BENNETT H. BRUMMER
PUBLIC DEFENDER

Eleventh Judicial Circuit of Florida
(Miami-Dade County)
 

Bennett Brummer has dedicated his life to public service, especially to providing legal services for the poor. He was born in New York City, came to Miami in 1958 and graduated from the University of Miami Law School in 1965. He has been admitted to practice law in Florida, New York, and the federal courts.

His service career started early, serving two years with the Peace Corps in Venezuela where he became fluent in Spanish. Later, he developed his trial and appellate skills during a fellowship from the University of Pennsylvania. This fellowship brought him to the Legal Services of Greater Miami, where he attended to the legal needs of low income, multi-racial and multi-ethnic persons in Dade and Monroe Counties.

In 1971, Mr. Brummer joined the Dade County Public Defender's Office as an Assistant Public Defender in the Appellate Division. Over the next five years, he was promoted to Chief of the Appellate Division and later to Executive Assistant to the Public Defender. In 1976, Bennett Brummer was elected Dade County’s Public Defender, and in November 2004 he was re-elected to his eighth consecutive term.

As Public Defender, he is responsible for an office employing approximately 400 people, including 200 attorneys, who handle about 100,000 cases per year. His work is recognized nationally and internationally. Various governments and defender organizations across the United States and Latin America have relied upon his expertise in court and defender management and office technology.

In addition to his duties at the Public Defender's Office, Mr. Brummer has served as a part-time instructor at the University of Miami School of Law. At the state level, he has been elected by his colleagues to serve three terms as president of the bi-partisan, Florida Public Defender Association. The Florida Supreme Court appointed him to the Judicial Management Council and he was appointed by Governors Chiles, Graham and Askew to various state level criminal justice councils and commissions. At the national level, he served six years on the board of directors of the National Legal Aid and Defender Association and served on an American Bar Association Task Force that wrote professional standards for criminal defense attorneys.

Among numerous honors, in 2002 the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Florida and The Florida Bar’s Criminal Justice Section bestowed their highest awards upon Bennett Brummer. Most recently he was awarded a Lifetime Achievement award from the Association for Retarded Citizens of South Florida, and from Florida’s Children First! he was honored with an award for Miami-Dade County’s Outstanding Child Advocates.

The Miami Herald has described Bennett Brummer as an “intelligent, cultivated and thoughtful public servant,” who “stick[s] up for those who can’t stick up for themselves.”

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