Howard M. Talenfeld - Lawyer in Fort Lauderdale, FL

Howard M. Talenfeld is a Partner in the firms Fort Lauderdale office. He is the Practice Lead of the Justice for Kids Division, the firms national practice dedicated to providing legal services to abused, disabled, and catastrophically injured children harmed at home, in child welfare and foster care settings, group home settings and residential treatment centers, as well as all children harmed by the acts of others.

One of the nations preeminent childrens rights attorneys, Howard has spent three decades representing and protecting thousands of children in cases of foster care abuse, child sexual abuse, child rape, and other harm, in child welfare settings. Since the 1990s, when Howard began representing at-risk minors, he has amassed successes in trial courts, appellate courts, and direct settlement negotiations. His creative legal approaches have achieved extraordinary results in both earning significant damage awards? often in excess of Floridas sovereign immunity limits? as well as bringing to justice those responsible for catastrophic harm to children.

His work not only has achieved multi?million dollar damage awards, but his cases have resulted in landmark decisional law protecting the rights of children and disabled persons. He and the legal teams he has led, have ushered in systemic change in how government agencies and private institutions care for societys most vulnerable citizens.

Howard began his career representing the state of Florida in lawsuits involving the foster care system, childrens mental health system, juvenile justice system, state psychiatric hospitals, and Medicaid services. He pioneered defenses that advocate for the improvement and reform of human service systems, while protecting states rights and avoiding federal over-sight. He also represented Floridas governors, secretaries of state agencies, the Insurance Commissioner, the Legislature, and Floridas Auditor General in civil rights cases in federal and state court.

Beyond the courtroom, Howard has argued for systemic reform before many state and national groups, including the U.S. Congress, Florida legislative committees, the National Association of State Mental Health Lawyers, and the American Public Welfare Association. He helped to establish tens of millions of dollars in annual funding for child welfare programs, helped write laws impacting child victims of sexual abuse and rape, and he successfully advocated for passage of a State House bill requiring minor victims of sexual abuse or trafficking, those prescribed psychotropic medications or those who have been committed to a residential treatment facilities, to be able to have attorneys represent them in all legal or administrative proceedings.

Howard earned both his Bachelor of Arts degree and Juris Doctor degree from the University of Miami.