sentences:  He received his J.D.from Harvard University Law School in 1973, "cum laude", and was admitted to the bar in Florida, U. S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit and the U. S. Supreme Court in 1974, the U. S. District Court of Florida, Southern District in 1979, and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit in 1981.Dressler was first elected mayor of Fort Lauderdale in 1982, as the first directly elected mayor in the city's history; up until his election, mayors had been appointed by the city commission from among their elected members.