A prominent Black lawyer in Coral Gables nominated as federal judge in South Florida

A prominent Black lawyer was passed over for three federal judicial vacancies in South Florida, but on Wednesday Detra Shaw-Wilder finally got the nod from the president for a fourth opening on the bench.

Shaw-Wilder, an attorney with the Kozyak Tropin & Throckmorton law firm in Coral Gables since 1994, was formally nominated for a federal judgeship in Miami by President Joe Biden.

Shaw-Wilder, 54, who received her law degree from the University of Miami School of Law and her bachelor’s degree from the University of Florida, served as managing partner of the firm and is currently its general counsel. The high-profile commercial law firm was involved in securing a settlement for the families of victims killed in the Surfside condo building collapse in June 2021.

“We couldn’t be prouder of Detra Shaw-Wilder,” said one of the law firm’s name partners, Harley Tropin. “A great moment for her and the legal community.”

Shaw-Wilder had been on a short list of candidates recommended by a federal judicial nominating commission that was picked by Sen. Marco Rubio, a Miami Republican. However, she was overlooked during the previous round of Biden nominations for federal judgeships in South Florida — to the disappointment of Black leaders in the region. On Wednesday, Shaw-Wilder’s most vocal advocate in the Black community, U.S. Rep. Frederica Wilson, a Democrat, praised her nomination, saying she “embodies the qualities essential to judicial excellence: integrity, legal acumen, and unwavering intellectual rigor.”

In late February, the U.S. Senate confirmed three candidates — all former U.S. prosecutors — as federal judges in the Southern District of Florida.

Jacqueline Becerra, who grew up in Hialeah, was confirmed by a 56-40 vote. A graduate of the University of Miami and Yale University Law School, Becerra was a magistrate judge in Miami and previously worked as a prosecutor in the U.S. attorney’s office and as a partner with the Greenberg Traurig law firm.

The Senate also confirmed David Leibowitz, who served in the U.S. attorney’s office in Manhattan before working as general counsel for his uncle’s auto empire, Braman Motors, based in Miami. The vote was 64-33.

Melissa Damian, who worked in the U.S. attorney’s office before serving as a U.S. magistrate judge in Miami, was also confirmed by a 77-20 vote. Damian, a graduate of Princeton University and UM law school, clerked early in her career for former U.S. District Judge Ursula Ungaro, who championed her bid for the federal bench.

The addition of the three new federal judges is expected to help address a demanding caseload in the Southern District of Florida, where each judge oversees an average of 1,085 criminal and civil cases a year — two and a half times the national average, according to the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts.

Florida delay

All three South Florida candidates were nominated by Biden in November, late into his first term, the result of his Democratic administration pushing a cross-section of judicial nominees in states with two Democratic senators or a Democratic senator and a Republican senator.

In Florida, Biden took longer than usual because of the formidable influence of two GOP senators, Rubio in Miami and Rick Scott in Tampa, according to judicial experts.

As senators, they have the power to back or block judicial nominees in the confirmation process. In Rubio’s case, the senior senator backed the nomination of Leibowitz, thanks in part to politics. His uncle, Norman Braman, donated between $5 million and $10 million to Rubio’s presidential campaign in 2016, records show.

Becerra and Damian served as U.S. magistrate judges in South Florida, a venue known for handling prominent cases, including Bush v. Gore, the Elián González saga and the ongoing prosecution of Donald Trump over his handling of classified documents. Becerra was also overseeing a case involving the assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse.

Black leaders upset

Biden’s picks of Becerra, Leibowitz and Damian — all with Ivy League credentials — left leaders in the Black community disappointed with his decision not to select one of the Black candidates for the three federal judicial openings in South Florida. Among them: a spot created in January 2023 with the death of U.S. District Judge Marcia Cooke in Miami, the first Black woman appointed to the federal bench in Florida.

However, the recent transfer of U.S. District Judge Robert Scola to senior status created a fourth vacancy in Miami that legal experts predicted would be filled by a Black candidate, including one who was on the short list of nominees recommended by both GOP and Democratic nomination panels in South Florida. The leading candidate to fill Scola’s vacancy was Shaw-Wilder.

Rep. Wilson, a Black woman and Democratic Congress member who represents Miami Gardens, Miami Beach and parts of southern Broward County, said in a statement in November that she was “disappointed” by Biden’s decision not to nominate a Black woman to fill Cooke’s seat.

But on Wednesday, she applauded the president’s decision to choose Shaw-Wilder.

“Today, I stand with immense pride — not solely as a member of Congress witnessing a constituent’s remarkable journey, but also as a Black woman, deeply touched on a personal level,” Wilson said in a statement. “Over two years ago, the late U.S. District Court Judge Marcia Cooke asked me to advocate for the nomination of a Black woman to succeed her as she contemplated her legacy following a cancer diagnosis. Her passing, exactly one year later, filled her words with the weight of a final plea, a resounding call to action to embrace diversity.”

Shaw-Wilder’s “nomination marks the realization of Judge Cooke’s vision and reinforces our collective commitment to diversity on the bench.”

In 2022, Biden nominated the first Black woman to the U.S. Supreme Court, picking Ketanji Brown Jackson, who grew up in Miami, as a Supreme Court justice.

Also in late February, the Senate confirmed a Black magistrate judge, Julie Sneed, as a federal judge in the Middle District of Florida, which includes Orlando. The vote was 54-44.