Passionate Public Service

As a reporter for the Jacksonville Journal covering a high-profile death penalty case, Nancy Daniels was drawn to criminal law. Although she thought journalism would be her life-long profession, Daniels applied to law school after her editor remarked that Daniels had a strong aptitude for legal issues.

While studying at the Florida State University College of Law, Daniels loved her classes in the area of criminal law and during her first legal job – clerking at the First District Court of Appeal – she gravitated to criminal cases.

Daniels’ passion for her practice area has fueled her service as public defender for the Second Judicial Circuit of Florida for 26 years. She was first elected to the office in 1990 and was re-elected for six additional terms. Daniels realized early in her first term that although she loved trying criminal cases and getting the “best possible result” for her clients, that could not be her first priority. 

“When I first started, I labored under the misconception that I could do both substantial amounts of case work and the management of the office,” said Daniels, who served for six years as an assistant public defender in the same office she now runs. “I quickly learned that I couldn’t do both responsibly, so I focused on the administrative responsibilities.” 

Although she is not often in the courtroom defending clients, Daniels has been able to help her constituents by teaching other attorneys how to get the best results for their clients.

“I have been fortunate to have the opportunity to hire many very talented and hard-working lawyers over my 26 years and to work with colleagues that are absolutely top-notch, including a lot from Florida State.” In addition to employing graduates of the College of Law, multiple law students work at the Public Defender’s Office each semester through FSU’s externship program.

Daniels also has made a huge impact through programs she helped create that allow many people to obtain much needed treatment for a variety of issues. She was instrumental in the creation of juvenile drug courts, adult drug courts and a mental health court. Most recently, Daniels was part of a team that implemented a veterans’ court.

In addition, much of Daniels’ work for the past two-plus decades has revolved around legislative advocacy. From her downtown Tallahassee office, Daniels has a clear view of the Florida Capitol.

“I review all of the substantive bills that deal with criminal practice, and also bills dealing with mental health issues and juvenile issues,” said Daniels of her legislative work on behalf of the Florida Public Defender Association. She prepares background information on bills, testifies on legislation and attends countless legislative meetings.

Daniels will do some legislative work for the association in 2017, but the 2016 legislative session was Daniels’ last as public defender, as she will retire from office at the end of this year.

“I have aging parents that I don’t get to spend as much time with as I’d like to, and a desire to do some traveling and more recreational activities than I have time to do now,” said the 1977 College of Law graduate. “But I don’t intend to retire entirely from law and from legislative work. I intend to do some, what I call, ‘justice projects.’ One goal I definitely will try to satisfy is to work with the Innocence Project on trying to get an innocent person out of prison. That would be a wonderful life achievement. Another would be participating in the criminal justice reforms that are going on currently, such as elimination of some of the minimum mandatory sentences.”

Daniels also hopes to remedy an unresolved eyewitness reform issue that arose during her service on the Florida Innocence Commission. She would like to see the state require blind administration and sequential presentation when police departments show suspect photos to witnesses.

Playing tennis more frequently, “pittering” in her garden and traveling all over the globe also are on Daniels’ retirement agenda. In addition, she will have more time to devote to her two foster sons, 23-year-old Antonio and 18-year-old Aaron. Daniels began fostering the boys unexpectedly in 2009.

“That was quite a life changing experience and a real growth experience, too,” recalled Daniels. “I got to know the boys, who were visiting my neighborhood a lot, and would play ball with them and gradually got to see that they weren’t being taken care of and they were hungry. Little by little, I got more involved with them and learned that their parents were not taking proper care of them and eventually they were removed from the home by DCF. They asked if they could stay with us and we thought it would be a short time, but that was in ’09. The oldest is 23 now. He works and lives close to me and he is a very well-functioning young man and I am extremely proud of him. The other is progressing through high school and doing very well.”

Daniels also would like to continue teaching at the College of Law, where she has been an adjunct professor for more than 15 years. Daniels caught the teaching bug when she was a clinical faculty member at the law school for five years prior to her election as public defender.

“I worked in the criminal clinical program, which involved teaching students who were going to participate in a criminal externship and supervising them in their placements,” said Daniels, who has stayed in touch with many of her students over the years. “I got to travel all over the state and observe a lot of students’ first or second or third trials and give constructive critiques on their performances and I loved that.”

During her time as public defender, Daniels has been honored to teach and work with hundreds of law students and lawyers. The entire time, Daniels has worked tirelessly to reverse perceptions about the hard-working attorneys who are public defenders. 

“It pains me deeply that so many people don’t have a good opinion of public defender lawyers – people in the general public as well as clients. Within the court system, we are well respected, but unfortunately, the media portrayal of public defenders has given us a very poor street credibility and it’s not only painful, it’s damaging because the average client starts with the assumption that they’re not getting a very good lawyer. You see people who are indigent and they’re assigned a very capable public defender and you see them going to private lawyers because of this assumption that they are not going to get good representation. I don’t think people understand how many really talented and capable lawyers there are here, not only in this office, but across the state and nationally.” 

As printed in the spring 2016 issue of Florida State Law magazine.