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Double ‘Cane and Criminal Defense Attorney Roy Black to Speak at Commencement
By: MIAMI LAW STAFF REPORT | Created Thursday, May 9, 2019
Roy Black is a very proud double ’Cane (A.B. ’67; J.D. ’70), and the senior partner of Black Srebnick. in Miami. Black has routinely been recognized as one of the nation’s premier trial lawyers. With almost 50 years of experience as a criminal defense attorney, starting as a Miami-Dade County public defender, Black has handled many hundreds of cases in Florida and throughout the United States. He also handles select complex civil lawsuits, offering his clients complete service in high-stakes cases.
Black has defended numerous clients on charges ranging from murder to securities fraud, bank fraud, health care fraud, money laundering, internet sex crimes, mail and wire fraud, and tax evasion. Perhaps best known for his successful defense of William Kennedy Smith in Palm Beach, Florida, Black also successfully defended three-time Indy 500 winner and Dancing With the Stars champion Helio Castroneves in a six-week income tax evasion trial. He recently represented BuzzFeed and won dismissal of a libel suit brought by a Russian entrepreneur who claimed he was defamed by its publication of the so-called Steele Dossier on President Trump’s alleged ties to Russia.
Black also has successfully defended Fortune 500 companies, including Eller Media (now known as Clear Channel Outdoor) against manslaughter charges stemming from a bus-bench electrocution of a 12-year-old boy; and Albertson’s, Inc., against manslaughter charges in the death of a shoplifter. Some of Black’s other known clients successfully represented have included Rush Limbaugh, Kelsey Grammar, Justin Bieber, and South Florida police officers Luis Alvarez and William Lozano. Black has also had many other well-known clients over the years whose matters weren’t public.
Since 1987, Black has been selected by his peers every year for inclusion in The Best Lawyers in America, a widely used guide to the nation’s top legal talent. Black has also been recognized by Chambers and Partners, an internationally prestigious legal guide, as a top criminal defense attorney and as having “the best national reputation in the State [of Florida].” Chambers went on to say that Black is “one of the few who is famous for being good and actually practice at that standard,” and that he is “[s]o good, he is scary good.”
Black served as NBC’s legal analyst on the “Today” show for several years and has frequently appeared on ABC’s “Good Morning America,” as well as other national news programs, serving as a commentator and legal analyst for noteworthy legal cases in the news. Black is also a published author, having written Black’s Law, which recounts the strategies he employed to safeguard the freedom of four clients.
One of Black’s great professional joys, outside of the courtroom, is teaching an advanced criminal evidence class at the University of Miami School of Law, something he has done every fall semester for 46 years now. Black has cherished the opportunity to teach and train decades of law students and assist them in becoming successful trial lawyers.