Florida Foster Child Abuse Attorney Named to ‘Super Lawyers’ List
Howard M. Talenfeld, the preeminent Florida foster child abuse lawyer and children’s rights attorney, has been included in the 2016 Florida Super Lawyers list. Talenfeld was selected to the 2016 Civil Rights Super Lawyers category. Talenfeld has been listed in Florida Super Lawyers Magazine since 2006 and was named in the “Top 100: 2014 Miami Super Lawyers” list.
Talenfeld is the Founder and Managing Partner of Talenfeld Law, the first law firm in Florida to focus exclusively on protecting the rights of physically and sexually abused, medically fragile, foster and other at-risk children. Known throughout the legal community and national media as having established the nation’s premier children’s rights practice, his work on behalf of at-risk individuals has earned multimillion dollar awards and resulted in sweeping judicial and legislative reforms.
Among his wins, Talenfeld earned significant damages awards and settlements against New York City and the Archdiocese of Brooklyn, which together paid more than $27 million in the case of Judith Leekin, a foster mother whose “house of horrors” imprisoned, abused and starved 10 disabled foster children. In Florida, he is responsible for scores of million dollar plus victories in federal civil rights claims against DCF employees and providers also resulting in the landmark decisional law protecting the rights of children and disabled persons.
Earlier this year, Talenfeld was honored with the University of Miami Law Alumni Association’s Alumni Achievement Award and received the Professional Excellence Lifetime Achievement Award from the Daily Business Review.
He previously earned the Florida Bar’s “President’s Award of Merit” and the Florida Bar President’s Pro Bono Service Award for the 17th Judicial Circuit. He also received Legal Aid’s Russell Carlisle Award for child advocacy law. Talenfeld is founding president of Florida’s Children First, the state’s preeminent non-profit that advocates for foster children and the developmentally disabled.
Super Lawyers, a Thomson Reuters subsidiary, is an attorney rating service that spans more than 70 practice areas and uses a rigorous, multi-phased process to accomplish its rankings. The annual selections are made based upon a statewide survey of lawyers and an independent research evaluation of candidates and peer reviews.