Monthly Spotlights
Monthly Spotlight
April 2024
Judge Denise Anne Marks Lane was appointed as an Immigration Judge in September 1994. She received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Howard University in 1983, and a Juris Doctorate from Georgetown University Law Center in 1986. From 1989 to 1994, Judge Lane served as a staff attorney with the Board of Immigration Appeals, Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR), in Falls Church, VA, before being appointed as an Immigration Judge. From 1987 to 1989, she worked as a trial attorney for the former Immigration and Naturalization Service in New York. Judge Lane also served as a judicial law clerk, Office of the Chief Immigration Judge, EOIR, from 1986 to 1987. She is a member of the Pennsylvania Bar.
Monthly Spotlight
March 2024
Judge Maxine Cheesman is the first Black woman to be elected judge in Palm Beach County, without first being appointed. Judge Cheesman was born and raised in Kingston, Jamaica. She earned a BS in Chemistry, with first-class honors, from the University of West Indies. Thereafter Judge Cheesman earned an MS in organic chemistry from the University of Miami. She worked as a scientist and director with the South Florida Water Management District for over Fifteen Years. She then worked as a chemist and hydrogeologist with the Miami-Dade County Department of Environmental Resources Management for Twelve Years.
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In 2001, while still working full-time at the District, Judge Cheesman enrolled in law school at Nova Southeastern University, from which she graduated cum laude in 2004. Over the course of her legal career, Judge Cheesman served as a founding partner at the Law Offices of Cheesman & Varner, P.A. and managed her own private solo practice. During her tenure in private practice, Judge Cheesman specialized in real property, fair housing, bankruptcy, foreclosure, probate, employment, family, construction, and contract law.
Monthly Spotlight
February 2024
Judge Michelle Delancy is the first Black woman non-incumbent elected to Miami-Dade Circuit Court without opposition. Judge Delancy is first-generation Jamaican American and was raised in Miami by her Jamaican parents. She earned a bachelor’s degree from Georgetown University in 1992 and her Juris Doctor from the University of Miami in 1995. Prior to her judgeship, Judge Delancy was the managing partner at Delancy Law, P.A. and specialized in cases dealing with commercial, criminal and administrative litigation.
She also served as an adjunct law professor at the Miami-Dade College Law Center. She cares deeply about the interests of children and volunteered her time as a Guardian ad Litem. Despite an exceptionally busy legal career, she had time to marry and has six children of her own.
Monthly Spotlight
January 2024
Judge Jackie Powell, Broward County’s First Female Jamaican-American
Judge, hails from East Kingston. She currently serves as a County Court Judge in the civil division. Judge Powell earned a bachelor’s degree in English from Florida Atlantic University and Juris Doctorate degree from Nova Southeastern Law Center.
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Prior to law school, Judge Powell worked as a paralegal with a local law
firm. At that time, she had two minor children but successfully attended law
school full time while continuing to work part-time. Judge Powell has been a
member of the Florida Bar for over 18 years. She practiced with the Broward
County Public Defender’s Office, where she served as a division attorney and later as a supervising attorney. She represented clients in misdemeanor, domestic violence, and felony cases. After leaving the Public Defender’s Office, Judge Powell joined a private civil firm where she served as a supervising litigation attorney representing major financial institutions. She subsequently started her own firm representing clients in family law matters including divorce, child support, modification, and paternity cases as well as criminal defense cases.