Jorge Labarga

Jorge Labarga (born 1952) is a justice of the Florida Supreme Court, taking office on January 6, 2009. On June 30, 2014, he was sworn in as Florida's 56th Chief Justice and the first Cuban-American to hold the post. He was succeeded on July 1, 2018, by Charles T. Canady. Biography Labarga was born in Havana, Cuba in 1952 to Miriam and Jorge Labarga, Sr. He grew up and graduated high school in Pahokee, Florida the heavily agricultural Lake Okeechobee region of western Palm Beach County. He graduated from Forest Hill High School, West Palm Beach in 1972 and received his Bachelor of Arts from the University of Florida, Gainesville in 1976. He received his Juris Doctor from University of Florida School of Law in 1979. After law school he became an assistant public defender. In 1982, he joined the state attorney's office. From 1987 to 1992, he joined the law firm of Cone, Wagner, Nugent, Roth, Romano & Ericksen, P.A. In 1992, he was a founding partner with the law firm of Roth, Duncan & Labarga, P.A. In 1996, Governor Lawton Chiles appointed him a circuit court judge. Judicial career