Regional Counsel Ita Neymotin presents at Capital University Law School’s Women in Leadership panel

Attorney Ita Neymotin, the Regional Counsel of the Office of Criminal Conflict and Civil Regional Counsel of the Second District Court of Appeal of Florida, was a featured presenter at Capital University Law School’s recent Women in Leadership panel. The purpose of the discussion was to educate and mentor female law school students on the challenges they may face in the business world of the legal profession.
 
Neymotin, who received her Juris Doctorate from Capital University Law School in 2000 and the Masters of Laws degree in business in 2002, joined fellow alumnae Dr. Victoria Trapp (1999) and Jamie Landrum Powell (2003) on March 2 to motivate current female law school students to become leaders in the legal profession.
 
Neymotin received Capital University Law School’s 2015 Distinguished Alumni of the Year Award. She spoke about the challenges she faced in rising to her current role as a leader and mentor to many young men and women. She identified an established set of shared experiences and common language that often excludes newcomers and can result in a historical over-representation of some groups at the expense of others. She also addressed a lack of role models in popular culture for death penalty attorneys like herself. She indicated that the world is changing and aspiring female leaders should look to the future, rather than try to fit a mold of how an attorney was viewed in the past.
 
Trapp is Global Transition Manager for Nike Inc. and founder of Business Evolution Consulting, LLC. She spoke about how women can be successful leaders in a profession historically male dominated. Powell is Labor & Employment Counsel for C&S Wholesale Grocers, Inc. She shared some challenges she encountered in dealing with employment law in the state of Ohio.
 
Neymotin told the attendees, “Always remember, you are already shining stars. You were accepted into law school and eventually you will graduate, pass the bar and become members of the most esteemed profession. I want to leave you with one piece of advice: always be proud of who you are and don’t try to change to fit someone else’s perception of who you should be.”
 
In 2011 Ita Neymotin became the youngest attorney, and the first woman, appointed as Regional Counsel in the State of Florida. Having been was reappointed by Governor Rick Scott to the position on March 15, 2016, and now at age 43, she maintains those distinctions among all five District Court of Appeal regions across the state.
 
She is responsible for the 14 counties that make up the Second District Court of Appeal, managing 140 attorneys and support staff with an annual budget that exceeds $9 million. The Regional Counsel defends parties when the Public Defender’s office has a conflict in a case. The office also represents indigent clients in juvenile dependency as well as certain types of civil cases. Neymotin is responsible for the counties including Lee, Collier, Hendry, Charlotte, Glades, DeSoto, Hardee, Highlands, Polk, Pasco, Pinellas, Hillsborough, Manatee, and Sarasota Counties.
 
Neymotin is also chair of the Local Professionalism Panel for the Twentieth Judicial Circuit, and a frequent speaker on professionalism for conferences and agencies across Florida. Neymotin is on The Florida Bar Grievance Committee, and was the 2015 Medal of Honor recipient from the Collier County Bar Association. She also teaches the Florida Criminal Law and Procedure Class at Ave Maria Law School.

Office of Criminal Conflict and Civil Regional Counsel
Second District Court of Appeal, Florida
Ita Neymotin was appointed by Governor Rick Scott in 2011 and reappointed March 15, 2016 to lead The Office of Criminal Conflict and Civil Regional Counsel (OCCCRC) of the Second District Court of Appeal of Florida. It is one of five regional counsel offices created by the legislature in 2007 to provide legal representation to indigent persons in criminal cases in which the court grants the Public Defender’s motion to withdraw and appoints the OCCRC, in dependency and civil cases, and certain statutorily authorized civil commitment proceedings. OCCCRC also handles appeals and post conviction motions. As noted under Statute 27.511, the Florida Legislature states “it is the intent of the Legislature to provide adequate representation in a fiscally sound manner, while safeguarding constitutional principles.” Regional Counsel saves millions of taxpayer dollars every year while providing quality representation to its clients. For more information visit flrc2.org.

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This release was published on openPR.