Florida Bar News

Supreme Court JNC submits names to the governor

Supreme Court JNC submits names to the governor

Two Fifth District Court of Appeal judges and an Orlando defense lawyer have been nominated to Gov. Rick Scott to replace retiring Supreme Court Justice James E.C. Perry.

The Supreme Court Judicial Nominating Commission on November 28 forwarded the names of Judge C. Alan Lawson, Judge Wendy Berger, and Dan Gerber to Scott. The JNC had personally interviewed all 11 applicants for the job earlier in the day.

Here’s a quick look at the three finalists:

• Berger, 47, has been admitted to practice in Florida since 1993 and received her undergraduate and law degrees from Florida State University. She was an assistant state attorney in the Seventh Circuit for eight years where she tried more than 50 jury trials including murder cases, before becoming assistant general counsel for former Gov. Jeb Bush in 2001. She advised Bush on death penalty cases (including preparing death warrants for his signature) and other criminal and juvenile justice issues. She helped interview candidates for judicial appointment, drafted legislation, and reviewed requests for investigations by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.

She worked for Bush until April 2005 when he appointed Berger to the Seventh Circuit Bench, where she was reelected twice without opposition. Scott appointed her to the Fifth DCA in August 2012 and she was retained in 2014. On the trial bench, Berger served in both the civil and criminal divisions, presided over drug court, was qualified to handle death penalty cases, and presided over at least one that resulted in her sentencing the defendant to death.

Berger has been active in Bar work, currently serving on the Appellate Practice Section Executive Council, and has been a member of the Criminal Procedure Rules Committee, the Judicial Administration and Evaluation Committee, and the Judicial Administration Selection and Tenure Committee. She also serves on the Supreme Court’s District Court of Appeal Budget Commission.

• Gerber, 53, a partner at Rumberger, Kirk & Caldwell, was admitted to the Bar in 1988. Her received his undergraduate and law degrees from the University of Florida and has worked at Rumberger Kirk as a law clerk, associate, and partner for his entire career.

He practices commercial product liability, class action, and tort litigation usually representing businesses in both individual and class action claims and also handles business against business litigation in contract and non-payment disputes. Additionally, Gerber represents clients before state and local agencies. He estimated 79 percent of his practice is in state court trials, 15 percent in federal trials, 5 percent in state appeals and 1 percent in federal appeals. He has participated in several major class action and commercial dispute cases. He represented the Republican Party in 1992 in a successful action to keep former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke off the Florida GOP presidential primary ballot.

Gerber has served on the Bar’s Civil Procedure Rules Committee, Committee on Professionalism, and the Ninth Circuit grievance and UPL committees. He is a current member of the 18

th

Circuit Judicial Nominating Commission. This year, he won the Joseph P. Milton Professionalism and Civility Aware from the Florida Chapters of the American Board of Trial Advocates.

• Lawson, 55, has been admitted to practice in Florida since 1987 and received his undergraduate degree from Clemson University and his law degree from FSU.

He worked at the Steel Hector & Davis, becoming a partner, from 1987 until 1995. For the next year, he was general counsel for a start-up apparel business, and then he took over a civil trial practice for an attorney who had become incapacitated. From mid-1997 until December 2001 he was an assistant county attorney for Orange County. Like Gerber, he listed his practice as 100 percent civil, with 70 percent in state trial, 10 percent in federal trial, 10 percent in administrative, and 10 percent in state appeals. From 2002 through 2005, Lawson was a Ninth Circuit judge, appointed by Bush, and in 2006 Bush appointed him to the Fifth DCA, where he is now chief judge. He has been retained by voters twice.

Lawson was also a finalist for the Supreme Court in 2009, when then Gov. Charlie Crist appointed Perry. He is chair of the District Court of Appeal Budget Commission, has taught at the Florida Judicial College, is a member of the Florida Courts Technology Commission, has served in the Bar’s Appellate Practice Section, and on the Criminal Rules of Procedure and the Code and Rules of Evidence committees.

Under the Florida Constitution, Perry’s replacement must come from the jurisdictional area of the Fifth DCA. Perry, who had reached the constitutionally required retirement age, made his retirement effective December 30.

The members of the Judicial Nominating Commission are: Chair, Jason L. Unger, Tallahassee, Vice Chair, Nilda R. Pedrosa, Coral Gables; Cynthia G. Angelos, Port St. Lucie; Fred Karlinsky, Ft. Lauderdale; Daniel E. Nordby, Tallahassee; Jesse M. Panuccio, Miami; Israel U. Reyes, Coral Gables; Hala A. Sandridge, Tampa; and Jeanne T. Tate, Tampa.