Longtime Palm Beach County resident and attorney Douglas Leifert recently filed paperwork with the Supervisor of Elections Office to run for the open Palm Beach County Court Judge Group 2 seat. He will be on the ballot for the Aug. 19 primary election.
Current Group 2 Judge Ted Booras is retiring from the bench. Leifert is one of three candidates who have filed for the seat. The others are Lourdes Casanova and Jean Marie Middleton.
Practicing law since his 1990 graduation from Nova Southeastern University Law School, Leifert began his extensive legal career as an assistant state prosecutor with the Palm Beach County State Attorney’s office, serving there for five years as DUI Division Chief, Chief of Environmental Crimes and Chief of Crimes Against the Elderly.
Leifert and his brother Brian opened the well-known Leifert & Leifert Law Firm in southern Palm Beach County in 1997. The firm focuses on criminal defense, traffic offenses and DUI. Leifert & Leifert has additional offices in West Palm Beach, Palm Beach Gardens and Broward County.
The Palm Beach County Clerk of Courts shows that Leifert has been the attorney of record in more than 50,000 courtroom cases since 1995. This does not include the thousands of cases that he prosecuted for the citizens of Florida beginning in 1990. He is certified to appear before all Florida courts. Leifert is a member of the Palm Beach County Bar Association Criminal Law Committee and Professionalism Committee, the Florida Association of Criminal Defense Attorneys and the Palm Beach County Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers.
With his solid understanding and experience in both the prosecution and defense of accused criminals, and the perspective gained from his extensive legal career, Leifert believes that he is the best candidate for the job.
“As the fourth-largest county in Florida, Palm Beach County gets more than its fair share of criminal activity,” Leifert said. “I firmly support the constitutional rights of those accused of criminal behavior, and in the rights, fairness and respect for the victims of crime. When a crime does occur, and it is proven who committed it, the people of Florida demand and deserve swift justice after a fair trial, and appropriate sentences, including incarceration, when warranted. We also have an opportunity with first-time offenders to do our best to ensure that they do not find themselves in a courtroom again.”
Leifert is a proponent of serving the community, particularly youth. He volunteered as a judge in Youth Court from 1997 until the program was discontinued in 2020, presiding over hundreds of proceedings involving juveniles who were caught committing minor offenses. Former Gov. Jeb Bush awarded Leifert with the Governor’s Award for Community Service for his efforts in the Youth Court.
Leifert was born in Manhasset, N.Y., and grew up in Roslyn, N.Y., where he graduated from Roslyn High School in 1983. He attended the University of Florida and transferred to the University of Miami, where he graduated with a business management degree in 1987. He and his wife Deborah married in 1998 and have two grown sons, Isaac and Ethan. Isaac is currently in law school at FIU in Miami, and Ethan is a graduating senior at Washington University in St. Louis. Leifert has the reputation of being an open and honest litigator who works hard for his clients to get the best possible results while also working well with the opposing side. He is highly regarded and respected among the legal community and the judiciary, and has served clients and many others with distinction.
Leifert and his family are very involved in public service in Palm Beach County, where he has continued to provide free consultations and pro bono work to hundreds of people each year. To learn more about Douglas Leifert, visit www.douglasleifert.com.
