Leslie A. Sweet

     Being a trial attorney requires life experience, both positive and negative.  It's not having the bad things happen but how you as a person move beyond the negative to turn it into a postive experience.  Effective handling of a case requires much more than showing up in Court looking nice.  One of the best trial attorneys I ever observed came to Court in a wrinkled suit.

Who is Leslie A. Sweet

     Leslie A. Sweet is a graduate of the Florida State University College of Law.  Prior to attending law school she received a Masters of Science Degree.  She was formerly employed and certified as a State of Florida Correctional Probation and Parole Officer.   She spent many years working in programs that assisted the unemployed in gaining employment.  She received the "Sterling Award" from the State of Florida for her efforts for obtaining employment for person that had been through the criminal justice system.

     While Ms. Sweet always had in interest for law, she initially felt that that opportunity had eluded her until a life threatening health emergency changed the course of her life.  During the winter of 1996 after Christmas, she was admitted to the hospital for chest pains.  She was informed by her physician that she may have had up to three heart attacks.  At the time, Ms. Sweet could not even get out of her bed due to shortness of breath and weakness.  Her doctor had assigned a social worker that suggested that Ms. Sweet consider full disability since she could not work anymore.  At the time, Ms Sweet was then employed as a Correctional Probation Officer, a position that she loved.  Her cardiologist,  Dr. Singh, ignoring the prognosis suggested that this was probably a good time to go to law school. 

     Law school was a miserable experience, but the professors and other students would soon become lifelong friends and allies.  After law school, Ms. Sweet worked briefly for the Florida House of Representatives.  She felt a need to become a litigator after observing first hand how special interest groups could so profoundly influence legislation that would detrimentally impact so many citizens just because they could.  She also observed the revenue generating aspects of crimes in Florida.  She further came to know the power and impact that "one" person could have.

      After completing the first year of law school, Ms. Sweet was awarded a fellowship from the Florida Bar Foundation to work as a law clerk at Withlacoochee Legal Services.  She spent the summer inspired by brilliant attorneys David Patrick Dalton and Glenn Shuman who were the first to bring the law out of the law books and into the real world.  During that summer, she saw the law really could make a difference.

     Ms. Sweet interned at the Office of Nancy Daniels combined with First District Court of Appeals Judge Michael Allen as her criminal procedure professor in law school.  She was exposed to the trial skills of Michael Minerva and Katie Kerwin.  Ms. Sweet always was in awe of Fifth Circuit Public Defender Howard "Skip" Babb and his miracle attorneys, Tricia Jenkins, David Mengers and William Miller.  These individuals along with all of the wrongfully accused individuals were the impetus to move Ms. Sweet out of the legislature and into the courtroom.  While Dr. Singh encouraged Ms. Sweet into law, he cautioned her not to ever be a litigator.  Despite five hospitalizations, Ms. Sweet remains in litigaton as a Criminal Defense Attorney.  Criminal Law is her passion.  

     Ms. Sweet did not intend to become a Criminal Defense Attorney.  During her tenure at law school, she worked at the former Department of Banking and Finance under Paul Stadler.  Ms. Sweet loved the investigations and the numbers.  During the early part of her work life she once taught Mathematics.  During an earlier period, she completed a considerable number of credits towards and Master's in Mathematic Education.

     After law school, Ms. Sweet returned to Ocala where she was moulded by the Inns of Court.  She was in a supportive learning environment with Judge Raymond T. McNeal, Judge Stancil, Judge Swigert, Judge Victor Musleh, Judge Francis M. King, Judge S. Sue Robbins, Judge Sandra Edward Stephens and Judge Eddy.    As a probation officer she came in contact with Judge Carven Angel and Judge Eddy, who was the felony chief at the Office of the State Attorney and a Seminole.  Watching Bill Miller in court one day made her want to be an attorney.  She worked with State Attorneys, Sarah Ritterholf Williams, Robert Hodges and Sandy Hawkins who are now on the bench.  In Ocala, she learned to see the issue clearly as there was no polarization of the State and Defense in Ocala.  In Ocala, she learned that the issue was not personal.  We, the State and the Defense, all come to court to do a job.  Ms. Sweet never faults or critizes other attorneys for fighting vigorously for their cause because she always intends to fight vigorously for her clients and her client's cause.

     Ms Sweet performed her first trial while employed with Skip Babb.  When she finally had her first guilty verdict, she returned to her office and sat in a chair by the wall in the dark.  She was devastated and felt that she could not do this.  She could not involve herself so deeply in someone's future.  David Mengers, whom she referred to as her great trial yoda came into her office and quietly sat next to her.  After a period of silence, he looked over and told her he has never stopped feeling that way.  Criminal trial work is very taxing physically and emotionally.  Criminal trial work not only impacts the client but it also impacts the attorney.

     Howard "Skip" Babb employed the best and he allowed Ms Sweet to be personally mentored and trained by his miracle attorneys.  Mr. Babb further provided extensive training and workshops to mold her into a trial attorney.  Ms Sweet also credits her magnificent trial partners, Edward Abel and Eugene Johnson for forcing her to another level.  Ms. Sweet further honed her skills as a trial attorney under Robert Wesley where she was the felony one attorney for Judge Thomas B. Smith, Judge Julie O'Kane and Judge Daniel Dawson.  In Orlando, she tried cases with John Gray and Mauricio Hued.  Before leaving the Fifth and Ninth Circuit Offices of the Public Defender she had performed more than 90 jury trials to verdict.

     Ms. Sweet opened her own office in April of 2005 and has since represented more than a 1000 clients.

     In her personal life, Ms. Sweet spent more that forty years directing choral groups and functioning as a Minister of Music within several churches.  She was most recently affiliated with First Missionary Baptist Church in Ocala, Florida and at the Mt. Herman Baptist Church on Capanella Avenue in Orlando.  In earlier years she wrote music, sang and played several instruments.  She began college as a Music Major later changing to Early Childhood Education.

     Ms. Sweet sincerely cares about her clients, their families, and the alleged victims in any situation.  Ms. Sweet considers all of the implications surrounding the criminal offense and the effect that the charge will have on the client's future.  She is particularly concerned about young people that are involved in serious crimes that could potentially destroy the remainder of their lives.  Ms. Sweet believes that all cases deserve an intelligent solution.  While representation can be expensive, not having represention can have detrimental effects on any client's future. 

     Ms. Sweet despite being a serious crime victim continues in Criminal Law.  She was so badly battered, on one occasion, to the extent that the blood vessels burst in her eyes.  From being a victim, she has a deeper perspective and she carries that experience into her client's representation in a positive manner.

     Ms. Sweet recognizes that the law is not all Black and White.  People are multidimensional.  Jurors are not lawyers.  Ms. Sweet feels that some of the best trial preparation comes from living.  If you have not lived, you cannot defend.  It's the life experience that goes into the representation that brings the client's issue to the jury in a way that they can comprehend.

     Ms. Sweet since opening her own office has practiced in front of more than 100 judges in Orange  and Osceola (Gail Adams, John Adams, Martha Adams, Faye Allen, Deborah Ansbro, Alan Apte, Jeffery Arnold, Kenneth Barlow, Maureen Bell, Jeanette Bigney, Jerry Brewer, Deb Blechman, Mark Blechman, Keith Carsten, Nancy Clark, Leon Cheek, A. James Craner, Jenifer Davis, Daniel Dawson, Carol Draper, Brian Duckworth, Robert Eagan, Hal Epperson, Jeffrey Fleming, Carolyn Freeman, Heather Higbee, Stefania Jancewicz, Steve Jewett, Anthony Johnson, John E. Jordan, John Kest, Walter Komanski, Alicia Latimore, Frederick Lauten, Bob LeBlanc, Robert Legendre, Marc Lubet, Leticia Marques, Adam McGinnis, Michael Miller, Jon B. Morgan, Lisa T. Munyon, Michael Murphy, Heather K. O'Brien, Julie O'Kane, Scott Polodna, Renee Roche, Heather Pinder Rodriguez, Jose Rodriquez, Margaret Schreiber, Tim Shea, Wayne Shoemaker, Thomas B. Smith, Stan Strickland, Janet Thorpe, Greg Tynan, Christi Underwood, F. Rand Wallis, Bob Wattles, Keith White, Reginald Whitehead, Tanya Wilson, Wayne Wooten, Senior Judges Conrad, Prather and Kaney and Judges Lawson and Cohen who are now on the Fifth District Court of Appeals), Brevard (Judge Holcolm, Judge Earp, Judge Maxwell and Judge Dugan), Marion (Lambert, Stancil and Eddy), Lake (Mark J. Hill, T. Michael Johnson, G. Richard Singletary, William Law, Mark Nacke, Michael Takac, Don Briggs and Donna Miller), Volusia (Clayton), Palm, Polk (Stargel and Selph) and Seminole Counties (Alva, Bravo, Herr, Eaton, Galluzzo, Lester, McIntosh, Marblestone, Nelson, Recksiedler,and Simmons).

     Ms. Sweet is the oldest and only surviving child of Reverend and Mrs. Emmanuel  A. Sweet.  Her father told her early in life that if you work a job that you love, you will never work a day in your life.  Ms. Sweet has never worked a day in her life.