Recent University of Florida law grad makes waves in criminal defense, advocacy

By Ursula Furi-Perry, Esq.

Nobody forgets their first trial and first win. Working as a public defender in Florida right after law school, Steckley Lee knew what she was getting into. She weathered enough disturbing cases during her internship.

Her first client, charged with battery, refused plea deal after plea deal. But he was very adamant that he was going to fight the charge, she said. Preparing witnesses and diagrams, going to the scene of the crime and discrediting prosecution witnesses were all part of her role as public defender.

In the end, a not guilty verdict and her first win. Lee, a University of Florida Levin College of Law graduate, said the ability to help her clients through difficult situations is the most rewarding part of working in criminal law.

“I’ve had a lot of clients say to me, ‘I can’t believe how nice you are,’” she said. “I feel like I am making that person feel better about the situation.”

After working a year as a public defender, Lee was selected for the prestigious Equal Justice Works Fellowship, which places law graduates in funded public interest positions in which they work to serve the public in various legal areas.

Lee currently works with sex offenders as an Equal Justice Works Fellow at Florida Institutional Legal Services, a nonprofit law office that provides free legal assistance to indigent people incarcerated in Florida.

“We’re trying to challenge the residency restrictions of where people can live,” she said. “I’m outreaching to people who are in custody, who are eligible for release but can’t be released because they don’t have a place to live.”

As a student, Lee intended to go into public interest law. So she became involved in the National Lawyers Guild during her first semester and joined the Association for Public Interest Law, a student organization at her school.

In her third year of law school, Lee received the National Lawyers Guild C.B. King Award for Outstanding Achievement, the highest honor offered to a student member. Lee was selected for her contribution to the Guild’s mass defense work and for inspiring other students to get involved.

And Lee didn’t land her first internship by sending out resumes. She did so by networking. Meeting a legal services attorney took her to Fort Lauderdale where she worked on a special project helping people who were just getting out of prison.

With Equal Justice Works, Lee has researched best practices for sex offender treatment and interviewed many prisoners. She now hopes to file a lawsuit to challenge the state’s residency restrictions on released sex offenders.

“I’m able to see what happens to people after they’re incarcerated,” Lee said. “That keeps me excited to keep doing this work.”

A challenge to working in the field is “just knowing what people face,” Lee said.

“There are so many people being run through [the criminal justice system] and many of the people don’t have good representation.”

To law students interested in criminal law, Lee recommended researching and reading about the criminal justice system in order to better understand the needs of everyone involved.

“Try to get as much experience working in the area as possible,” she said. “Volunteer in a public defender or legal aid office, or take clinics so that you can get real practical experience.”

Above all, Lee said it’s important to stay committed to working in the field throughout law school — even when it seems that resources or opportunities are scarce.