Barbara Pariente

Justice Pariente’s legal and judicial career has spanned over 50 years. She retired from the Florida Supreme Court in 2019, ending a 21 year career as a Supreme Court Justice, including a 2 year term as Chief Justice. 

After a two year federal judicial clerkship from 1973-1975, Justice Pariente settled in West Palm Beach. She first practiced civil trial litigation with the law firm of Cone Wagner Nugent from 1975-1983 until she formed her own firm of Pariente and Silber where she and Louis Silber had a successful practice from 1983-1993.

In September 1993, Justice Pariente was appointed to the Fourth District Court of Appeals, where she served until her appointment as the seventy-seventh Justice of the Florida Supreme Court on December 10, 1997.  

Justice Pariente was inducted into the Florida Women’s Hall of Fame in 2008. She is the recipient of numerous awards and honors, including the Leroy Collins Lifetime Achievement Award from Leadership Florida and the American College of Trial Lawyers’ Justice Sandra Day O’Connor Award, which recognizes a judge for their exemplary judicial independence.

Since her retirement, she has served as an expert witness on Florida law and spoken in many venues by invitation including to the League of Women Voters, the University of Florida’s state constitutional law class. She has participated in the Brennan Center’s symposium on the role of state courts in protecting constitutional rights. And with the 25 year anniversary of Bush v. Gore she has spoken and written about the decision and the implications for the current time.

Justice Pariente remains actively involved with the Legal Aid Society of Palm Beach County, the League of Women Voters and the Palm Beach County Chapter of the Florida Association of Women Lawyers.

Justice Pariente is married to Frederick A. Hazouri, who retired in January 2013 as a judge of the Fourth District Court of Appeal and served as a mediator for 12 years. Together, they have three married children, eleven grandchildren and one great grandchild. In 2003, Justice Pariente shared her successful treatment for breast cancer with the public, in hopes of promoting greater awareness of this disease.