Venezuela RPCV Bennett Brummer was born in New York City, and came to Miami in 1958
BENNETT H. BRUMMER
PUBLIC DEFENDER
ELEVENTH JUDICIAL CIRCUIT OF FLORIDA
(MIAMI-DADE COUNTY)
Bennett Brummer was born in New York City, and came to Miami in 1958. He graduated from the University of Miami Law School in 1965. He has been admitted to practice law in Florida, New York, and the federal courts.
Bennett Brummer served for two years with the Peace Corps in Venezuela. He then received a Reginald Heber Smith Fellowship from the University of Pennsylvania to work with Legal Services of Greater Miami. He worked at Legal Services for about three years.
In 1971, Mr. Brummer joined the staff of the Dade County Public Defender's Office as an Assistant Public Defender in the Appellate Division. Over the next five years, he became the Chief of the Appellate Division and an Executive Assistant to the Public Defender.
Mr. Brummer was first elected Dade County Public Defender in 1976 and has since been re-elected every four years. He was elected to his seventh consecutive term in July 2000. He is responsible for an office employing approximately 400 people, including 200 attorneys, who handle 90,000 cases per year. In addition to his duties at the Public Defender's Office, Mr. Brummer has served as a part-time instructor at the University of Miami School of Law. Various governments and defender organizations across the United States and Latin America have relied upon his expertise in court and defender management and office technology.
Mr. Brummer has served three terms as president of the Florida Public Defender Association. The Florida Supreme Court appointed him to the Judicial Management Council. He was appointed by Governors Chiles, Graham and Askew to various state level criminal justice councils and commissions. At the national level, he served six years on the board of directors of the National Legal Aid and Defender Association and served on an ABA Task Force that wrote professional standards for criminal defense attorneys. In 2002, the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Florida and The Florida Bar’s Criminal Justice Section bestowed their highest awards upon Bennett Brummer.
The Miami Herald has described Bennett Brummer as an “intelligent, cultivated and thoughtful public servant,” who “stick[s] up for those who can’t stick up for themselves.”
