Justice Labarga to keynote Criminal Law Update 2023 at convention
Justice Labarga
Florida Supreme Court Justice Jorge Labarga will deliver a keynote address to the Criminal Law Section’s “Criminal Law Update 2023,” on Thursday, June 22, at the Annual Florida Bar Convention in Boca Raton.
Appointed to the Supreme Court in 2009 by Gov. Charlie Crist, Labarga has agreed to share his “very personal story” and “how things in Florida criminal justice ‘look’ from where he sits now.”
Labarga will deliver his remarks from 9:10 a.m.to 9:30 a.m., following an introduction by 13th Circuit Judge Samantha L. Ward, the Criminal Law Section chair.
Born in Cuba in 1952, Labarga was 11 when he arrived in South Florida. In 2014, he became Florida’s first Cuban-American chief justice.
A 1979 University of Florida law school graduate, Labarga began his legal career the same year as an assistant public defender in Palm Beach County.
After stints as a prosecutor and in private practice, Labarga was appointed a 15th Judicial Circuit judge in 1996. He served on the Fourth District Court of Appeal before being elevated to the Supreme Court.
Later in the day, Labarga will be followed by a trailblazing former colleague.
From 1 p.m. to 1:45 p.m., former Supreme Court Justice Peggy A. Quince, the first African-American woman to serve as chief justice, will deliver a feature presentation, “Democracy at Peril.”
Quince served on Florida’s highest court from 1998 until her retirement in 2019. A Virginia native, Quince received her J.D. from the Catholic University of America in 1975.
After beginning her legal career in Washington, D.C., Quince moved to Florida in 1978 and established a private practice in Bradenton. In 1980, she became an assistant attorney general in the criminal division, where she worked for more than a decade.
In 1993, she became the first American-American woman appointed to a Florida district court of appeal. She served in the Second DCA until 1998, when Gov. Lawton Chiles and Gov. Jeb Bush jointly appointed her to the Supreme Court.
The daylong lecture series will feature a case law update and expert presentations on immigration and DUI law.
From 2:35 p.m. to 3:25 p.m., Miami-Dade County Judge Steven Leifman will deliver a spotlight presentation, “Florida Criminal Justice Mental Health Update.”
The lecture series culminates with a roundtable discussion, “Wisdom of the Ages: A Blunt Justice Discussion About What’s Going on in Florida and What We Are Going to do About it,” from 3:40 p.m. to 4:55 p.m.
Moderated by former Florida Bar President Hank Coxe, panelists include Quince, Third District Court of Appeal Judge Kevin Emas, 15th Judicial Circuit Public Defender Carey S. Haughwout, and veteran Miami criminal attorney Roy Black.
