Bar’s Center for Professionalism podcast ‘Never Contemplated’ showcases DOAH judges
“Never Contemplated,” the Henry Latimer Center for Professionalism podcast, has turned a spotlight on the Florida Division of Administrative Hearings and its unsung heroes, administrative law judges.
(Certified for CLE, the episodes are free and available here.)
Administrative Law Judge Hetal Desai, the series host, calls two of five colleagues featured in the two-part episode, “environmental law gurus.”
Long before coming to DOAH in 2017, Judge Francine Ffolkes spent a childhood diving the reefs of her native Jamaica and dreaming of a career in marine biology.
She came close, winning admittance to the University of Miami’s prestigious Rosenstiel School of Marine, Atmospheric and Earth Science after double majoring in marine science and biology as an undergrad.
Judge Ffolkes
But she chose the UM School of Law instead after taking an elective in coastal and marine law in her senior year.
It’s an opportunity she would have missed in the British higher educational system.
“It surprised me when I came to the University of Miami that I had to do languages and humanities and social studies in order to get my [science] degree,” Ffolkes said. “In my mind I was thinking, well, here’s an alternative.”
Ffolkes earned a J.D. from the University of Miami in 1989 and built an administrative law career that allowed her to indulge her love of science and nature.
Before she came to DOAH, Ffolkes rose through the regulatory ranks to become deputy general counsel in charge of litigation for the Florida Department of Environmental Protection.
These days, Ffolkes spends what little free time she has diving artificial reefs off West Palm Beach and Ft. Lauderdale, or real ones in the Keys, or teaching Sunday school.
Over the years, she has devoted countless hours to Bar service, including writing the “Rule Adoption and Review” chapter of the Florida Administrative Practice Manual, and once serving as editor of the Government Lawyer Section newsletter, “The Voice.”
Bar service is immensely rewarding, Ffolkes said.
“I saw it as an investment in my professional development,” she said.
Lawyers who appear before her should be “detail oriented” and keep three things in mind — “preparation, preparation, preparation,” Ffolkes said.
“Folks who practice in that area know it’s very document-driven, you’re talking thousands of pages of information,” she said. “When a lawyer is writing a proposed order, don’t just cite to the transcript, point out where in the document I can also find this information.”
Judge Sellers
Administrative Law Judge Cathy Sellers, another series subject, taught high school science in her native Fernandina Beach before surrendering to an urge to become a lawyer and environmental advocate.
The passion took root when she was an adolescent, and her mining engineer father moved the family temporarily to a remote jungle in Sierra Leone, and later, South Africa.
Living abroad from fifth to 11th grade changed her life, Sellers said.
“I think it had a profound effect,” she said. “There’s no way you can live in that beautiful place and not become interested in the environment.”
Witnessing the cruelties of the apartheid regime in South Africa only deepened her appreciation for the American system of justice, she said.
“It was a very brutal time for the native people, and it was an eye-opening experience for me,” she said.
Before coming to DOAH in 2011, Sellers pursued science and teaching.
She earned an undergraduate degree in biology from the University of Florida in 1976 and a graduate degree in education, and science education, also from UF, in 1982.
She taught science at her hometown high school in Fernandina Beach for six years. Focusing on topical issues, like endangered species loss, kept students engaged, she said.
“A lot of it is understanding things that will be relevant to them,” she said.
After earning a J.D. from Florida State University in 1988, she was quickly hired as an associate by Steel Hector & Davis. She rose to partner before leaving the firm in 1999.
U.S. Senior Judge Patricia Seitz, the first woman president of The Florida Bar, was with the firm at the time, Sellers said.
“She was a role model for many of us who were young female attorneys,” Sellers said.
The “large-firm experience” gave Sellers access to sophisticated clients, and a better appreciation of industry’s paramount need for “certainty” in regulation, she said.
“It really helped me become a well-rounded lawyer,” she said. “It gave me a real understanding of competing interests that have to be balanced when you’re dealing with regulatory issues.”
Sellers also devoted countless hours to Bar service during her 23-year career in private practice, including serving as chair of the Administrative Law Section from 2011-2012.
An adjunct professor at the University of Florida College of Law since 1999, Sellers helped her alma mater develop an administrative law curriculum.
Lawyers who appear before her would be wise to be well-prepared and to work with their opponents to resolve as many issues as possible, she said.
“Professionalism and preparation go a tremendously long way in having a successful outcome,” Sellers said.
