When Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Steven Leifman speaks out, people listen. A cursory search of him online will show him quoted in a variety of publications ranging from the local, including the Miami Herald and Miami New Times, to the national such as the Huffington Post, USA Today, POLITICO and more.

All of this attention has kept Leifman constantly on the move. When the DBR caught up with him on an early November afternoon, he had recently returned from New York City to accept the Pardes Humanitarian Prize in Mental Health, an award bestowed on those who’ve helped to advance how mental health and addiction issues are treated in the public sphere.