Judicial Assignment
Juvenile Division "JK"
Previous Judicial Assignment
Circuit Criminal Division "W"
Circuit Civil Division "AE"
Prior Judicial Experience
Circuit Civil Division "AB"
Circuit Family Division "FZ" and Probate Mental Health & Guardianship Division "IZ"
Education
Culver Military Academy
Denison University, BA; Earned degree in three years
Syracuse University, JD
Prior Work Experience
General Foods Corporation, White Plains, N.Y., in-house counsel for labor-and-employment relations, insurance risk, environmental matters and employee benefits. In that capacity, represented the company in state and federal courts, local, state and federal administrative agencies as well as arbitrations throughout the United States. General Foods hired two lawyers to replace me upon my departure.
Harder, Silber and Gillen, Albany, N. Y., partner handling labor-and-employment relations and discrimination matters for employers, labor organizations and individuals. Employer clients included both Fortune 500 and smaller companies in such industries as aerospace, broadcasting, data processing-and-retention, food-manufacturing-and-distribution, horse-racing, newspaper-publishing and local-and-over-the-road trucking. Labor-organization clients included three state-wide associations of registered nurses in the Northeast. Practiced before state and federal administrative agencies and several regions of the National Labor Relations Board in New York, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Maine and Florida. Practiced in federal district courts and courts of appeals in the Northeast. Handled one case in the United States Supreme Court which did not reach oral argument.
Business management in both the broadcasting industry and in fast-food retail-sales in five Florida cities.
Florida Department of Children and Families, 1997 - 2012. Statewide Appeals Director from 2008 through 2012. In that capacity, appeared in all five District Courts of Appeal; regularly in the Second, Fourth and Fifth. Also appeared many times in the Florida Supreme Court including for oral argument six or seven times. Though not for oral argument, made appearances in several cases in the United States Supreme Court.
Awards
Awarded Jurist of the Year by South Palm Beach County Bar Association, 2018
Earned Davis Productivity Award, 2004
Professional Activities
Former Associate Judge, Florida Fourth District Court of Appeal
Former Member of the teaching faculty in the Florida College of Advanced Judicial Studies.
Former Memberships: Florida Bar Appellate Court Rules Committee; Craig S. Barnard American Inn of Court; Susan Greenberg Family Law American Inn of Court at the Palm Beaches
Former Judge for Florida Bar's Robert Orseck Memorial Moot Court Competition
Miscellaneous
Married with two adult children and four grandchildren. One child is a federally-certified school teacher and school administrator and the other is a veterinarian.