- May 5, 2024
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Marc Dwyer
Age: 44
Family: Married for 19 years, three children
Quirky Fact: Gospel music recording artist with the group 7th Element
Bio: A Graduate of Queens College in New York and Florida Coastal University, Dwyer holds degrees in drama, psychology and a law degree. He ranked 17th in his class. Dwyer has volunteered in Teen Court and has had positions in Grand Haven Homeowner’s Association, Flagler County Human Services Allocation Committee, County Commissioners, and the Advisory Board at Bethune-Cookman University. He is a partner in a full-service law firm, where he has handled more than 750 cases.
What is one experience that led you to want to become a judge?
When I was in law school, which was where it clarified and crystallized for me. … I remember in particular the readings of Supreme Court Justice Benjamin Cardozo … just the brilliance of his writing and the reasoning of how certain laws are created. … And I realized how much of an impact judges can have on the lives of everyday people. …
And I ended up joining the court team, which the Moot Court, where you have to argue both sides. This is one of the most fun things that I did. In the morning you would go and argue on one side of the issue, and in the afternoon you would go argue the exact opposite side of the issue, with as much conviction as you argued the other side. And I did extremely well in those competitions. I actually ended up being the first person in my school to win the best oral advocate award at a statewide competition, here in Florida. I ended up taking my moot court team to nationals and we ended up finished second in the national competition which took place at the 11th Circuit Court in Georgia, and you consider that we were going up for schools that had been around for decades, some centuries. That we could achieve that, I just knew that the Lord had blessed me with a talent, to be able to analyze the law, understand it and do well from that position. …
What qualities are essential in a county judge?
Well a county judge, unlike circuit judges or federal judges is dealing with cases where because they’re over the small claims court a lot of clients will try to come in on their own. In other words, the controversy may be so small it’s not even worth having lawyers come in and argue for them. So a county judge really has to have discernment … They have to sit down with two people he never met and be able to distinguish and make a good judgment.
Wisdom’s at the top of the list. The ability to discern and be a quick study on individuals is very close to the top as well. Also temperament because when you’re in situations with folks that don’t know how to argue professionally, you still have to make sure the needs of justice are met.
What makes you the most qualified of all the candidates in this race?
Because of the reasons that I just stated and what kind of characteristics and candidate should have to be a judge. Those are just gifts that I’ve been given, and I have the experience and education to go along with and augment those gifts. I am not a career lawyer in that I did not come straight out of undergrad to law school as a kid. I spent my first 14 years working in corporate America and working for big companies. Learning how people operate. …
So I got experience solving problems, working with different agencies, with companies, with administrators, working on how to make systems better. And that’s what I bring to the table in coming to the judiciary.
If elected, what changes would you make to the way the county court is run?
The first thing, being a lawyer of course and having to come into the courts is I recognize some things, that as a lawyer are inefficient and are wasting time. Of course with lawyers if you’re wasting time you’re wasting people’s money. So that’s kind of an ancillary, negative effect.
One of the things I would want to do is if we know that we’re not going to be able to get attorneys in or clients in to start something at a certain time, we figure out a way for them to not show up at a certain time.
To maybe bring my corporate ideas in, to work with the clerk, this is one of the things I advocated in 2010 and have continued to stay on it. My firm has been working with the clerk of court on the electronic filing that is now here, and helping to roll it out, test it and make sure it’s up. It’s to accelerate that process so that attorneys can file things electronically and not have to come down to the courthouse and burden the court down with more paper. That’s areas where the computers can take care of things that will help the process to move more quickly.
Lastly, and probably most importantly, as a citizen of the county, looking and seeing how the judicial resources are not being used in this county, Flagler County has been on the top of the list for the last four years at the Supreme Court to be provided with additional judicial resources, the judges that we need both on the circuit and the county level, and each year the legislature just does not provide it. We need somebody who’s really not afraid to get in some legislators’ ears and talk and advocate on behalf of the people of the county.
