The Florida Bar Foundation has appointed former Florida Supreme Court Chief Justice Peggy Quince to its board of directors. The Foundation is a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing greater access to justice through civil legal aid in Florida. Quince’s term began July 1, 2019.

In January 2019, after serving 20 years as a justice, Quince retired from the Florida Supreme Court. Prior to that, she spent 13 years as an assistant attorney general in the Criminal Division of the Florida Attorney General’s office.

Quince made history by becoming the first black women to serve on a district court of appeal in Florida in 1993. Five years later, she became the first black female to be appointed to the Florida Supreme Court. She became its first black female chief justice in 2008.

As chief justice, she was involved with the statewide Dependency Court Improvement Panel to improve courtroom procedures in dependency cases. After the housing bubble burst in 2008, Quince created a task force to establish procedures to efficiently handle the effects of mortgage and foreclosure cases in the courts.

Throughout her career, Quince received recognition for her progress in the Florida courts. She received the 2006 Margaret Brent Women Lawyers of Achievement Award and the 2007 Florida Women’s Hall of Fame Award. In 2017, she won the Florida Dispute Resolution Center’s Sharon Press Excellence Award in Alternative Dispute Resolution.

Quince graduated with a bachelor’s degree in zoology from Howard University in 1970. In 1975, she earned her juris doctor from Catholic University of America.

In December 2023, The Florida Bar Foundation changed its name to FFLA. Posts prior to this date contain our former name.