Paul Doyle, shown here June 27 at the Foundation’s 37th Annual Reception & Dinner in Boca Raton, retired June 30.

After 40 years at the forefront of local, statewide and national efforts to strengthen systems for providing civil legal services to the poor, Paul C. Doyle, 77, a graduate of Harvard Law School, retired June 30.

“The impact Paul has had on access to justice is profound,” said Jane Curran, executive director of The Florida Bar Foundation, where Doyle served as director of legal assistance for the poor and law student assistance grant programs for the last 22 years. “He has led the legal services community here in Florida and nationally to a higher standard, all the while garnering greater support and better results.”

In 1990, The Florida Bar and The Florida Bar Foundation formed the Joint Commission on the Delivery of Legal Services to the Indigent in Florida to determine how best to employ the large increase in Interest on Trust Account (IOTA) funds that were becoming available to The Florida Bar Foundation as a result of Florida changing its IOTA program to mandatory. Under the IOTA Program, also known as Interest on Lawyers’ Trust Accounts (IOLTA), the interest earned on client funds held in lawyers’ trust accounts is used for the public good unless the funds can otherwise earn income for the client or third person in excess of the costs incurred to secure such income. The joint commission also developed The Florida Bar’s current pro bono rules, which became a model for other states.

Doyle was called on to staff and lead this historic undertaking. After the joint commission issued its report in 1991, Doyle joined the staff of The Florida Bar Foundation to lead advancements in the state’s civil legal assistance delivery system based in large part on the commission’s recommendations.

“In his position with the Foundation, his leadership has guided all of Florida’s legal services programs to maximize their capacities as advocates for justice for the poor. His calm leadership and devotion to equal justice will be missed by all in the justice system,” said Judge William A. Van Nortwick Jr. of the First District Court of Appeal.

When the Foundation and the more than 30 Florida legal aid organizations it helps fund had to adapt to sweeping changes brought about by the restrictions Congress placed on the Legal Services Corporation in the 1990s, Doyle again led the way.

He commissioned studies and conducted assessments to identify needs, as well as the barriers to meeting those needs. After careful analysis, he established new grant programs to help recruit and retain legal services attorneys and to provide for the special legal needs of children, among other innovative solutions.

On the national level, Doyle counseled IOLTA programs on developing their legal aid grant programs and on peer review systems to asses and strengthen the work of their grantees.

When the Florida Legal Services building in Tallahassee was dedicated as the Paul Doyle Justice Center in 2009, Doyle said the most important word in its name was “justice.”

“For the poor, justice is not vague or dispassionate, general justice for all, but a living, ambitious, sometimes controversial and dedicated quest,” Doyle said.

A powerful leader in the quest for justice, Doyle began his public service in the General Counsel’s office of the city of Jacksonville, where he focused his work on improving opportunities for families in public housing. He embarked in the 1970s on his life’s work of leading movements to expand access to civil legal assistance for the poor and disadvantaged. His commitment to legal services began when he was tapped by leaders of the Jacksonville Bar Association to serve as executive director of the Duval County Legal Aid Association, which he expanded into Jacksonville Area Legal Aid.

After building Jacksonville Area Legal Aid into a preeminent multi-county legal aid program, he went on to serve as executive director of Legal Services of Upper East Tennessee, and then of Florida Rural Legal Services before joining The Florida Bar Foundation.

Kent Spuhler, executive director of Florida Legal Services, called Doyle “a quiet, brilliant and humble leader.”

“He never lost the vision of equal justice and instilled a passion and dedication to justice for the poor and disadvantaged in all who had the privilege to work and be mentored by him through his many years of service to others,” Spuhler said.