesting on in his office that had low lights to match his calm demeanor. He was fiercely proud of his heritage and humble upbringing, but rarely bragged about his astounding courtroom successes. Quietly, and without pay, he represented an ASA who got into a big mess. He loved a Great War story but most of his were about others. He never bragged about himself. Every employee at RC3 felt empowered to walk into his office and discuss an issue. And that means support staff and even interns. I used to watch him run meetings, rarely speaking unless it was to quickly right a wrong or encourage a lawyer to keep on fighting and I would quietly ask myself if I could ever be as good as him. And of course the answer was no. He was in his own class of courage, integrity, and style. I have so many stories. I’ll end with this. He just became Regional counsel and several of us were in his office chatting and I causally mentioned he could no longer continue on the defense of a retrial of a client from death row who had murdered a law enforcement officer. And as the words were out of my mouth I saw his eyes light up and I knew - the case was now mine. I went to him several times to tell him defending a case like this was a line I never wanted to cross. And in his quiet way he let me know that was the price of being a defense attorney and being given the privilege of defending indigent clients. I didn’t have the luxury of picking my cases. The client needed me. The office needed me and he needed me. And I could not say no to him - no matter how hard it was. He gave me faith and confidence and inspired me, and his ability to do that is so very rare at any time and in any line of work. He was unique and one of the best blessings of my career was to work under his supervision. He was in so many ways quietly larger than life.
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