Sunday, Sept. 18

Tuesday, Sept. 20

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Workshop Speakers

Judge Nina 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.

Nancy Benavides

Nancy Benavides is the associate dean for Academic Programs and Student Advancement at the Florida State University College of Law. She joined the College of Law administration in 2000, where she served as the director of Career Planning & Placement before being named assistant dean for Student Affairs in 2002. She has served in her current role since 2004. Prior to joining FSU Law, she worked in private practice in Washington, D.C. Benavides is responsible for all student-related activities and events. She also counsels and advises students on a wide range of issues. She designed and oversees the law school’s Raising the Bar Professionalism+ Program. She has served as faculty advisor to multiple law student organizations, including the Women’s Law Symposium and Cuban American Bar Association. In addition serving the law school community, Dean Benavides is actively engaged in mentoring undergraduates. Since 2002, she has overseen FSU’s ABA-award winning Donald J. Weidner Summer for Undergraduates Program. She also teaches an undergraduate prelaw course for freshmen in FSU’s Bryan Hall Learning Community. She’s received numerous awards for her work, most recently receiving The Florida Bar Standing Committee on Professionalism Law Faculty Professionalism Award. Benavides earned both her bachelor’s and law degrees from the University of Maryland.

Edward L. 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.

Courtney Brewer

Courtney Brewer is a board-certified appellate specialist and a partner at Bishop & Mills in the Tallahassee office. She has had primary responsibility in all aspects of appellate litigation in cases at the 11th Circuit, federal district courts, and every appellate court in Florida. Prior to joining Bishop & Mills in 2012, Brewer served as a deputy solicitor general in the Florida Office of the Attorney General. In the spring of 2010 she served as a Supreme Court fellow for the National Association of Attorneys General, where she had the opportunity to obtain direct and intensive hands-on exposure to U.S. Supreme Court practice. Prior to that, she clerked for Justice Charles Wells at the Florida Supreme Court from 2004 to 2007. She obtained her  law degree from Duke University School of Law in 2004, and her bachelor’s degree from the University of Florida in 2001. Brewer is treasurer of The Florida Bar’s Appellate Practice Section and president of the First District Appellate American Inn of Court. She co-teaches appellate advocacy as an adjunct professor at the Florida State University College of Law and has coached numerous law school moot court teams.

Florida Supreme Court Justice Charles T. Canady

Justice Charles Canady was born in Lakeland, Florida, in 1954. He is married to Jennifer Houghton Canady, and they have two children. He received his bachelor’s degree from Haverford College in 1976 and his law degree from the Yale Law School in 1979.

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 United States House of Representatives.

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 on 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.

Florida Supreme Court Justice John D. Couriel

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.

Mark Earley

Mark Earley has been serving the voters of Leon County for over 30 years. He was elected Supervisor of Elections in 2016 following the retirement of his mentor, Supervisor Ion Sancho. Early is responsible for the conduct of elections in Leon County and works closely with other local, state and federal agencies to protect the right of every voter to cast their ballot and have it counted accurately and securely. Early was integral to adopting the county’s first optical scan paper ballot voting system, voting operations during the 2000 General Election recount, and the consolidation of county elections operations into the new Ion V. Sancho Leon County Elections Center. Early is the president of Florida Supervisors of Elections Inc., the state association for Florida’s 67 Supervisors of Elections, where he serves as the chair of the Cybersecurity Committee and as vice-chair of the Legislative Committee. At the federal level, Early serves on the executive committee of the Elections Infrastructure’s Information Sharing and Analysis Center, which advises and supports elections offices nationwide in securing elections. He also serves on the Local Leadership Council of the U.S. Election Assistance Commission, the national clearinghouse for voting system certifications and election information and best practices.

Paul Fleming

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.

Giselle Girones

Giselle Girones is a senior associate at Shullman Fugate, where she represents media and entertainment clients in business, intellectual property, and content-related litigation. In her media/First Amendment practice, she offers advice concerning content and publication practices, defends against subpoenas to reporters, defamation, and privacy claims, and prosecutes actions concerning access to government records and proceedings. She also provides pre-broadcast and pre-publication review and newsgathering advice for both English and Spanish stations, newspapers, television networks, podcasts, and production companies. In her intellectual property practice, Girones litigates copyright and trademark disputes and provides advice concerning intellectual property management and enforcement. Girones is the co-chair of the ABA Forum on Communications Law’s Young Lawyers Committee and serves on the forum’s Media Advocacy Workshop. Girones taught Media Law and Ethics as an adjunct professor at the University of North Florida. She is fluent in Spanish.

Pat Gleason

Pat Gleason serves as special counsel for Open Government for Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody. She has also served as the advocate for the Florida Ethics Commission and chief of the Administrative Law section in the Attorney General’s Office. She is the editor of the Sunshine Manual and the Public Records Guide for Law Enforcement agencies. She is a graduate of Florida State University College of Law.

Jennifer Grandal

Jennifer Grandal is the chief of the Office of Problem-Solving Courts in the Office of the State Courts Administrator (OSCA). She oversees the operations of the office, which provides support to drug courts and other problem-solving courts through technical assistance, training, data collection and analysis, and policy development. Grandal has worked at OSCA for more than 24 years and with problem-solving courts for 23 years. She is the 2010 recipient of OSCA’s Award of Excellence. She has served as a board member of the Florida Association of Drug Court Professionals since 2002 and has served as the treasurer since 2009. Grandal earned a bachelor’s degree in Criminology from Florida State University.

Florida Supreme Court Justice Jamie R. Grosshans

Justice Jamie R. Grosshans was appointed to the Florida Supreme Court on September 14, 2020 by Gov. Ron DeSantis. Previously she was appointed to the Fifth District Court of Appeal in 2018 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 of Florida where she presided over criminal and civil matters.

Justice Grosshans was raised in Brookhaven, Mississippi and graduated cum laude 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 United States 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 of Florida 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 on family law and criminal defense matters for nearly 10 years. During this time she also served as an Adjunct Professor at Valencia College where she taught Hospitality Law for the Hospitality and Tourism Management Program. She also frequently volunteered as a guardian ad litem with the Orange County Legal Aid Society. Justice Grosshans has served on state court system advisory committees and has been involved in numerous activities with the Florida Bar and other legal organizations.

Justice Grosshans regularly speaks to lawyers and law students on topics such as challenges in the practice of law, the role of judges, professionalism and respect in the legal profession, criminal law, and family law.

William Hatfield

William Hatfield is the editor of the Tallahassee Democrat. For the last four years, the Democrat has won the Gold Medal – the top journalism prize in the state – an unprecedented feat in the paper’s century-long history. He doesn’t believe in coincidences, which means the small-town way of life, one-degree-of-separation in Tallahassee makes for constant divine intervention. He has been a Floridian for 22 years and in a former life was the editor of the Northwest Florida Daily News, Destin Log and Walton Sun. In his spare time he loves to research family histories for himself and anyone who shows the slightest interest.

Paul Hawkes

Paul Hawkes is a retired judge who served on the Florida First District Court of Appeal. After his appointment by Gov. Jeb Bush in 2003, he was elected as Chief Judge by his judicial colleagues where he led the effort to implement electronic filing (the first court in Florida to use electronic filing). Since retiring in 2012, he has worked as a private practice attorney and lobbyist. His most recent work has focused on the Florida victim’s rights amendment to the constitution where he drafted one of the most robust victim rights provisions in the country. He continues to represent crime victims, Marsy’s Law for Florida, as well as Florida’s appellate judges and Florida’s county court judges before the legislature and executive branch. Hawkes served as deputy director in the Office of Policy for Gov. Bush. He then went to work as policy chief at the Florida House Prior to serving in the Bush administration, Hawkes opened his own practice and served two terms in the Florida House of Representatives. Early in his career, he accepted an appointment as an assistant state attorney in the Fifth Judicial Circuit. Hawkes earned his undergraduate degree from the University of South Florida in 1983 and went on to receive his law degree from Florida State University in 1985. While in law school, he was selected for Law Review, served as research editor, and graduated with honors.

Melissa Holsman

Melissa Holsman is a crime, courts and legal affairs reporter with TCPalm. A native of Kansas City, she moved to Stuart in 1989 and began her journalism career in the 1990s working as an assignment editor for WPTV TV5, the NBC affiliate in West Palm Beach. After graduating from Florida Atlantic University in 1997, she switched to radio and spent two years reporting news for a cluster of stations that broadcast on the Treasure Coast and Palm Beach County. She joined The Stuart News newspaper in 1999, then owned by E.W. Scripps and now part of the USA Today Florida Network, which includes TCPalm.com and daily papers in Indian River, St. Lucie and Martin counties. She has spent 21 years reporting on legal affairs covering state and federal courts, both civil and criminal. In 2019, Holsman wrote and co-hosted the true crime podcast Uncertain Terms, that featured the stories of juveniles convicted of murder seeking freedom from life prison terms. She’s been recognized with numerous awards, including The Florida Bar Parker Thomson Awards for Outstanding Legal Journalism in 2022 and 2013, the 2021 Green Eyeshade Awards for nondeadline reporting, the Florida Press Club’s Lucy Morgan Award for in-depth reporting, in addition to awards from the Society of Professional Journalists and the Florida Society of Newspaper Editors.

David Karp

David Karp practices law at Carlton Fields, where he focuses on appellate litigation and trial support with a special interest in First Amendment law. He has substantial experience litigating class actions, defamation claims, bad-faith insurance cases, and real property disputes. He worked for more than a decade as a writer and editor at the St. Petersburg Times (now Tampa Bay Times). David also clerked for Senior U.S. District Judge Susan C. Bucklew of the Middle District of Florida. He earned his bachelor’s degree from Yale and his law degree magna cum laude from the University of Florida Levin College of Law.

Tricia Knox

Tricia Knox is the deputy director of Public Information with the Florida Supreme Court. She has spent 30 years in state government, including 24 years in the judicial branch. Her background includes public information, communication and strategic planning, education and outreach, and web design and administration.

Jennifer 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. Davis received her undergraduate degree in English Literature from Florida State University and her law degree from the University of Florida.

Florida Supreme Court 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.

James Lake

James Lake is partner with Thomas & LoCicero in Tampa. His practice focuses on media law, intellectual property and business litigation, representing clients in state and federal courts and the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office. He frequently renders advice on newsgathering, trademark, and copyright matters. Lake’s clients include media, financial, retail, chemical and staffing companies, and well-known authors. He has litigated defamation, trademark and copyright cases, trademark opposition proceedings, reporter’s privilege disputes, demands for access to public records and meetings, domain-name proceedings and commercial disputes. He regularly serves as local counsel for businesses sued or pursuing claims in the Middle District of Florida. Lake  graduated from Washington and Lee University with honors in journalism and then worked as a reporter for The Tampa Tribune. He graduated with honors from the Washington and Lee University School of Law.

Gary Lesser

Gary S. Lesser, the 74th president of The Florida Bar,  is the managing partner of Lesser Lesser Landy & Smith in West Palm Beach. Lesser is one of Florida’s leading personal injury attorneys, handling a large number of high profile personal injury cases over the years. He has lectured at seminars all over Florida on the topics of personal injury and various ethics issues. He has been interviewed by local and national media regarding personal injury cases, important ethical/legal issues, and his service to the community. He served for 10 years on the Florida Bar Board of Governors, was appointed chair of the board’s Legislative Committee three years in a row, served as chair of the Professional Ethics Committee, and served on the Strategic Planning, Disciplinary Review, Communications and Board Review on Professional Ethics committees. He has also taken active leadership positions in his community, including with the Legal Aid Society of Palm Beach County, the Economic Council of Palm Beach County, the Homeless Coalition of Palm Beach County, Jewish Federation, and the Business Development Board of Palm Beach County. Lesser  graduated with a bachelor’s degree in International Affairs from George Washington University, where he served as president pro tempore of the Student Senate, associate editor of the school newspaper, and the editor-in-chief of the GW Journal. He earned his law degree from the University of Miami School of Law, where he was a member of Bar & Gavel Society and he served as associate editor of the Yearbook of International Law and editor-in-chief of Res Ipsa Loquitur, the law school’s newspaper.

Professor Lyrissa Lidsky

Lyrissa Lidsky is the Raymond & Miriam Ehrlich Chair in U.S. Constitutional Law at the University of Levin College of Law. She previously served as dean of the University of Missouri School of Law from 2017 to 2022. The focus of her research and teaching is the intersection of tort law and the First Amendment, with an emphasis on free speech issues in social media. Before becoming dean at Missouri, Lidsky served in a variety of leadership roles at the Levin College of Law, including as associate dean for graduate and international programs and associate dean for faculty development. She also held the Stephen C. O’Connell Chair in Law and received a number of teaching awards during her 23-year tenure at UF. Lidsky is co-reporter on the Restatement of Defamation and Privacy, co-author of a leading Media Law casebook, a First Amendment casebook, and a reference book on press freedom and has published dozens of articles, culminating in her recent article in California Law Review titled Considering the Context of Online Threats. Her work on anonymous speech has been cited by a number of state supreme courts and the highest courts of Canada and Hong Kong. Before becoming a law professor, Lidsky served as a clerk for the Hon. Joseph T. Sneed of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in San Francisco, Calif. Lidsky received her law degree from the University of Texas School of Law with high honors and her bachelor’s degree, summa cum laude, in English and political science from Texas A&M University.

Carol LoCicero

Carol LoCicero is the managing partner of Thomas & LoCicero, a media, First Amendment, and intellectual property boutique law firm. LoCicero practices at the trial and appellate levels, handling litigation concerning defamation and privacy, the Public Records Act, court access, cameras in the courtroom, and trademark and copyright infringement. She leads statewide advocacy efforts on media issues and was instrumental in the adoption of Florida’s anti-SLAPP (strategic lawsuit against public participation) statute.

Judge Robert Luck

Judge Robert J. Luck serves as a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit. Before his confirmation to the federal appellate court in 2019, Judge Luck presided over hundreds of criminal, civil, and family law appeals as a justice on the Florida Supreme Court, and as a judge on Florida’s Third District Court of Appeal. Earlier, Judge Luck served on the 11th Judicial Circuit Court of Florida. He presided in the Criminal, Civil, and Appellate divisions. Judge Luck, in his years as a trial court judge, tried 70 jury trials, and heard dozens of appeals from the county court and municipal agencies. Judge Luck was appointed to the circuit court in 2013 and was elected by the voters of Miami-Dade County to retain his seat in 2016. Prior to his service on the bench, Judge Luck was an assistant U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Florida. Earlier in his career, Judge Luck was a legislative correspondent for two U.S. Senators, a law clerk and staff attorney to Circuit Judge Ed Carnes on the 11th Circuit, and a part of the Greenberg Traurig firm’s appellate section. Judge Luck received his law degree from the University of Florida Levin College of Law magna cum laude and his bachelor’s in Economics from the University of Florida with highest honors.

Paul Lux

Paul Lux has worked for the Okaloosa County Supervisor of Elections office since 1999, serving in various capacities until he was elected Supervisor of Elections in 2008. During his time with the office, Lux helped keep Okaloosa County on the leading edge of the elections community, participating in equipment certification testing, voting equipment upgrades, and election audits and recounts in other counties. He worked with the Federal Voting Assistance Program on the Voting over the Internet project in 2000 and the Secure Electronic Registration and Voting Experiment in 2004. Lux worked in 2008 on the Okaloosa Distance Balloting Pilot project, a kiosk-based Internet voting initiative carried out only for Okaloosa County voters. He leads a 34-county consortium to provide online access to blank ballots for Florida’s absent military and overseas voters, and serves on the Technology Committee for the Council of State Governments to study ways to better serve absentee voters. Lux serves on the Election Assistance Commission Standards Board as the representative for Florida’s local election officials.

Susan MacManus, Professor Emerita

Susan A. MacManus is a USF Distinguished University Professor (Political Science) Emerita. She has authored or co-authored numerous publications on Florida politics, including Florida’s Minority Trailblazers: The Men and Women Who Changed the Face of Florida Government; Politics in Florida (5th ed., 2019); Florida Politics: Ten Media Markets, One Powerful State; Young v. Old: Generational Combat in the 21st Century?; and Targeting Senior Voters. From 1998 to 2015, she served as political analyst for WFLA News Channel 8 (Tampa’s NBC affiliate). Since 2016, she has been the political analyst for ABC Action News (Tampa’s ABC affiliate). She is a featured columnist on sayfiereview.com — a widely read Florida-based political website. MacManus has appeared on every major broadcast and cable television and radio network and been interviewed by major newspapers in Florida, the U.S., and abroad.  She serves on the UF Bob Graham Center For Public Service Council of Advisors and on the Board of Directors of the Florida TaxWatch Center for Florida Citizenship. She chaired the Florida Elections Commission from 1999 to 2003 and is Florida’s most-quoted political scientist. MacManus is not affiliated with any political party. She received her M.A. from the University of Michigan and Ph.D. from Florida State University.

Minch Minchin

Minch Minchin‘s practice at Shullman Fugate focuses on content, defamation, access-to-information, and intellectual property disputes. His affinity for media law began when he worked as a reporter, photographer and editor at the daily Independent Florida Alligator at the University of Florida, where he also played linebacker for the football team. In 2011, he graduated, summa cum laude, with a degree in journalism, and in 2014, he received his master’s degree in media law as a graduate with distinction. In 2018, Minchin graduated with a law degree, order of the coif, and a doctorate in mass communications law. While in graduate school, he worked for a media nonprofit in Washington, D.C., a law firm in Tampa, and two federal judges in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida. Minch also taught media law to University of Florida undergraduate students, wrote several journal articles on media law issues, and served as the executive articles’ editor of the Florida Law Review. After graduation, Minchin clerked for the Hon. Karon O. Bowdre, chief judge of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama.

Linda Norbut

Linda Norbut is an associate in the Tampa office of Thomas & LoCicero, with a practice concentration in media and communications law, including defamation and invasion of privacy. She also focuses on business litigation and intellectual property matters. Linda previously worked as a legal fellow at the Brechner Center for Freedom of Information, a nonprofit organization charged with informing lawmakers and the public on the importance of an open and transparent government. She also taught media law courses to undergraduate students at the University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications, and she has served as a contributing author of several leading legal guides, including ones relating to defamation, open courts, and public records. Linda has published several law review articles focused on the First Amendment and communications law. She currently chairs the committee for the ABA Forum on Communications’ First Amendment Diversity Moot Court competition, making her one of the youngest attorneys ever asked to serve in that capacity.

Mary H. Nguyen-Nodelman

Mary Nguyen-Nodelman is a criminal defense trial attorney at the Public Defender’s Office in the Fifth Judicial Circuit of Florida. Nguyen was an assistant public defender in the felony division in the 13th Judicial circuit in Tampa. Nguyen represented indigent clients and tried numerous felony cases ranging from third degree felonies to first degree felonies/punishable by life cases. Nguyen is also serving her second term as vice-chair of the Florida Bar’s Media and Communications Law Committee. Prior to her legal career, Nguyen worked as an investigative journalist for close to 20 years. The Emmy-nominated reporter has worked at various ABC, NBC and Fox television stations across the country, as well as NBC News. Nine of those years were at WFTV, the ABC station in Orlando, Florida. Nguyen started her career as a print journalist at the age of 16 and wrote a monthly column for ‘TEEN Magazine. She has also been published in Los Angeles Times and USA Today. Nguyen focused on law and the court system while she was a journalist covering high profile cases such as the Casey Anthony, Trayvon Martin and Jodi Arias cases. Nguyen received her bachelor’s degree in Communications from the University of California at Los Angeles and graduated from Florida State University College of Law.

Melissa Pérez-Carrillo

Melissa Pérez-Carrillo is a breaking news and public safety reporter at the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. She’s a graduate of the University of Central Florida, where she was the managing editor of Centric Magazine. She previously covered local news at 90.7 WMFE, News 6 WKMG and the Orlando Weekly.

Emilie 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.

Jim Saunders

Jim Saunders has been executive editor of the News Service of Florida since 2013 and has covered state government and politics in Florida since 1998. Jim came to the News Service in 2011 after stints as Tallahassee bureau chief for The Florida Times-Union, The Daytona Beach News-Journal and Health News Florida. He moved to Florida in 1990 and worked eight years for the Times-Union in Jacksonville and St. Johns County. A native of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, he graduated from Northwestern University and worked at The Blade newspaper in Toledo, Ohio, before moving to the Times-Union. Saunders covers legal and regulatory issues and has extensive experience in covering health care.

Julio Semino

Julio Semino is the director of community relations for Florida’s Ninth Judicial Circuit, where he oversees the communications, jury services, and court interpreting departments in the circuit, which encompasses Orange and Osceola counties. Prior to 2008, Semino was a supervising court interpreter in the Seventh Judicial Circuit, which spans four counties including Daytona Beach, St. Augustine, and surrounding areas. He is the president-elect of the Florida Court Public Information Officers, an organization that helps the public and the media better understand our state’s legal system. He has worked extensively with the media, including during the State v. Casey Anthony case, where he coordinated media access to court proceedings, exhibits, and other vital information.

Eunice Sigler

Eunice Sigler has served as director of the Office of Government Liaison and Public Relations for the 11th Judicial Circuit of Florida since April 2006. In this capacity, she serves as public information officer for the largest judicial circuit in Florida, with 123 judges. Sigler is the main point of contact for the public and for the media covering court proceedings in Miami-Dade County. In addition, her office collaborates with local justice partners and government entities, commercial film production entities, visiting judicial and government dignitaries from other nations, and coordinates educational and outreach programs. Prior to joining the 11th Circuit, Sigler served as a Miami Herald reporter, freelance journalist, and public affairs representative for the City of Coral Gables. While at the Herald, she covered municipal government, breaking news, and features on a wide variety of subjects. She was among the Herald staff members who shared the 2001 Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News Reporting – awarded coverage of the surprise federal raid on Elian Gonzalez’s Little Havana home the year before. She is past president of the Florida Court Public Information Officers (FCPIO), an educational organization of all the public information officers in Florida’s courts. Sigler holds bachelor’s degrees in Communications-Print Journalism and Computer Science from Florida International University.

Tracy Skeen

Tracy Skeen is the director of Community Relations for the 10th Judicial Circuit and has worked in the court system for 26 years. She started her career with the Department of Corrections Probation & Parole Court Intake Unit where she worked for eight years before joining the 10th Judicial Circuit as a judicial assistant in 2004. Skeen has worked in the 10th Judicial Circuit’s Administrative Office of the Courts since 2017, first as a senior court operations consultant/public information officer and most recently as the director of Community Relations. She graduated from the University of Florida with honors in 2019 with a bachelor’s degree in criminology.

Kelly Steele

Kelly Steele is the director of Case Management for the Ninth Judicial Circuit in Orlando, where she oversees civil case management and all problem solving court programs. She began her career with the courts working as budget director in the administrative office of the Office of the Courts in Atlanta, Ga. After seven years in Atlanta, Steele moved to Denver, Colo. to become a policy analyst with the Office of the State Court Administrator. In 2013, she moved to Florida where she began her work in the Ninth Circuit as the Adult Drug Court manager.  For the last seven years, Steele has been the program manager for all problem solving courts in the circuit supporting the expansion and enhancement of Drug Courts, Veterans Treatment Courts and Mental Health Courts in Orange and Osceola counties. In 2020, she was appointed by Chief Justice Canady to the Supreme Court’s Steering Committee on Problem Solving Courts. In addition to her work with problem solving courts, Steele supports civil case management, data analysis, planning and security operations in the circuit. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Business and Economics from Agnes Scott College, and master’s degrees in International Affairs and Public Policy; both from the Georgia Institute of Technology. She has received her Certified Court Manager and Certified Court Executive credentials from the National Center for State Courts.

Elizabeth Clark Tarbert

Elizabeth Clark Tarbert is director of the Lawyer Regulation division for The Florida Bar, the division responsible for the investigation and prosecution of disciplinary complaints against Florida Bar members. She also serves as counsel to The Florida Bar Board of Governors Disciplinary Review, Disciplinary Procedure, and Rules committees. She was ethics counsel for The Florida Bar from 1997 to 2021, providing oral and written ethics opinions to Bar members and advising the Professional Ethics Committee, Standing Committee on Advertising, and Board Review Committee on Professional Ethics. She has also served as counsel to numerous special bar committees and task forces. She is a former member of and current liaison to the ABA Standing Committee on Ethics and Professional Responsibility. She has been an assistant public defender in both Dallas, Texas and the Eighth Judicial Circuit in Gainesville. While at the Defense Contract Management District Mid-Atlantic, Defense Logistics Agency in Philadelphia, Tarbert worked in a special fraud remedies unit, assisting in the investigation and prosecution of government contractors. Tarbert graduated from the University of Florida College of Law with honors and holds a bachelor’s degree in sociology from the University of Florida. She frequently speaks on legal ethics and professional responsibility.

Blan Teagle

Blan L. Teagle is the executive director of the Florida Judicial Qualifications Commission. He worked for the Office of the State Courts Administrator for a total of 27 years, most recently as deputy state courts administrator. He previous experience includes serving as director of The Florida Bar Center for Professionalism, director of Education and Training for the Florida Department of Children and Families, and as an attorney with Emmanuel, Sheppard, and Condon in Pensacola. Teagle was for nine years the staff counsel to Florida’s Judicial Ethics Advisory Committee and is the author of Florida’s “Judicial Ethics Benchguide,” a publication of the Florida Court Education Council. He is a member of the faculty of the Florida Judicial College, where he teaches the introductory ethics course to new judges. He received his bachelor’s degree from The University of the South, Sewanee, his law degree from the University College of Law (where he served as editor-in-chief of the University of Florida Law Review). He also holds a Master of Professional Studies from Loyola University, New Orleans.