Candidate Profile: Kamilah Perry

For Kamilah Perry, 49, her nearly 24-year legal career has been fueled by a love for practicing law. She has always viewed it as a way to help people. And while that may sound cliché, she said it’s the whole truth and nothing but the truth.

“I need to help more people,” Perry told VoxPopuli in a recent phone interview. “I can do that better on the bench.” 

That desire is what motivated her run for the open seat in Group 31 on the Ninth Judicial Circuit Court, which serves both Orange and Osceola counties. She faces Orlando private practice attorney Steve Kerestes in the nonpartisan election on Aug. 18. Circuit Court judges serve six-year terms and earn $200,836 annually. 

An Orlando native, Perry grew up in a family of “lifelong public servants.” Her mother is Adrienne Perry, Ed.D., was an associate professor of education at Stetson University and a Longwood city commissioner and mayor — the second Black elected official and first Black mayor in Seminole County. 

Perry’s father is former Florida Supreme Court Justice James E.C. Perry, the first Black judge on the 18th Judicial Circuit and the fourth Black judge on the state’s highest court. He served from 2009 until 2016 when he hit the mandatory retirement age. He also owned the largest Black law firm in Central Florida, representing a range of clients from the indigent to the Greater Orlando Airport Authority. 

Kamilah Perry spent summers at her father’s law firm, working in reception, filing papers, handling client billing. 

“I really saw the law for what my dad was doing,” she said. “He was using his law degree to help. My law degree [became] something that was a tool for people to have confidence in me and give me credibility, so that I can be a leader.”

As an attorney, Perry has practiced in just about “every area of the law,” she said. 

She started in business litigation with two Tampa-based law firms — Carlton Fields, PA followed by Phelps Dunbar, LLP — handling labor and employment and insurance cases. In 2014, she joined her brother, Jaimon H. Perry as a partner of the Perry Law Group, managing commercial litigation and employment cases from the firm’s Tampa and Orlando offices. 

A call from former State Attorney Aramis Ayala, whom Perry had known because they’d both served as president of the Virgil Hawkins Florida Chapter of the National Bar Association, brought her into the State Attorney’s office. There, she served as general counsel and executive director. She stayed on after Monique Worrell was elected state attorney in 2021, and during the interim appointment of Andrew Bain in 2023. She continues today with Worrell having been re-elected.

What’s important to her is reestablishing the public trust in the current judicial system. That some people have had experiences that left them feeling “jaded” and “distrustful” of the legal process, is a massive disservice to the community, she said. 

“I just want to be part of a system that is trustworthy — and that's not to say that the Orange County bench is not trustworthy; we have some great judges,” Perry said. “But it’s the perception I want to be a part of fixing. I want people to come in front of me and say, I went in front of Judge Perry, and she was fair, she was prepared, she listened to everything I said. … I think that's all anybody could ask for.”

Here, Perry answers the five key questions the News Collaborative of Central Florida has asked all judicial candidates.

What professional experiences have best prepared you for the bench?

I have represented Fortune 500 Companies as a large firm associate, I have represented individuals and small businesses as a private practice owner, and Ihave managed justice for victims, witnesses and defendants as the Chief Executive of the 9^th Circuit State Attorney's Office. My 23 years + of litigation experience in virtually every area of the law uniquely qualifies me to be a judge with vast experience. Additionally, as General Counsel and Executive Director of the State Attorney's Office, my job is to manage a $37 million dollar budget and handle the conflicts and challenges of 385 prosecutors and staff with efficiency, diplomacy, and the fair application of the applicable rules and policies, in order to ensure that the citizens of the 9th Circuit are adequately served by the State Attorney.

What role should personal values play in judicial decision-making?

Personal values should play no role in judicial decision-making, with the exception that all judges should certainly personally value being unbiased, fair, and impartial when making all decisions.

How do you balance precedent with evolving societal standards?

Legal precedent must control over societal standards. That is the role of the judiciary - e.g. to apply the law as written to the facts presented. Unfortunately, the court's role is not to change the law based on the temperature of society. Where no black-letter law exists, however, and justice requires a common-sense approach to decision making, sound judicial discretion should ensure that justice is carried out based on the facts of the case.

What steps do you take to avoid conflicts of interest?

As General Counsel for the State Attorney's Office, I've had to train prosecutors and employees on the importance of maintaining all appearances of objectivity and non-bias. I sincerely believe that public trust is paramount to a fair system. If a conflict of interest arose and I was either unable to remain impartial, or there was even a remote appearance that my impartiality would be unlikely, I would voluntarily recuse myself from presiding over the matter so that the parties are comfortable and the community knows that the bench can be trusted to self-disclose any conflicts.

What barriers to justice do you see in the current system, and how would you address them?

Funding is the greatest issue that the legal system faces. Unfortunately, only 1 percent of Florida's budget goes to the legal system. However, judges, prosecutors, public defender's and the clerk's office are all charged with keeping the community safe and holding offenders accountable while maintaining high levels of transparency and keeping up with evolving technology. Funding is critical for the system to work efficiently. Lack of adequate funding means that citizens are adversely impacted by heavy dockets, slow scheduling, hearing continuances, and overall slow justice, or worse, the denial of justice.  As General Counsel for the State Attorney's Office, my job is to analyze budgetary needs and lobby the legislature for increased funding for our office. As a member of the judiciary, I would endeavor to assist the Chief Judge with impressing upon the legislature the dangers associated with inadequate funding of the judicial system and the threat to public safety and overall loss of access to justice that could result.

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