Jeremy E. Gluckman
Jeremy Gluckman is remembered for his lifelong efforts to leave the world better than he found it — and he did just that.
Following in the footsteps of his parents, Sidney and Florence “Flossie” Gluckman, civil rights activists and recipients of the Eleanor Roosevelt Humanitarian Award, Jeremy learned the value of justice and advocacy early on. One of his first experiences came in the 1950s, when as a young boy he joined his mother at a Woolworth’s lunch counter sit-in for equal rights.
As a young adult, Jeremy served in the Peace Corps in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia from 1967 to 1968 before beginning a distinguished career in legal aid, leading a branch office at the Legal Services of Greater Miami.
In 1975, the Legal Services Corporation Act was signed. At that time, Bay Area Legal Services, then called “Law Inc. of Hillsborough County,” only operated in Hillsborough County and with a modest annual budget of $166,000, a staff of six attorneys, a part-time accountant, an investigator, and six legal secretaries.
The signing of the Act brought new opportunities, and new challenges, to the small Tampa legal aid. It suddenly allotted a budget of over $1 million, six-times the previous budget, and tasked the firm with providing legal services to Pasco County as well.
To meet this moment, the Board of Directors needed just the right leader to bring Law Inc. of Hillsborough County into its next stage of expansion. So impressed with Jeremy’s late-arriving resume, the Board extended the hiring deadline to await his graduation from the London School of Economics and Political Science.
Jeremy then assumed the position of Executive Director. He immediately began hiring attorneys, looking for top resumes and proven track records of advocacy. He hired Dick Woltmann to establish and then manage the first Elder Law Unit in legal services in Florida, the Senior Advocacy Unit. Dick would later succeed Jeremy as Executive Director, leading the firm for over 4 decades. Jeremy also led the firm in rebranding a name that better fit its increased service area: Bay Area Legal Services.
Bay Area Legal saw great litigation triumphs under Jeremy’s leadership including a class action victory in federal court enforcing the U.S. Farm Labor Contractor Act, protecting farmworkers who were being physically abused and cheated of their rightfully-earned wages. He also oversaw a class action lawsuit against the Florida Secretary of Education for racial discrimination against black public high school students regarding the State Functional Literacy Test.
In 1979, Jeremy moved on to found his own Family Law firm, which grew to more than 30 staff members and was known for providing genuine care to clients. Over his 46 years as an attorney, he also served as an adjunct professor at Stetson University College of Law, helping educate the next generation of lawyers.
Outside of work, Jeremy enjoyed tennis, kayaking, canoeing, making homemade pastrami, and spending time with his family. He also gave his time and leadership to Tampa Jewish Social Services, the Harbour Island Neighborhood Association, and the Hillsborough County Bar Association, including its Collaborative Divorce Committee.
Jeremy leaves a legacy of justice, compassion, and lasting change for his community. His early contributions to the growth and success of Bay Area Legal Services will always be remembered.
I wouldn't be the person and lawyer I am without my father's guidance. It's the main reason I've chosen a career in public service. In every interaction I witnessed - whether with judges, opposing counsel and, most of all, his own clients, he treated people humanely and with respect, always prioritizing the just outcome whether he won a case or not."
Jeremy Gluckman was a loving, kind and generous man. He believed that the law had great capacity to do good and was proud of his chosen profession. But also nobody’s fool. Once he was sure of the importance of an issue to the community, he applied his values and the practical means to achieve them. When Jeremy came to Tampa, he recognized that the two main issues to be dealt with were access to legal services and the guarantee of their quality to an underserved population. The law was meant to serve them too. He moved the offices to a professional building in downtown Tampa—near where the “real” lawyers practiced—rather than a substandard building on the railroad tracks opposite the Red Top Bar. He reached out further into the community to open branch offices and do outreach in the community to build up that image. And he hired great attorneys and staff who were dedicated professionals, and who treated all their clients with dignity and respect. Through maintaining these standards, he was able to secure the much needed funds to support all this, to see its tremendous growth under his leadership and to see it continue to this day."
From my perspective, Jeremy Gluckman completely changed our law firm during the years he was here in the 1970s.”
There was a developing strike at a farm in Wimauma. The farmworkers were being abused physically and cheated of wages. They sought help from Bay Area and I was allowed to go undercover as a farmworker and infiltrate the farm. My investigation resulted in Bay attorneys filing a civil suit where I served as a principal witness. We prevailed and each farmworker was awarded $500 in damages. As a result of all of this activity, Jeremy authorized my taking a Tampa Tribune reporter undercover for her to write about working conditions in local farms and labor camps... none of this could have happened without Jeremy’s support and guidance. He was truly an exceptional person and I was grateful to know him as a colleague and friend.”
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