Announcements
On Friday, May 18, 2018 Judge Andrea Ruth Gundersen and Judge Michele Towbin Singer hosted their 8th Annual Courthouse Tour for the Plantation Seminole Middle School DECAL students.
This year, 122 students attended. A special thank you to the members of the Broward County Bar Association for participating as attorney volunteers.
In recognition of “making a difference” in the lives of juvenile offenders in the court system, Judge Kenneth Gillespie and Judge Elijah Williams were each honored at the Word of the Living God Ministries Annual Holy Convocation on May 14, 2018.
Congratulations to both judges!
The Seventeenth Circuit congratulates Judge Raag Singhal who last week was appointed Associate Dean of the School of Advanced Judicial Studies for the State of Florida.
We know Judge Singhal will serve the school with professionalism and help to further education for our judges statewide.
Judge Florence Barner spent a morning last week at Plantation Elementary school, teaching second and third graders about problem solving and giving back. She has donated nearly 100 piggy banks to students to help teach them about saving for school.
Judge Robert F. Diaz held a pre-Florida Bar exam prep class with law students from St. Thomas, Nova, and FIU Law Schools, the evening of May 16, 2018. Former law students he mentored through the bar exam and who are now lawyers came to pay it forward and give advice to the July Bar exam takers.
The St.Thomas More Society of South Florida held its 29th annual Red Mass reception and dinner on Tuesday, May 15. Several county and circuit judges attended, and are pictured here with Archbishop Thomas Wenski.
Though she will stay long enough to finish up some cases and proceedings, Judge Lisa Porter is retiring from the circuit court bench. A retirement party was hosted last week so her co-workers could say so long to her, and her judicial assistant Neilson Brown who is also moving on after having just graduated law school. Judge Porter has been on the Seventeenth Circuit bench for 10 years, and was a prosecutor prior to that.
The Seventeenth Circuit will miss them both!
The Central courthouse in downtown Fort Lauderdale hosted a Judicial Campaign Conduct Forum on Friday, May 11, 2018 for judicial candidates seeking contested seats. Approximately 40 people, including sitting judges, judicial candidates and members of the public, were in attendance. The forums are held every election year in order to help emphasize the importance of conducting campaigns in compliance with the myriad laws and rules governing judicial elections. Held across the state, the forums are sponsored by the Florida Supreme Court and the Florida Bar Board of Governors and supported by the state’s trial court chief judges and the court’s Judicial Ethics Advisory Committee.
Judge Deborah Carpenter-Toye was chosen as one of South Florida Business Journal’s Top 25 Most Influential Business Women in South Florida, 2018. She accepted the award on May 11, at an event honoring the leadership and contributions the women have made to the South Florida community.
Read the article here: South Florida Business Journal 2018 Influential Business Women
Congratulations Judge Carpenter-Toye, for all of your contributions in the community!
