Mark Your Calendars: The Second Annual Pro-Bono Recognition Ceremony in the Sixth Judicial Circuit will take place on April 15, 2016 at 3:00 p.m. at Courtroom 1, Pinellas County Justice Center, 14250 49th Street, North Clearwater, Florida 33762. This ceremony is to honor those who serve their community. Justice Peggy Quince will be speaking at this ceremony. 

Justice Peggy A. Quince was born in Norfolk, Virginia, in 1948. She graduated in 1970 from Howard University with a B.S. Degree in Zoology; she received her J.D. Degree from the Catholic University of America in 1975. She practiced general civil law in Virginia and Florida from 1975 to 1980 in the areas of domestic relations, real estate, and criminal law. In 1980 she began her 13 year tenure in the Criminal Division of the Florida Attorney General’s office; she served as the Tampa Bureau Chief for five years exclusively handled death penalty appeals and post-conviction matters exclusively for three years. She argued numerous cases before the Virginia Supreme Court, the Florida Second District Court of Appeal, the Florida Supreme Court and the Federal Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals.

In 1993, Justice Quince was appointed to the Second District Court of Appeals making her the first African American woman to serve on a Florida appellate court. She became the first African American woman to head any branch of Florida government when she became Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Florida in 2008. As one of the seven justices serving on the State Supreme Court, Justice Quince has many responsibilities that ultimately affect the lives of over 16 million Floridians.