MANUEL MENENDEZ, JR served as the Chief Judge of the 13th Judicial Circuit of Florida from July 2001 until his retirement in December 2014.  He was appointed to the Hillsborough County Court in 1983 and to the circuit bench in 1984.  He has presided in all divisions of the trial court, has served as a mentor judge, and as an associate judge on the Second District Court of Appeal.  He has also served on the Judicial Qualifications Commission as a trial panel member.  Prior to his appointment to the bench he was the Chief Assistant United States Attorney for the Middle District of Florida, Tampa Division.  Before then, he practiced law in Jacksonville, Florida, as an Assistant United States Attorney and in private practice.  Upon graduation from law school, and prior to reporting for duty as an officer in the U.S. Army Reserves, he served as law clerk to Judge T. Frank Hobson, Jr. of the 2d District Court of Appeal.

He attended the University of Florida where he earned his J.D. with honors in 1972 and a B.A. in political science in 1969.  While in law school he was executive editor of the University of Florida Law Review, and a member of the Phi Delta Phi honor society (Cockrell Inn).  He is an honorary member of Florida Blue Key.

The Hillsborough County Bar Association Young Lawyers Division presented him the Robert W. Patton “Outstanding Jurist” Award (1998-99).  In 2002, he received the “Outstanding Jurist” Award from the Young Lawyers Division of The Florida Bar. The Tampa Bay Chapter of the American Board of Trial Advocates (ABOTA) named him Outstanding Jurist for 2003.  And The Florida Chapter of the American Board of Trial Advocates presented him its “Outstanding Jurist” award in 2010.  In 2007 he received the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Hispanic Advisory Council’s “Raymond E. Fernandez Award” in recognition of “outstanding contributions to the criminal justice system.”  Also in 2007 he was inducted into the Thomas Jefferson High School Alumni Hall of Fame. In 2013 he received the “Jack Edmund” Award for professionalism and civility in the practice of criminal law from the Goldberg/Cacciatore Criminal Law Inn of Court, as well as the Hillsborough Bar Association’s “James ‘Red’ McEwen” Award.

He is a past-chair of the Florida Conference of Circuit Judges (2006-07). He is a charter member and past president of the J. Clifford Cheatwood American Inn of Court, and is also a member of the Executive Board of the Herbert G. Goldberg – Ronald K. Cacciatore Inn of Court.  He is a past president of the Tampa Bay Chapter of the Federal Bar Association and past vice-president of the Jacksonville Chapter.  He is a charter member of the American College of Business Court Judges.

He has served as chair of The Florida Bar Rules of Judicial Administration Committee, The Florida Bar Criminal Procedure Rules Committee, and The Florida Bar Judicial Nominating Commission Procedures Committee.  He has also served on the Florida Bar Judicial Administration Selection & Tenure Committee,  the Code & Rules of Evidence Committee, and the Continuing Legal Education Committee.

He has frequently served as a lecturer and presenter at continuing legal and judicial education programs, including the Florida College of Advanced Judicial Studies, the Florida Judicial College, the Florida Circuit Judges Conference and the County Judges Conference. He also regularly participates in the Florida Bar’s Prosecutor/Public Defender Trial Training Program, and the Trial Lawyers Section Advanced Civil Trial Advocacy Program.

During his tenure on the bench he served as chair of the Florida Supreme Court’s Trial Court Technology Committee, and the Electronic Filing Committee, and also served on the Florida Courts Technology Commission.  He was on the Florida Supreme Court Work Group on Emergency Preparedness, the Steering Committee on Families and Children in the Court, the Florida Supreme Court Committee on Diversity and Fairness, the Unified Committee on Judicial Compensation, the Florida Courts Education Council, and the Trial Court Budget Commission.

He is on the board of the New York Yankees Tampa Foundation, the board of trustees of the Hillsborough County Bar Association Foundation, and is an emeritus member of the board of trustees of the University of Florida Law Center Association.  He has served on the advisory board of the Tampa Hispanic Bar Association, the board of directors of Hillsborough DUI Counterattack, Inc., the Hillsborough County Public Safety Council, the board of directors of the Hillsborough County Bar Association (as judicial liaison), the advisory board for the Salvation Army of Tampa, the board of directors of the Hillsborough Association for Women Lawyers, and the advisory board of the Tampa Gator Club.  He has been appointed to the City of Tampa Ethics Commission and the Hillsborough County Transportation Tax Independent Oversight Committee.

He is now a Florida Supreme Court qualified arbitrator and is certified as a mediator by the Florida Supreme Court and the United State District Court for the Middle District of Florida.

In addition to providing arbitration and mediation services, he has also been engaged as a special master for discovery disputes, a trial consultant, an attorney fees expert witness, and as a medical peer review hearing officer.