Judge Simone Marstiller

Judge Marstiller was appointed to the First District Court of Appeal in 2010 by Governor Charlie Crist. Her varied legal career, which began in 1996, has been exclusively in service to the State of Florida.

She spent her first five years as a lawyer in the appellate arena, serving initially as a judicial law clerk in the Fifth District Court of Appeal and then as appellate counsel for the Agency for Health Care Administration (AHCA). As Senior Appellate Attorney and Chief Appellate Counsel for AHCA, she represented the agency in the district courts of appeal defending disciplinary action taken against the licenses of health care practitioners. Her appellate cases also included issues relating to rule challenges, Medicaid provider contracts and reimbursements, and other agency decisions.

In 2001, Judge Marstiller became Assistant General Counsel to the Governor of Florida. In that position, she assisted the General Counsel in overseeing the legal operations of the Governor's agencies and advising the Governor on a wide variety of legal and policy issues. Her work included managing trial and appellate litigation initiated and defended by executive agencies in both state and federal court, and providing guidance to agencies on substantive legal matters.

Judge Marstiller was selected in 2002 to serve as General Counsel for the Department of Management Services (DMS), the administrative agency for state government. There, she managed all legal affairs for the agency, including matters related to government procurement, outsourcing, state facility management, and collective bargaining. While serving in this capacity, the Governor appointed her Interim Secretary of the agency.

From DMS, Judge Marstiller returned to the Governor’s Office in 2003 to serve as Deputy Chief of Staff to the Governor. In 2004, the Governor appointed her State Chief Information Officer to head state government’s central technology planning and policy organization, and in 2005 she became Secretary of the Department Business and Professional Regulation, the state’s largest regulatory agency.

In 2007, Attorney General Bill McCollum appointed Judge Marstiller Associate Deputy Attorney General for the State of Florida. In addition to serving on the executive management team for the Office of the Attorney General, she was the agency's General Counsel and was responsible for overseeing four agency divisions, including the Civil Rights and Opinions Divisions.

When appointed to the appellate court in 2010, Judge Marstiller was serving as Executive Director for the Florida Elections Commission. There she oversaw the investigation and prosecution of complaints filed with the Commission and was the chief administrative officer for the agency.

Judge Marstiller was born in Monrovia, Liberia, and grew up in St. Petersburg, Florida. She earned her Bachelor of Business Administration degree from Stetson University in DeLand, Florida, and her Juris Doctor, cum laude, from Stetson College of Law in Gulfport, Florida.