Samantha Ward

About Samantha Ward

Samantha Ward never planned to become an attorney. She wanted to be a doctor—until organic chemistry derailed that plan and set her on a path toward criminal law. What followed was a remarkable 35-year legal career that has shaped the lives of countless Floridians.

A former public defender, prosecutor, and longtime circuit judge, Ward presided over more than 400 jury trials, helped guide Tampa’s court system through the COVID-19 pandemic, and handled some of the region’s highest-profile criminal cases—including the Seminole Heights serial killings. In 2016, she was among the first Florida judges to rule that the state couldn’t pursue the death penalty after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Florida’s capital sentencing scheme.

In 2025, Ward made another bold move: she resigned from the bench to join Lorenzo & Lorenzo, where she now works alongside longtime colleagues. With experience as a prosecutor, public defender, and judge, she brings a rare, 360-degree view of the criminal justice system—along with a reputation for fairness, sharp instincts, and a deep sense of duty to the people she serves.

 

Biography

Samantha Ward is a Florida Bar Board Certified Specialist in Criminal Trial Law—widely considered the “gold standard” of legal expertise, awarded only after an independent assessment by the Florida Bar. A retired Florida Circuit Court Judge, she brings more than 35 years of criminal law experience to her practice.

During her 16 years on the bench, Judge Ward presided over more than 400 jury trials and thousands of hearings, issuing countless warrants, orders, and written opinions that helped shape Florida law. Before taking the bench, she spent nearly four years as a prosecutor and over 15 years as a public defender, litigating complex and high-profile cases, including numerous first-degree murder trials.

She has significant experience with capital litigation. As a circuit judge, she was qualified under Florida’s Rules of General Practice and Judicial Administration to preside over death penalty cases. For more than a decade, she served as a faculty member on the statewide judicial training team, helping other judges become death penalty qualified.

In addition to her judicial work, Ward has spent over 20 years teaching trial advocacy to prosecutors and public defenders at the annual Gerald T. Bennett Prosecutor/Public Defender Training Program at the University of Florida. She has also presented at a wide range of continuing education programs for judges and attorneys in various areas of criminal trial law.

Her work has been widely recognized. In 2022, she received the Woman Lawyer of Achievement Award from the Florida Bar’s Young Lawyers Division. She was twice honored with the Hillsborough County Bar Association’s Robert W. Patton Outstanding Jurist Award (2013, 2016), and in 2009, she received the Florida Public Defender’s Association L. Clayton Nance Award for Devoted Public Service.

Ward continues to serve the legal community in leadership roles. She is a past president of the Executive Council of the Florida Bar Criminal Law Section and currently serves on the Florida Rules of Criminal Procedure Committee (past chair) and the Florida Supreme Court Criminal Jury Instruction Committee (past chair). She has also served for many years as the Hillsborough County Bar Association’s judicial liaison to the Young Lawyers Division and as co-chair of its annual Bench-Bar Seminar.

Samantha is married to retired Tampa firefighter Al Suarez. Their son, Alec Suarez, is a Hillsborough County firefighter.