Moore Honored with Claude Pepper Outstanding Government Lawyer Award

Dennis W. Moore, interim executive director of the Florida Guardian ad Litem Program, is the recipient of the 2022 Claude Pepper Outstanding Government Lawyer Award.

2022 Florida Bar President Mike Tanner presents the Claude Pepper Outstanding Government Lawyer Award to Dennis W. Moore at the 2022 Annual Florida Bar Convention in Orlando.

The award recognizes Florida lawyers who have made exemplary contributions as practicing government lawyers. It is named after Claude Pepper, a Florida attorney, U.S. senator, and congressman, who was an advocate on behalf of the people, and who represented the highest ideals of government service through 12 presidential administrations.

The award was presented to Moore by outgoing Bar President Mike Tanner at the Bar’s Annual Convention in Orlando on behalf of the Government Lawyer Section.

Moore, of Tallahassee, has spent more than 17 years serving in state government, representing, counseling, leading, and helping vulnerable children, the abused, the neglected and the abandoned, Tanner said.

Since he began leading the Florida Guardian ad Litem Office in mid-2021, Tanner said he has dramatically increased the representation of children in the foster care system and he has done so without any new funding or personnel.

“Dennis exhibits the highest level of commitment, diligence, and integrity in the pursuit of the mission of his office,” Tanner said. “He is an outstanding government lawyer who has made an extraordinary and exemplary contribution to the profession and Florida’s children.”

Moore also sits on the Juvenile Court Rules Committee and is a member of the Government Lawyer and Public Interest Law sections.