Local attorney receives award
June 30, 2005
By MELANIE D. HAYES
Submitted by Katherine Holtzleiter, District 4
Steve Smith presented Gault Award

For local attorney Steve Smith, helping kids as a juvenile public defender is rewarding enough when he sees the kids reform themselves and succeed in life.

But Smith is being rewarded in another way — with the Gault Award.

The Gault Award is presented annually to “recognize a lawyer who demonstrated an outstanding degree of commitment, competency and professionalism in representing juvenile clients,” explained Larry Landis, executive director of the Indiana Public Defender Council.

Smith, 60, has had his private practice in Anderson for 28 years, but for the last 25 years he has also been a public defender for juvenile cases in Madison County.

“I’ve worked everything from skipping school to murder,” Smith said. “You name it, I do it.”

Smith was offered the job of juvenile public defender 25 years ago and took it. He was the only one for Madison County for several years, but he now splits the cases with two other lawyers.

The Indiana Public Defender Council has 1,000 members statewide, all who provide indigent services, Landis said. Local attorney Doug Long nominated Smith, and the 11 elected members of the council’s board of directors chose him as this year’s recipient.

Smith was chosen “because of his commitment to continue to provide high-quality representation to his clients,” Landis said. “Because of his commitment and concern about children. It’s a cause — it’s not just a case to him.”

The award was presented to Smith on Friday in front of 300 public defenders at the Marriott East Hotel in Indianapolis during the council’s annual meeting and luncheon, Landis said.

Smith is honored to receive the award, but to him his job isn’t considered work — he enjoys it too much.

“I have a degree in sociology, and I care about kids, and I fight for kids every week,” Smith said. “I taught Sunday school to high school-age kids for 25 years. I like kids, and I have my own kids.”

Smith, an Ohio native, has a 30-year-old daughter, who is expecting his first grandchild, and a 27-year-old son. Both live in Chicago.

“I enjoy the contact with the kids and the families and I enjoy the successes,” he said. “I see kids that get in trouble and go on and become wonderful productive citizens. Kids come in one time after they get in trouble and never come back.

“Some come back and tell me they went to college, and this and that,” Smith said. “We have a great juvenile probation — they really care for kids. The idea of juvenile court is to help the kids, hopefully not scar them for life.”

"This is one of our Local Juvenile Court Public Defenders, and he is very deserving of this recognition.  My experience has been that most attorneys don’t stay in Public Defender positions too long, and their commitment level to that work takes a back seat to their private practice every time.  Not so with Steve; he has been in our court nearly every week (outside of vacations, of course) for 25 years, and remains as committed to kids as he was the first day I met him, almost 23 years ago.   He is one of our community champions!" - Katherine Holtzleiter, District 4