Ryan Nicol
Gov. Ron DeSantis is appointing a trio of new judges to the Miami-Dade County Court. The move comes after DeSantis elevated three judges from that court to the 11th Judicial Circuit Court of Florida in December.
The three new County Court judges are Carlos Gamez, Scott Janowitz and Jeffrey Kolokoff.
Gamez is from Coral Gables and works an Assistant City Attorney for the City of Miami. Gamez also served as an associate attorney with Perez and Rodriguez P.A.
He attended Ohio State University for his undergraduate degree before earning his law degree at the University of Miami School of Law.
Gamez will replace Judge Ramiro Areces, who was one of the Governor’s three appointments to the 11th Judicial Circuit Court in December.
Janowitz will replace Judge Christina DiRaimondo. Janowitz is from West Miami. He previously worked as an Assistant State Attorney in the 17th Judicial Circuit, and is now working as an attorney for Geyer, Fuxa, Tyler PLLC.
Janowitz earned his bachelor’s degree at Carnegie Mellon. Like Gamez, he went on to graduate from the University of Miami School of Law.
Kolokoff, meanwhile, will replace Judge Robert Watson. He has previous experience as an Assistant State Attorney in Miami-Dade. Kolokoff is currently a senior attorney at Beighley, Myrick, Udell and Lynne P.A.
The Miami Shores native received his bachelor’s degree from Bucknell University before earning his J.D. at Mercer University School of Law.
The Governor has been active in appointing judges in the region. Those December appointments to the 11th Judicial Circuit Court were joined by four separate appointments to the Miami-Dade County Court.
And just last week, DeSantis named Miami-Dade County Court Judge Lody Jean to a position on the 11th Circuit Court. That followed a similar elevation of Miami-Dade County Court Judge Zachary James to the same court. The Governor will name replacements for that duo at a later date.
