ABOUT ELLEN

Judge Leesfield has been Mediating and Arbitrating since she left the Dade County Circuit Court Bench in 2013. During her time on the bench, Leesfield served as an administrative chief, a judge in the Complex Civil Extended Trial Division, and a judge in the General Jurisdiction division. In those divisions, she presided over thousands of cases and hundreds of trials, including a trial against the government of Cuba for the execution of an American businessman, a condominium cat burglar and countless commercial, professional malpractice, products liability, construction, employment, civil RICO, real estate and other actions. She also won numerous prestigious awards including the Judge Steve Levine Award for Integrity, Fairness and Professionalism; the Justice Gerald Kogan Judicial Distinction Award; and the Judge Mattie Belle Davis Award for Community Service. Throughout her tenure on the bench, Judge Leesfield taught at the Advanced Judicial College and the Florida Judicial College--the training program for all incoming judges in the State of Florida. Leesfield now conducts a full-service Alternative Dispute Resolution practice. She frequently serves as a Mediator, Arbitrator Umpire and Special Master. (see these sections) She was certified as a Florida Supreme Court mediator in 2012. She has been a panel member (neutral) for the American Arbitration Association since 2012 and was recently admitted to the prestigious International Panel, as well as the AAA Healthcare Panel. Over the past 8 years, Leesfield has arbitrated over 85 cased, and mediated over 200 cases concentrating in the areas of Complex Commercial, Employment, Hospital/insurer disputes as well as International (ICDR) cases and Injured Seaman cases.

Judge Leesfield is a member of several bars including the Florida Bar, the Southern District of Florida, the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals and the Supreme Court of the United States. She was a founding President of the Florida Association for Women Lawyers, Miami Chapter and a member of the Board of Directors of Legal Services of Greater Miami, the Dade County Bar Association and the Florida Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, Miami Chapter. She is presently a member of the Cuban American Bar, the American Bar Associations, ( Business, Employment, and arbitration divisions,) as well as the Business And Arbitration Divisions of the Florida Bar. When Judge Leesfield isn’t Arbitrating or resolving cases, you can find her hiking in the mountains of the west, at the theatre on and off Broadway, or playing tennis with the USTA Women’s Team. Born in Brooklyn and raised in Hollywood, Florida, she is an avid cook who admires a great sauce.