Careers & Internships

Current Job Openings

Handling more than 75,000 cases each year requires recruiting, training and retaining a multidisciplinary team with a wide range of professional skills, including attorneys, investigators, mitigation specialists, secretaries, and paralegals.

Learn more about our current job openings and opportunities.

Attorneys

Nationally recognized, the Miami-Dade Public Defender’s Office enables its attorneys to fulfill their potential.

Support Staff

Join a team of skilled professionals and contribute to the high-quality representation provided to our clients.

Internships & Pro Bono

The application deadline for Summer internships (CLIs and non-CLIs) is March 15 for Fall, it is July 15; for Spring, it is November 1. No applications will be accepted late.

A History of Excellence

From a staff of just 16 attorneys in 1971, the Miami-Dade Public Defender’s Office has expanded into the largest constitutional defense law firm in the state of Florida, with many of its alumni joining the judiciary.

In the Judiciary

Yvonne Colodny
Rita Cuervo
(Assoc. Administrative Judge)
Ivonne Cuesta
(Deputy Chief Judge)
Robin Faber
Rosa C. Figarola
Diana Gonzalez-Whyte
Ayana Harris
Kevin Hellmann
Luise Krieger-Martin
Steve Leifman
Yery Marrero
Oscar Rodriguez-Fonts
Mavel Ruiz
Migna Sanchez-Llorens
Nushin Sayfie
(Former Chief Judge)
Fred Seraphin
Lourdes Simon
(Administrative Judge)
William Thomas
Lisa Walsh

Awards & Honors

Thomson Reuters, SYNERGY Legal Innovator of the Year (public sector) 2025, Honored for being the first U.S. government agency to adopt the CoCounsel AI legal assistant. Recognized for integrating AI into daily workflows, including deposition preparation, records summaries, and case analysis.

American Business Awards Gold Stevie Award in the Achievement in Corporate Social Responsibility category (2024), for “Empowering Women in Recovery.” Honored for creating a partnership with the Agape Network, Inc., a nonprofit agency that provides holistic behavioral health, primary care, and family support services to women in recovery. He established a remote call center for the Public Defender’s Office that provides Agape participants a living wage and benefits while they are in treatment and working full time.

The National Legal Aid and Defender Association and the American Bar Association’s Standing Committee on Legal Aid and Indigent Defendants, the Clara Shortridge Foltz Award (2008) — for "the most outstanding public defender program in the country."

The Florida Bar, Public Interest Law Section's Legal Needs of Children Committee, the Hugh S. Glickstein Award for Child Advocacy (2008) — to "the Juvenile Division of the Miami-Dade County Public Defender's for its work on behalf of Florida's children."