TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – The Honorable Chief Justice Peggy Quince, of the Florida Supreme Court will deliver the keynote address at the annual Florida A&M University (FAMU) Black History Convocation.
The convocation is scheduled for Friday, February 20, 2009, at Jake Gaither Gymnasium from 10:10 a.m. to 12: 10 p.m., and classes will be suspended.
Quince is the first African American and third woman to serve in this capacity on the Florida Supreme Court.
About Justice Quince
Justice Quince 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. While a law student. she was active in Phi Alpha Delta law fraternity and the Black American Law Students Association. In 1999, she received an honorary doctor of laws degree from the Stetson University College of Law. In 2004, she received an honorary doctor of laws degree from St. Thomas University School of Law.
Justice Quince began her legal career in Washington, D.C. as a hearing officer with the Rental Accommodations Office administering that city's new rent control law. In 1977, she entered private practice in Norfolk, Va., with special emphasis in real estate and domestic relations.
She moved to Florida in 1978 and opened a law office in Bradenton, where she practiced general civil law until 1980. In February 1980, Justice Quince began her tenure with the Attorney General's Office, Criminal Division. As an assistant attorney general, she handled numerous appeals in the Second District Court of Appeal; the Florida Supreme Court, including death penalty cases; the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals; and the United States Supreme Court. Her thirteen and a half year tenure at that office included five years as the Tampa Bureau Chief. Additionally, three years were spent handling death penalty cases exclusively on direct appeal and in post-conviction proceedings.
Presently, Justice Quince is on the executive counsel of the Appellate Section of the Florida Bar and is the Supreme Court liaison to the Workers' Compensation Committee, the Judicial Ethics Advisory Committee, and the Supreme Court's Family Court Steering Committee. She has lectured at a number of Continuing Legal Education programs on issues involving search and seizure, probation and parole, use of peremptory challenges, post-conviction relief, professionalism and ethics, and the independence of the judiciary.
In 1993, Justice Quince became the first African-American female to be appointed to one of the district courts of appeal with her appointment by Governor Lawton Chiles to the Second District Court of Appeal to a term effective January 4, 1994. She was retained in office by the electorate in November 1996. On December 8, 1998, Justice Quince was appointed by the late Governor Lawton Chiles and Governor-elect Jeb Bush to the Florida Supreme Court.
Justice Quince is a member of the Florida Bar, Virginia State Bar, the National Bar Association, the Tallahassee Women Lawyers, and the William H. Stafford Inn of Court. She is an active member of the Government Lawyers Section, the Criminal Law Section, and the Equal Opportunity Section of the Florida Bar.
Justice Quince is a member of New Hope Missionary Baptist Church. Her civic and community activities include membership in Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc., Jack and Jill of America, Inc., the Urban League, the NAACP, and The Links, Inc.
Justice Quince was born in Norfolk, Va., in 1948. She is married to Fred L. Buckine, attorney at law, and they have two daughters, Peggy LaVerne, a graduate of FAMU, and Laura LaVerne, a graduate of the University of Central Florida.
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