Jim Rosica
Editor’s note: This post was updated to reflect that the Judicial Nominating Commission has yet to finalize the short list of names it will send to the governor for consideration.
Alan Abramowitz, head of the state’s child-advocate program, also has been a prosecutor and a public defender in Florida’s courts.
Now he wants to add “judge” to his résumé, according to a Florida Bar notice on Wednesday.
Abramowitz, executive director of the Statewide Guardian Ad Litem (GAL) Office, has applied for an circuit judge opening in the 2nd Judicial Circuit.
The circuit is headquartered in Tallahassee and covers the north Florida counties of Franklin, Gadsden, Jefferson, Leon, Liberty and Wakulla.
He’s one of 17 applicants who will be considered by the circuit’s Judicial Nominating Commission to send to Gov. Rick Scott for a final pick.
“My path to a judgeship may be non-traditional but many of my skills, I believe, would make me a successful judge,” Abramowitz told FloridaPolitics.com.
Among those, he said, are patience, managing a large workload and “understanding that every day in court is an important day for those who have to be there.”
Guardians ad litem represent the interests of children in court proceedings, especially in divorce and juvenile dependency matters. A guardian also will be named if a child is involved in or witness to a crime.
Among their many duties, circuit judges may handle felonies, civil matters worth more than $15,000, juvenile and estate cases.
Abramowitz has tough competition for the post, including two veteran Tallahassee prosecutors.
Leon County Judge Ron Flury also is on the list. Abramowitz succeeded Flury’s wife, Theresa Flury, as GAL head when former Gov. Charlie Crist appointed him in December 2010. She left to lead the Boys and Girls Clubs of the Big Bend, but is now in private legal practice.
According to his official bio, Abramowitz previously was chief legal counsel for the Department of Children and Families’ Central Florida area.
He also served as assistant general counsel for the Florida Department of Juvenile Justice, and has been an assistant state attorney and assistant public defender in Florida.
Abramowitz “volunteered for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Kenya in 1994 and served in the Peace Corps in Thailand from 1990 to 1992,” his bio says.
He has a law degree from Florida State University, a master’s in public administration and sociology and a bachelor’s in psychology from Kansas State University, where he played football for the Kansas State Wildcats.
He and his wife, Jodi, have two children.
His brother, David Abramowitz, resigned last week as director of the Northeast Florida region for the Department of Children and Families. He did not explain his reason for leaving, but had been cleared by an internal investigation last year of creating a hostile work environment and engaging in gender discrimination.
