[PHOTOGRAPH: Justice Barbara J. Pariente]

Justice Barbara J. Pariente was named the seventy-seventh Justice of the Court on December 10, 1997, by Governor Lawton Chiles. Before her appointment, she served on the Fourth District Court of Appeal since September 1993, writing more than 200 opinions in her four-year tenure. While on the District Court, she also served on the Board of Directors of The Florida Bar Foundation and was selected by the Chief Justice to participate in the Twenty-First Century Justice Conference, a forum for visioning the court system's future in the next century.

In 1970 Justice Pariente graduated from Boston University with high honors, including the Scarlet Key. She then attended George Washington University where in 1973 she graduated fifth in her class, earning highest honors and membership in the Order of the Coif. She was admitted to The Florida Bar that same year and began working as law clerk to U.S. District Court Judge Norman C. Roettger, Jr., of the Southern District of Florida.

In 1975 she joined the law firm of Cone Wagner Nugent as a partner, leaving in 1983 to become a partner in the law firm Pariente & Silber, P.A. In eighteen years of private practice Justice Pariente specialized in civil trial litigation. She was recognized as a Board Certified Civil Trial Lawyer by The Florida Bar in 1983, and in 1986 was board certified by The National Board of Trial Advocacy. Martindale-Hubble awarded her an AV rating in 1988.

During her years as an attorney, Justice Pariente served on a number of law-related organizations. She was a member of the Fifteenth Judicial Circuit Grievance Committee from 1989 to 1992, chairing it during her last two years. She was a founding member and master of the Palm Beach County Chapter of the American Inns of Court, an organization devoted to the highest ethical standard of the profession based on the English model. From 1981 to 1987 Justice Pariente served on the Florida Bar Civil Rules Committee and also as a member of the Board of Directors of the Academy of Florida Trial Lawyers. With the Academy she also chaired its Speakers' Bureau Program from 1984 to 1987, chaired its Outreach Committee from 1991 to 1992, and co-chaired its Workhorse Seminar from 1991 to 1992.

From 1980 to 1982 she was Vice-Chair of the Professional Research & Development Department of the Association of Trial Lawyers of America. Later she chaired the Association's Commercial Litigation Section from 1984 to 1985 and its Women's Trial Lawyer Caucus from 1986 to 1987. She served on the Association's Ethics Committee from 1989 to 1990 and its Convention Planning Committee from 1992 to 1993.

Justice Pariente was a member of the Fifteenth Judicial Circuit Nominating Commission from 1980 to 1984. From 1975 to 1982 she was a member of the Board of Directors of the Legal Aid Society of Palm Beach County. She also was a member of the Palm Beach County Bar Association, chairing its Civil Practice Committee from 1979 to 1981 and its First Annual Bench Bar Conference in 1980.

Based on her longstanding commitment to children, Justice Pariente has served as a mentor in Take Stock in Children, a program for helping economically disadvantaged college students. In 1997 she also worked with the Palm Beach County Youth Court program, and in 1993 with the Cities in Schools mentoring program. Other civic activities have included work with Temple Judea, the Palm Beach County Sephardi Federation, the Jewish Community Center, Ballet Florida, and the Palm Beach County Commission on the Status of Women.

Justice Pariente was recipient of the 1993 Legal Aid Society Civil Litigation Pro Bono Award and in 1987 the Palm Beach County Bar Association's Award for Distinguished Service to the Arts. Her publications include a contribution to Women Trial Lawyers: How They Succeed in Practice and in the Courtroom (Prentice-Hall 1987), and a professional article on The Prostitution of the Criminal Law, American Criminal Law Review, Winter 1972 (Georgetown University). She presently is a member of The Florida Bar and its Appellate Practice Section, the American Bar Association, the National Association for Women Judges, and the Florida Association for Women Lawyers.



Office Information

If you want to talk to the Justice about your legal case or about a Court opinion, please follow this link now. Otherwise Justice Pariente's office may be reached in Tallahassee by phone at (904) 488-8421. The judicial assistant (secretary) in Justice Pariente's office is Pat Madden. The mailing address is 500 South Duval Street, Tallahassee FL 32399-1925. The public E-Mail address of the Justices is:

supremecourt@mail.flcourts.org