Former Trump White House counsel named interim dean of Florida International University College of Law
A former personal attorney for President Donald Trump and a former White House counsel during the first Trump administration will become the interim dean of the Florida International University College of Law, starting in August.
The move comes after Florida’s January move to become the second among a handful of Republican-led states to distance itself from the ABA Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar as the Florida Supreme Court opened the door to other law school accreditors, allowing graduates from non-ABA-accredited law schools to take that state’s bar.
The move was later blessed by the Federal Trade Commission, sending a 14-page letter to the Florida Supreme Court to “applaud the amendment.”
Lawyer Daniel Z. Epstein represented Trump in his lawsuit against the Department of Justice for its investigation into possible ties between Russia and his 2016 campaign and during the 2022 search led by the FBI for classified documents at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida.
During Trump’s first term in office, Epstein worked as a senior associate counsel and a special assistant to the president in the White House. In early 2020, Epstein’s 2019 nomination to the U.S. Court of Federal Claims was withdrawn after being neither confirmed nor rejected by the U.S. Senate.
Epstein, the vice president of America First Legal, a conservative litigation group, taught at the St. Thomas University Benjamin L. Crump College of Law, now known as the St. Thomas University College of Law, for more than three years, and he has worke as the chair of Palm Beach State College.
The Florida International University College of Law had 581 JD students in 2025, according to the most recent information submitted to the ABA, and a first-time bar pass rate of 88.34%.
Michelle D. Mason has worked as the interim dean of the law school since May 2025, after former dean Antony Page stepped down and returned to a faculty position.
Other politically connected Republicans have been named to top roles at Florida’s public universities, including Jeanette Nunez, the state’s former lieutenant governor, who was hired as the president of Florida International University last year at the request of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.
Hat tip to the Miami Herald.
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