Judge Ashenafi Richardson

Judge Nina Ashenafi Richardson has served as judge in the Leon County Court system since 2008. In addition to her other assigned duties, Judge Ashenafi Richardson has served as Felony Drug Court judge for over nine years and is a member of the Office of State Courts Administrator’s Steering Committee on Problem Solving Courts. She served as chair of the Education and Outreach subcommittee of the Florida Supreme Court’s Judicial Management Council, an advisory body that includes judges, lawyers and nonlawyers. Under Judge Ashenafi Richardson’s leadership, the subcommittee drafted a statewide communications plan that was formally adopted by the Florida Supreme Court, with implementation over a five-year period beginning in January 2016. The plan, “Delivering Our Message,” was developed with input from judges, the media, court public information officers and other court staff from around the state. The plan calls for the use of communication technology and social media to the extent appropriate in judicial settings, emphasizing the importance of improving communication between Florida’s judicial branch and the public at large, as well as court users and other justice partners of the courts. She currently chairs the Second Judicial Circuit’s Communications Committee, which was created to implement the communications plan. Judge Ashenafi Richardson has been recognized with numerous awards for her servant leadership, most recently receiving the Chief Justice’s Distinguished Judicial Service Award for exceptional pro bono service and the Florida Court Public Information Officers Lifetime Achievement Award.

Birk

Edward L. Birk is a shareholder with MarksGray, where he represents and defends news media organizations and journalists in all aspects of newsgathering, publishing, and broadcasting, including source development, pre-publication review, compelling access to courts and records, copyright and trademark enforcement, fighting subpoenas for privileged information, and defending against defamation and libel claims. He earned his bachelor’s degree in journalism in 1983 from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, where he was a staff member of The Massachusetts Daily Collegian newspaper and the news team at WMUA college radio station. Before law school, Birk was an editor and reporter for The Associated Press in Massachusetts and Florida. He earned his law degree with honors in 1995 from Florida State University College of Law, where he was editor-in-chief of the Law Review. Birk has earned Martindale-Hubbell’s highest rating of AV. For the past 10 years he has been named in The Best Lawyers in America and in Super Lawyer magazine. He serves as general counsel for the Florida First Amendment Foundation.

Justice Canady

Justice Charles T. Canady was born in Lakeland, Florida, in 1954. He is married to Jennifer Houghton Canady, and they have two children. He received his B.A. from Haverford College in 1976 and his J.D. from the Yale Law School in 1979.

Justice Canady practiced law with the firm of Holland and Knight in Lakeland from 1979 through 1982. He practiced with the firm of Lane, Trohn, et al., from 1983 through 1992.

From November 1984 to November 1990, Justice Canady served three terms in the Florida House of Representatives, and from January 1993 to January 2001, he served four terms in the U.S. House of Representatives. Throughout his service in Congress, Justice Canady was a member of the House Judiciary Committee. For three terms, January 1995 to January 2001, Justice Canady was the chairman of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution.

Upon leaving Congress, Justice Canady became General Counsel to Gov. Jeb Bush. He was appointed by Gov. Bush to the Second District Court of Appeal for a term beginning November 20, 2002.

On August 28, 2008, Justice Canady was appointed to the Florida Supreme Court by Gov. Charlie Crist and took office September 8, 2008. He served as Florida’s 54th chief justice from July 2010 through June 2012. He was elected by his colleagues to serve as chief justice for a second time starting July 1, 2018, and a third time starting July 1, 2020.

Justice Couriel

Justice John D. Couriel is the 90th Justice of the Florida Supreme Court. Justice Couriel was born in Miami, Florida in 1978. He is married to Rebecca L. Toonkel, M.D. They have two children.

Justice Couriel received his bachelor’s degree magna cum laude from Harvard College in 2000 and his law degree from Harvard Law School in 2003. He clerked for the Hon. John D. Bates of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia before joining Davis Polk & Wardwell in New York. His practice there included securities offerings, mergers and acquisitions, bankruptcy matters, and investigations. In 2009, he became an Assistant United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida. He prosecuted hundreds of federal offenses, including international money laundering, public integrity, healthcare fraud, and human trafficking crimes. In 2013, he joined Kobre & Kim LLP, where he specialized in cross-border disputes and investigations relating to financial products and services, asset recovery, and government enforcement defense, with an emphasis on clients in Latin America.

Justice Couriel is a native speaker of Spanish. His parents emigrated from Cuba in the 1960s, his father as one of approximately 14,000 unaccompanied minors welcomed to the United States as part of Operation Pedro Pan.

He was appointed to the Florida Supreme Court by Gov. Ron DeSantis on June 1, 2020.

Eagleton

Joe Eagleton is a board-certified appellate specialist and an equity shareholder with the appellate boutique Brannock Berman & Seider, the largest law firm in Florida specializing exclusively in appeals and trial support. An experienced appellate practitioner and former Florida Supreme Court law clerk, Eagleton has handled appeals in all six Florida District Courts of Appeal, the Florida Supreme Court, two federal circuit courts of appeals, and the United States Supreme Court. His practice focuses on complex commercial litigation, high-value family-law appeals, and high-profile public-interest cases.

Eagleton is a leader in the state and local appellate bars. He currently serves as the Chair-Elect of the Florida Bar’s Appellate Practice Section, and he previously served as the longtime chair of Hillsborough County’s Appellate Practice Section.

Eagleton is a triple-Gator, having earned his bachelor’s, master’s, and law degrees from the University of Florida.

He is routinely recognized for his work in appellate practice and commercial litigation by leading publications like Florida Super Lawyers, Florida Trend, and Best Lawyers in America.

Fineout

Gary Fineout came to POLITICO Florida in February 2019 after spending more than two decades covering Florida politics and government. He spent the previous seven and a half years working in the Tallahassee bureau of The Associated Press. Prior to that, he has worked for The Miami Herald, The New York Times Regional Newspaper Group, Daytona Beach News-Journal and The Tallahassee Democrat. Fineout grew up in Florida and is a graduate of Florida State University.

Flemming

Paul Flemming is the director of the Florida Supreme Court Public Information Office. He moved into that position in March 2022 after working as PIO for the Office of the State Courts Administrator for five years. Previously, he was a reporter and editor for newspapers in Missouri and Florida. He came to Tallahassee in 2004 and worked as bureau chief, leading state coverage for four newspapers and in cooperation with three television stations. Before joining the state courts system, he worked in the Florida Legislature for two years.

Justice Grosshans

Justice Jamie Rutland Grosshans was appointed as the 91st Justice of the Florida Supreme Court on September 14, 2020 by Gov. Ron DeSantis. Previously she was appointed to the Fifth District Court of Appeal by Gov. Rick Scott. Prior to her appointment to the appellate court, she served as an Orange County Court judge in the Ninth Judicial Circuit, where she presided over criminal and civil matters.

Justice Grosshans was raised in Brookhaven, Mississippi and graduated from the University of Mississippi School of Law. During law school, she clerked for the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice in Washington, D.C., and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Mississippi. Following admittance to The Florida Bar, she served as an assistant state attorney for the Ninth Circuit in both the misdemeanor and felony divisions, where she tried numerous criminal jury trials.

Justice Grosshans later entered private practice and founded her own law firm, where she focused primarily on family law and criminal defense matters. She also served as an adjunct professor at Valencia College, frequently volunteered as a guardian ad litem, and offered her time in numerous pro bono cases. Justice Grosshans regularly speaks to lawyers, law students, and community organizations on topics such as challenges in the practice of law, the role of the judicial branch, civics, professionalism, and ethics in the legal profession.

Karp

David Karp brings a decade of experience as a professional writer and editor to his law practice at Carlton Fields, which focuses on appeals and representing content creators in First Amendment and defamation cases. He has handled appeals in federal and state courts on a range of issues: class actions, bad faith insurance cases, real property disputes, personal injury cases, and constitutional challenges to state and local laws. He also represents clients in class actions and complex commercial cases in the trial court, helping frame issues for summary judgment and dismissal, and serving as an integral part of a trial team.

Krell Davis

Jennifer Krell Davis joined The Florida Bar Public Information Office in 2001, after graduating law school and working as a staff attorney for the Florida House of Representatives, to assist with special projects. She moved on to the Florida Chamber of Commerce as communications director where she led messaging efforts for legislative advocacy, and political and grassroots outreach. From there she became communications director for the Florida Department of State, covering the arts, elections, corporations, and historical divisions as well as the 2008 Presidential Election. After that she served as press secretary for the Office of the Florida Attorney General and then vice president of Public Affairs for the Florida Ports Council, the professional association for Florida’s 15 public seaports. She rejoined The Florida Bar staff in 2016 as deputy director of Communications leading internal and external digital communications for the Bar. She became communications director in 2021 and Communications Division Director in 2023. Davis received her undergraduate degree in English Literature from Florida State University and her law degree from the University of Florida.

Fineout

Gary Fineout came to POLITICO Florida in February 2019 after spending more than two decades covering Florida politics and government. He spent the previous seven and a half years working in the Tallahassee bureau of The Associated Press. Prior to that, he has worked for The Miami Herald, The New York Times Regional Newspaper Group, Daytona Beach News-Journal and The Tallahassee Democrat. Fineout grew up in Florida and is a graduate of Florida State University.

Justice Jorge Labarga

Justice Jorge Labarga was born in Cuba in 1952. He is married to Zulma R. Labarga, and they have two daughters. He arrived in the United States at the age of 11 where he initially lived with his family in Pahokee, Florida. He graduated from Forest Hill High School in West Palm Beach in 1972 and received both his bachelor’s (1976) and law (1979) degrees from the University of Florida.

Justice Labarga began his legal career in 1979 as an Assistant Public Defender with the Public Defender’s Office in West Palm Beach, assigned to the appellate, misdemeanor and felony trial divisions. In 1982 he joined the State Attorney’s Office in West Palm Beach, where he tried cases ranging from theft to homicide. In 1987 he joined the firm of Cone, Wagner, Nugent, Roth, Romano & Ericksen, P.A., and specialized in personal injury trial work. In 1992 Justice Labarga participated in founding the law firm of Roth, Duncan & Labarga, P.A., in West Palm Beach, where he continued to specialize in personal injury litigation and criminal defense.

Gov. Lawton Chiles appointed Justice Labarga to the Circuit Court of the 15th Judicial Circuit, in and for Palm Beach County, in 1996. In that capacity he served in the family, civil and criminal divisions. He also served as the administrative judge of the civil division.

In December 2008 Justice Labarga was appointed by Gov. Charlie Crist to the Fourth District Court of Appeal. On January 6, 2009, he took office on the Florida Supreme Court after appointment by Gov. Crist. He is the 84th Justice to take office at the Florida Supreme Court since statehood was granted in 1845. On July 1, 2014, he became the 56th Chief Justice of Florida – the first Cuban American to lead the state judicial branch. He held that office for two terms until June 2018, the first chief justice to serve consecutive terms in a century.

Justice Muniz

Justice Carlos G. Muñiz was appointed to the Florida Supreme Court by Gov. Ron DeSantis on January 22, 2019, becoming the 89th Justice since statehood was granted in 1845. Justice Muñiz was elected by his colleagues to serve as Florida’s 57th Chief Justice beginning July 1, 2022. Prior to joining the court, he served on the staff of Sec. Betsy DeVos as the general counsel of the U.S. Department of Education.

In addition to working as an attorney in the federal government and in private practice, Justice Muñiz had an extensive career in Florida state government. He served as the deputy attorney general and chief of staff to Attorney Gen. Pam Bondi; as deputy chief of staff and counsel in the Office of the Speaker of the Florida House of Representatives; as general counsel of the Department of Financial Services; and as deputy general counsel to Gov. Jeb Bush.

Justice Muñiz is a graduate of the University of Virginia and of Yale Law School. After law school, he clerked for Judge José A. Cabranes of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and for Judge Thomas A. Flannery of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

Nesmith

Susannah Nesmith has worked for the Miami-Dade Commission on Ethics and Public Trust since 2017. She began her ethics career in the enforcement unit as an investigator and moved into a staff attorney role in 2023. Before this, Nesmith was a journalist, chasing stories – and public records – in Florida and all over the world. Her work has appeared in Bloomberg News, The New York Times, Columbia Journalism Review, The Associated Press, The Miami Herald, The Palm Beach Post and a variety of other publications. She currently enforces Miami-Dade’s Citizens Bill of Rights, which has a public records provision. She has also submitted hundreds of public records requests.

Rietow

Emilie Rietow is the education and information administrator at the Florida Supreme Court. Her work in public information office includes instructing thousands of teachers, students and members of the public from throughout the state about Florida’s judicial branch of government and coordinating other civics education programs. Rietow is also responsible for website and social media content management and event planning. Prior to her position at the Court, Rietow spent several years working in The Florida Bar’s public information office and as an elementary classroom teacher in the public school system.

Justice Sasso

On May 23, 2023, Gov. Ron DeSantis appointed Justice Meredith L. Sasso to be the 93rd justice of the Supreme Court of Florida.

Justice Sasso was raised in Tallahassee. She received her undergraduate degree from the University of Florida in 2005 and her law degree from the University of Florida in 2008, where she was a member of the Justice Campbell Thornal Moot Court board. She began her career in private practice, representing clients in large loss general liability, auto negligence, and complex commercial claims in state and federal courts at trial and on appeal. She also served as guardian ad litem, representing abused or neglected children.

In August 2016, Justice Sasso joined the Office of the General Counsel to Gov. Rick Scott, serving as chief deputy general counsel. In this role, she represented the governor in litigation before the Florida Supreme Court, the First District Court of Appeal, and state and federal trial courts, among other duties. In January 2019, Gov. Scott appointed her to the Fifth District Court of Appeal. Gov. DeSantis recommissioned her to the newly created Sixth District Court of Appeal on January 1, 2023, where she was elected by her colleagues to serve as its first Chief Judge.

She is a member of the American Enterprise Institute Leadership Network and the Federalist Society.

Savitz

Patricia Ann Toro Savitz received both her B.A.A (1982) and J.D. (1985) degrees from the University of Miami. Savitz is staff counsel for the Lawyer Regulation Division of The Florida Bar. She has been with The Florida Bar since 1997 and was bar counsel in the Orlando Branch Office for over 20 years. She was an assistant public defender in the 20th Judicial Circuit in Fort Myers and subsequently handled dependency cases with the Department of Children and Families. Savitz is actively involved in voluntary bar associations and civic programs.

White

Erica White received her B.S. and M.B.A. degrees in Business Administration from Florida A & M University in 1993.  From 1993 to 1998, White worked for the Executive Office of the Governor as a budget analyst, and for the Florida Sterling Council, until returning to law school at the Florida State University College of Law in the Fall of 1998.

After graduating law school in May 2001, White worked as an assistant general counsel/program analyst for the Department of Community Affairs, and as a senior attorney the Department of Children and Families.  From 2004 to 2010, she practiced in the private sector primarily in the areas of criminal and family law, and in 2011, White returned to state government.  From 2011 to 2019, she worked at the Department of Business and Professional Regulation as chief attorney, and at the Florida Department of Health as the executive director of the Florida Board of Pharmacy.

White joined the Office of State Courts Administrator (OSCA) as the general counsel in January 2019, where she is currently responsible for addressing legal issues relating to the administration of the Florida State Courts System, and for providing legal advice to the OSCA and the Florida Supreme Court.