Nushin G. Sayfie was appointed to the Circuit Court by Governor Charlie Crist in October, 2007. She was assigned to the Dependency Division from November 2007 – January of 2009, where in addition to her judicial duties, she headed up a committee to address the issue of ordering & administering psychotropic medication for children in Dependency Court. In August, 2009, she served on a panel educating the Dependency community on the issue of psychotropic medication, at the Statewide Dependency Summit in Orlando.
Judge Sayfie is currently serving in the Criminal Division, where she has presided over sixteen jury trials. She continues to preside on a monthly basis over “Independent Living” Court, a specialized court addressing the needs of children as they age out of the Foster Care system.
Prior to her service on the bench, Judge Sayfie was an Assistant Public Defender with the Law Offices of Bennett H. Brummer beginning in July 1994. From January 1999 through July 2001 she worked as Assistant Public Defender in Tallahassee, FL. In 2001 she returned to the Miami Public Defender’s Office.
As an assistant public defender Judge Sayfie worked in the juvenile, county court and felony divisions of the Miami office. In Tallahassee she also served as the chief of the county court division and had a brief stint in appeals. As an attorney she tried approximately sixty felony jury trials and served as a felony training attorney for over two years. She served as a senior supervising attorney from February, 2005 until November, 2007, supervising three felony courtrooms and handling first degree murder cases.
Judge Sayfie has served on the board of Casa Valentina, since 2006, an organization that provides housing and support for young women who have aged out of the foster care system. From 1999-2001 she served on Governor Bush’s Task Force on Domestic Violence.
Judge Sayfie is currently a member of the Dade County Bar Association, the Florida Association of Women Lawyers, the Gwen S. Cherry Black Women Lawyers Association, the Florida Coalition of Juvenile & Family Court Judges & the National Association of Women Judges. Prior to her appointment she was a member of the Wilkie D. Ferguson Jr. Black Lawyers Association and the Florida Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers.
Judge Sayfie received her Juris Doctor degree, from Fordham University School of Law in 1993. In 1990 she graduated from Georgetown University with a degree in English. A Connecticut native, Nushin now resides in Miami with her husband, Justin, and their three children.
