We generally don’t make recommendations in judicial races, but we are making an exception here because of how exceptional a candidate Lauren Alperstein is for Circuit Court in Broward County.

Alperstein was the Lawyer of the Year from Legal Aid Service of Broward in 2021 and has excelled at raising contributions during this campaign from ordinary lawyers and citizens, something you often don’t see in judicial races.

Not only is Alperstein overwhelmingly qualified for this Circuit– she’s an accomplished attorney and Counsel at venerable national firm Boies, Schiller, and Flexner, LLP, her reputation as a practitioner is impeccable– she is also well-respected in the South Florida community for her charitable work and commitment to building a healthier, more empathetic Broward County.

A graduate of the University of Florida Levin College of Law, she will bring intellect to the bench combined with a passion for public service. As a practicing attorney, she has consistently given hundreds of hours of her time to pro bono work, including the representation of vulnerable women at little cost in contentious divorces. She has also served for many years a guardian ad litem for at-risk children, including in heartbreaking child abuse cases. As noted above, In 2021, she was recognized by Legal Aid Service of Broward as Attorney of the Year for her efforts at improving access to legal assistance for many of the community’s most vulnerable, underserved citizens.

As we’ve learned in the most difficult way over the past few months, there are a number of dangers to a society, both locally and nationally, when judges and courts privilege political ideology over following the law, and rule based on their activist impulses, rather than exercising restraint and respect for the courts as institutions that vanguard the rights guaranteed by citizenship and participatory democracy.

Alperstein will not legislate or promote personal politics from the bench. She’ll respect precedent and treat every lawyer and individual that comes before her without fear or favor, putting fairness and equality first. A doting mother and wife before she is a lawyer, she has long put her family and community first, and is actively involved with her children’s school, the Jewish Federation of Broward County, in addition to her service with the Executive Council of the Family Law Section of the Florida Bar.

Perhaps most vitally, if elected, she will bring empathy and intellect to a Broward County bench that has, over the past decade, seen too many of its jurists embroiled in controversies and embarrassing off-the-bench activities and incidents. She will conduct herself with integrity and her even-keeled temperament and kind personality will be a breath of fresh air on a Broward bench too often the subject of innuendo and infighting. She will put the law and citizens first, not personal ambition or politics.

This is precisely what we need on the bench, and at a time when judicial elections matter more than ever, electing Lauren Alperstein to the bench may matter more than any single judicial race this summer, which is why we have made this recommendation.