The City of Tamarac has three residents that are running for Judicial seats on August 14. All three of them call Tamarac their home and they each bring to the table many years of legal experience.
Fortunately, all of them are candidates for three open seats on the bench and no one is running against another. Richard Sachs is running for Broward Country Court, Seat 5, IIene Lieberman for County Court, Group 6 and Julie Shapiro-Harris is a candidate for Circuit Court, Group Seat 19.
Tamarac resident Richard Sachs has been a litigation attorney for 18 years. He has handled cases in more than a dozen areas of law. Sachs is also a Florida Supreme Court qualified arbitrator and a Florida Supreme Court certified civil mediator in both circuit and county courts where he tries to bring parties together to achieve creative win-win solutions to help them avoid the stress and cost of litigation.
He believes he will be able to “hit the ground running” if elected because he has this experience.
A Broward County resident since 1975, he graduated from Plantation High School while working Saturday mornings at a shopping plaza pulling weeds and picking up garbage, Saturday nights as a busboy, and other nights working at Walgreens.
While attending college at the University of Florida, Sachs worked in the financial aid office, and as a videographer for graduate level engineering courses. Every school break he returned to Fort Lauderdale and worked at Walgreens while continuing to support himself at school.
Sachs graduated from Nova Southeastern University in the top 10 percent of his class. He was able to achieve this while assisting one of his professors publish casebooks on Criminal Law and Evidence, clerking at a local law firm, and working weekends as a waiter.
Sachs says these experiences have provided him with an understanding of our community that many attorneys may never have. He has continued to understand our community through volunteerism where he has served on the Board of Directors for the Boys and Girls Club, the JCC, the Advisory Council for the United Way, and performed pro bono work.
Sachs believes he is qualified, not just based on the diversity of his legal knowledge, but also based on his understanding of every possible side of a case: as an attorney representing both plaintiffs and defendants, as a mediator helping to bring all sides together, and as an arbitrator helping to bring fairness and understanding to the entire process.
Along with his legal experience, Sachs says that as a judge, especially a judge running for the “People’s Court,” they must have an understanding and commitment to the community.
Sachs says he has that understanding and commitment. www.backsachs.com
Running for Broward County Court Judge, Seat 6, residents may already be familiar with Ilene Lieberman’s name. She is a Broward County Commissioner for District One, and has held her seat since 1996 during which she has served as both Vice-Mayor and Mayor of Broward County. Before that, she served as Mayor of Lauderhill for eight years.
As a graduate of Nova Southeastern University Shepard Broad Law Center in 1989, Lieberman has had extensive legal knowledge that has been applied through her experience as a public servant.
As a Commissioner for Broward County, Lieberman says that she has proven to be able to follow complex legal arguments and be a clear communicator. She also says she has had the courage and independence to make decisions based on the facts and the law, even if those decisions may be unpopular with some. As a judge, she will continue to do this.
Lieberman has been an attorney in Broward County for 22 years. She has been Of Counsel to the Law Office of Stuart Michelson since 1996. Lieberman has practiced before the Florida Commission on Ethics and the Florida Elections Commission in Tallahassee, handled probate, trust, guardianship, land use, commercial transactions and has a general civil practice. She also taught local government law at Nova Southeastern Shepard Broad Law Center.??She has also contributed research and writing on countless appellate matters, one of which was a brief for the prevailing party in a Fourth District Court of Appeals case wherein they issued an opinion, which was the first in over 100 years of Florida jurisprudence construing Florida’s Valued Policy Law in a case involving both windstorm and flood damage.
Currently, she is involved in one of the largest Probate matters ever heard in the Broward County Circuit Court.
Lieberman is a not only a longtime resident, but she is a friend to her community here in Tamarac, and is always accessible to her neighbors. Whenever residents need help, Lieberman is always there to take their calls or their emails. She always has a rule about answering her emails promptly and knows how to “cut to the chase” and find the right person in Broward County government to solve the problem. Ileneliebermanforjudge.com
Julie Shapiro-Harris is running for Broward County Circuit Court, Seat 19, and currently works as a staff attorney for the Broward County Clerk of Court Domestic Violence Unit where she is part of a division that seeks to protect victims of domestic violence. She was profiled by Tamarac Talk last December when she announced she would be running for Circuit Court Judge seat 19.
Born and raised in South Florida, Shapiro-Harris graduated from Emory University with a B.A. in Psychology and Music and received a Masters in Social Work from Florida State University.
Shapiro-Harris chose to pursue a career in law for the same reason she chose to become a social worker, to help others. She says that the difference as an attorney is she was empowered to be a strong advocate as well.
She graduated from St. Thomas School of Law in 1995 and was admitted to the Florida Bar the same year. In her current position as Staff attorney for the Clerk of Court Domestic Violence Unit, she seeks to protect victims of domestic violence.
Shapiro-Harris has been living in Tamarac for the past 10 years. She is a Member of Kiwanis which is an international service organization where she regularly engages in projects to better the community. She also enjoys music and reading in her spare time.
Shapiro-Harris says that her reason for seeking the Judgeship is to continue her service to the people of Broward County. She says she is the best candidate for the position because of her respect for the law and for the fairness that application of the law requires. julieforjudge2012.com
Editor’s note: Shapiro-Harris is currently one of our business card advertisers of this site. You will find her listing under Local Businesses. Lieberman’s campaign has contracted our parent company Talk Media Inc. for media work.