Local Judge Recipient of “Making A Difference” Award

The Honorable Emily A. Peacock of Florida’s Thirteenth Judicial Circuit (Hillsborough County) has been selected by The Florida Bar’s Family Law Section to receive its “Making a Difference” Award for January 2011:

The Family Law Section of the Florida Bar is pleased to congratulate Judge Peacock, and it thanks her for her past and continued efforts on behalf of the children and families of Florida.

Emily A. Peacock has been admitted to practice law in Florida for approximately 30 years. Born and raised in Tampa, Florida, Judge Peacock attended Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, and she received her Bachelor of Arts Degree from the school in 1978.  While she was a student at the University, in addition to her various student activities and employment, she volunteered at the Nashville Veterans Administration Hospital.  She then went on to receive her Juris Doctorate from Stetson University College of Law in 1980.

Judge Peacock began her career as a public servant becoming an assistant State Attorney for the 18th Judicial Circuit of Florida, Seminole County, and continuing as an assistant State Attorney for the 13th Judicial Circuit of Florida, Hillsborough County.  Judge Peacock served as an assistant State Attorney for more than 12 years of her legal career, before becoming a Senior Attorney for the Florida Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services where, among other things, she worked with child protective investigators seeking dependency status of abused, neglected or abandoned children.  She briefly worked as an Assistant Public Defender, and moved into private practice in 1997 where she practiced general litigation, class action and other complex litigation.  In 2006, Emily A. Peacock once again returned to public service when she was elected as a Circuit Court Judge in the 13th Judicial Circuit.

Judge Peacock’s extensive community and bar activities include participation in the Family Law Inn of Court; the J. Clifford Cheatwood Inn of Court, the George Edgecomb Bar Association; the Hillsborough Association of Women Lawyers, the Hillsborough Bar Association as well as the Family Law Section of the Hillsborough Bar Association.  In her involvement with the Hillsborough Bar Association, she has served on the Bench-Bar Committee, she has chaired the Law Day Lunch, and she has presented and been a panel member in Continuing Legal Education courses for that organization.  In her involvement with the Hillsborough Association for Women Lawyers, an organization for which she serves on the Board of Directors, she wrote a grant application on behalf of the organization and was successful in securing funding for the presentation of a Continuing Legal Education Course, “Legal Education for Relative Caregiver Advocates.”  The course was designed to train attorneys to volunteer pro bono services for the Florida Kinship Care Program, a program supporting relative caregivers through the Family, Dependency and Guardianship Divisions of Florida’s Courts.  Finally, she continues to devote her time to the betterment of the legal community through her service on the 13th Judicial Circuit Professionalism Committee and the 13th Judicial Circuit Technology Governance Committee.