Judge Tanya Brinkley

CLEO 1992

“CLEO gave me the opportunity, tools and mentors to succeed in law school, and beyond. I can attribute my success in the profession to a great start with CLEO.”

Judge Brinkley was born and raised in Philadelphia, PA. She attended Howard University in Washington, D.C., where she obtained her Bachelors of Business Administration in Finance in 1991. After attending the CLEO Six-Week Summer Institute at Georgetown University School of Law in 1992, Judge Brinkley attended the University of Miami School of Law, where she also studied at the London College of Law, before earning her J.D. in 1995.

While in law school, Judge Brinkley was a Certified Legal Intern at the Miami-Dade Office of the Public Defender, a Judicial Intern with United States (U.S.) District Court Judge Donald Graham, a Mitigation Expert Intern working on death penalty cases, and served as a law clerk for Larry Handfield, Esq. and Clinton Pitts, Esq.

Following graduation in 1995, Judge Brinkley became a sole practitioner, and in 2000, she formed Brinkley and Henrys, P.A. where she specialized in family law and criminal defense. In 2004, Judge Brinkley was appointed as a Civil Traffic Infraction Hearing Officer, where she also assisted in training new hearing officers.

In August of 2012, she was elected as a Miami-Dade County Court Judge, after being nominated for gubernatorial appointment. Judge Brinkley is assigned to the criminal division at the South Dade Justice Center, where she presides over misdemeanor crimes, domestic violence cases, and uncontested divorces. Judge Brinkley is actively involved in her community. She was recognized by Legacy magazine as one of the 25 Most Influential and Prominent Black Women in Business for 2012. Judge Brinkley was awarded the 2010 Wilkie D. Ferguson, Jr. Bar Association Pro Bono Award, and the 2009 Ray Pearson Guardian Ad Litem Pro Bono Award by the Eleventh Judicial Circuit Family Division Judges for her representation of children in contested family cases. Judge Brinkley is also a Teen Court Judge, where teens are the accused, the attorneys, and the jurors, and regularly volunteers for law school and professional mock trials, and events that promote the law, the judiciary and the community. She is admitted to practice law in the State of Florida, as well as the Southern and Middle Districts of the U.S. District Court.