JUSTICE PROFILE
By Sean M. Cleary, Esq. *
JUDGE ELLEN LEESFIELD
By Sean M. Cleary, Esq. *
JUDGE ELLEN LEESFIELD
She’s back . . . And with more trial experience than ever! Judge Ellen Leesfield, recipient of the Miami-Dade County Justice Association’s Justice Steve Levine Award in 2007, is returning to the Civil Division after a quick year in the Criminal Division (her old home base) having tried more than two dozen cases in the past year.
In January, Judge Leesfield returns to the civil bench; to the “adventures” of the diverse civil trials and issues she came to love during her previous general jurisdiction assignment. “Although I love the heart and soul of the criminal trial, the lure of civil is the diversity of topics,” said Judge Leesfield. She embraces the variety offered by the general jurisdiction bench, and the fact that a new case may cause her to study an area of law, medicine or business she might not previously have explored. “I love good lawyers in court, and I’m not afraid to ask questions,” she said. “I’m willing to work hard and study the problem. Bring it on,” the judge said.
Judge Leesfield was born in New York and raised mostly in Hollywood, Florida; her path to the bench was neither direct nor easy. In her early teens, Judge Leesfield worked as a maid at a local hotel to earn enough money to buy clothes and shoes for school. She later worked her way through college with scholarships (one from her home town), loans, work study and waitressing work, which Judge Leesfield did during every summer vacation.
In high school, Judge Leesfield’s inspiration and first mentor was her English teacher. Thus, it is no surprise that her first graduate stop on the way to the law was teaching high school English. “The classroom was great preparation for the courtroom and the bench,” the judge said. “If you think about it, as a trial lawyer, you are teaching the judge or jury your theory of the case. You use many of the senses, certainly more than just words, to teach. I think teaching tough kids to learn made me a better trial lawyer. “In the courtroom, as in the classroom, a judge needs to be fair to everyone, no favorites, while pleasantly controlling things,” she said.
While a lawyer, Judge Leesfield’s practice was predominately a federal criminal practice, including white collar crime and civil fraud cases. During her years in practice with Elizabeth Dufresne, she also handled age, race and sex discrimination cases as well as administrative law. “Thank goodness for my time with Elizabeth, where I learned the civil rules, and civil practice from a master,” said Judge Leesfield.
The majority of Judge Leesfield’s private practice was spent in trials balanced with appeals to both the Federal and State bench. She argued before the Eleventh Circuit Federal Appeals Court and was successful in State appeals before the Third District. She also published articles in various bar journals, including an article on the admissibility of expert testimony; her favorite topic.
Twelve years and over 60 trials later, the bench began to lure Judge Leesfield. “I began to feel less adversarial and more like being myself. By nature, I would rather resolve differences than fight,” said Judge Leesfield.
Most influential during her years in practice were “the giants of our judicial community like Judge Hoeveler, Judge Spellman and Judge Marcus, whom I ended up in trial before regularly. One learned so much by example. They made me want to be like them,” said Judge Leesfield. On the State bench, Judge Leesfield expresses admiration for Judge Fredericka Smith and Judge Joseph Farina for their calm and impartial demeanor.
Shortly after her appointment to the bench in September 1993, Judge Leesfield resurrected her love of teaching and resumed teaching to benefit the bench and the community. Over the years she has been an instructor at the Advanced College of Judicial Studies, teaching in the areas of experts, scientific evidence, and mental health. Currently, Judge Leesfield is both an adjunct professor at the University of Miami, teaching litigation skills, and she teaches trial skills at the Florida Judicial College, which trains all incoming Florida judges twice per year.
The Judge is a founder and former President of the Dade County Chapter of the Florida Association of Women Lawyers and also engineered the first FAWL Scholarship Fund Raiser. “Things have really taken off since then,” said Judge Leesfield. “We now have endowments; the first of which I encouraged my brother, Ira Leesfield, to establish for law scholarships. Since we were both scholarship students, it made sense,” she said.
Judge Leesfield has volunteered to speak at The Florida Bar’s “Bridge the Gap” seminar on professionalism, and many voluntary bar groups on a number of topics. In 1998, she was the recipient of the Community Service Award from the Dade County Psychological Association for her service to the mental health community. In 2002, she received the Gerald Kogan Judicial Distinction Award from the Florida Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, and in 2003, she received the Mattie Belle Davis Award from the Florida Association of Women Lawyers.
Judge Leesfield feels grateful to have the opportunity to be a judge and never takes this honor for granted. “In the end, I know I can never stop working hard; never stop listening or carefully consulting both sides and their written pleadings,” she said. “And I know I must stay calm, as Longfellow said, ‘even when all about you are losing their heads and blaming it on you.’”
Sean M. Cleary, is the president and owner of Sean M. Cleary, P.A., a trial law firm specializing in personal injury, defective products, and commercial litigation. To read past judicial profiles visit www.judicial-profiles.com.
