Sandra Perlman is a Florida Supreme Court-certified Circuit Civil mediator. Ms. Perlman is a former Circuit Judge for the 17th Judicial Circuit Court of Florida. She served from January 2011 to December 2022, where she most recently presided over a General Circuit Civil Division. Ms. Perlman received the Florida ABOTA (American Board of Trial Attorneys) Jurist of the Year award for 2022.
Prior to being elected as a Circuit Court Judge, Ms. Perlman served in the Broward County Public Defender's Office from 1985 to 1988. She then practiced law in San Francisco, California, with the law firm of Topel and Goodman, specializing in white-collar crimes and complex civil litigation in both state and federal courts. After her time at Topel and Goodman, Perlman spent four years prosecuting in the Santa Clara District Attorney's Office and then returned to the Broward County Public Defender's Office in 1994, where she ultimately became Death Qualified and specialized in death penalty litigation.
Sandra Perlman is a native of South Florida and received both her Bachelor of Science degree in Broadcasting and her Juris Doctor degree from the University of Florida College of Law, where she was an Editor on the University of Florida Law Review. During college, she worked as a news reporter for ABC's Weekend Edition of 'DATELINE NEWS' in Gainesville, Florida. During law school, Ms. Perlman served as a law clerk to Commissioner Mimi W. Dawson at the Federal Communications Commission in Washington, D.C., and she interned as a judicial law clerk for the Honorable Daniel S. Pearson of Florida's Third District Court of Appeal.
Ms. Perlman is admitted to practice in Florida (1985) and is a member of the Federal Bar, admitted to practice in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida (1985). She is also admitted in California (1988). Ms. Perlman has tried cases in state and federal courts.