John D. Couriel to serve as chief justice

Justice John D. Couriel [Photo courtesy Florida Supreme Court Public Information Office]

The Florida Supreme Court has unanimously elected John D. Couriel as Florida’s next chief justice. He will begin his two-year term July 1.

Couriel was appointed to the court in 2020 by Governor Ron DeSantis. He will succeed Chief Justice Carlos G. Muñiz, who will remain on the court after completing his second term as chief justice on June 30, the news release noted.

“I am grateful to my colleagues for their trust,” Couriel said in the release, “and am indebted to the previous chief justices with whom I’ve served. I will do my best to serve the people of Florida as they so ably have.”

Couriel, 48, is the 90th justice of the Florida Supreme Court. He will be the state’s 58th chief justice.

The seven members of the Florida Supreme Court elect a chief justice to serve a two-year term beginning July 1 in even-numbered years. For many years, procedural rules dictated a preference for the longest-serving justice on the court who had not been chief justice to be selected, a description Couriel fits. The rules now call for selection “based on managerial, administrative and leadership abilities, without regard to seniority only,” according to the news release.

Florida’s chief justice serves as the administrative officer of the judicial branch and of the Supreme Court. Authority and powers of the chief justice include the responsibility to serve as the primary spokesperson for the judicial branch about policies of statewide import, including the management, operation, legislative agenda and budget priorities of the state’s courts.

Before he joined the court, Couriel was a partner at Kobre & Kim LLP, where he litigated cross-border matters. As an Assistant United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, he prosecuted international money laundering, public integrity crimes, healthcare fraud and human trafficking offenses. He practiced at Davis Polk in New York for five years. He began his career as a law clerk for Judge John D. Bates at the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, the news release stated.

Couriel, a Miami native, is married to Rebecca L. Toonkel, M.D., Senior Associate Dean for Academic Affairs at Florida International University Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine. They have two children, the news release offered. He earned his bachelor’s degree, magna cum laude, from Harvard College. He earned his law degree from Harvard Law School. His parents emigrated from Cuba in the 1960s.