Attorneys
JODI SiegeL (SHE, HER, HERS)
Executive Director
Jodi Siegel has been an attorney with Southern Legal Counsel since 1985, and became its Executive Director in July 2004. A predominant portion of Ms. Siegel’s responsibilities at SLC is in representing individuals with disabilities in a variety of forums. She has litigated class and individual actions involving federal constitutional and statutory actions under the Federal Civil Rights Act, the Federal Rehabilitation Act, the Americans With Disabilities Act and the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act. She also has presented extensively to various groups on special education and other issues.
Siegel was an Adjunct Professor for Nova Southeastern University’s Shepard Broad Law Center teaching a Masters Level program in Special Education Law from 2006-2018. She has been the Director of SLC’s Education Advocacy Project since 1999, which is funded by The Florida Bar Foundation to provide state support and train, support, mentor and co-counsel legal service/aid lawyers and advocates to increase and improve special education advocacy. She is a Past Chair of the Board of Directors and Past Treasurer of the national organization The Council of Parent Attorneys and Advocates (COPAA), whose mission is to improve the quality and quantity of legal assistance for parents of children with disabilities. She coordinated the 2003 and 2004 national conferences for COPAA, and has been active on the Conference Design team since then. She is a Past Chair of The Florida Bar Public Interest Law Section.
Siegel is a member of The Florida Bar, the U.S. Middle, Northern and Southern Districts of Florida, and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. She received her B.A. in 1982 from New College (Honors College of University of South Florida), Sarasota, Florida; and a J.D. in 1985 from the University of Florida College of Law, Gainesville, Florida. She was the Senior Research Editor for one semester and Senior Student Works Editor for two semesters with the University of Florida Law Review.
SIMONE CHRISS (SHE, HER, HERS)
Director of Transgender Rights Initiative
Simone Chriss began working at SLC in 2016 after graduating from the University of Florida Levin College of Law, where she received her J.D. with honors. Chriss is the Director of the organization's Transgender Rights Initiative, developed by SLC to fill a gap in access to justice by systemically providing assistance to the transgender community in areas such as access to name and gender marker changes, obtaining accurate IDs, representation in educational proceedings, protection from discriminatory policies, and more. She conducts LGBTQ+ cultural competency trainings and transgender rights trainings statewide and nationally, and presents transgender name and gender marker change workshops throughout Florida. She is currently engaged in litigation against the State of Florida with federal lawsuits challenging the discriminatory exclusion of coverage for gender-affirming medical care through Florida’s Medicaid Program and the State Employee health insurance program, as well as active federal litigation challenging the Florida law known as “Don’t Say Gay/Trans.”
Chriss utilizes federal impact litigation, policy advocacy, and community education/training to bring about systemic reform in the areas of LGBTQ+ rights, child welfare, implementing trauma-informed services, ending the criminalization of homelessness, and special education. Chriss also works with the UF Health Youth Gender Program through a Medical Legal Partnership ("MLP"), through which she screens transgender youth and families for health harming legal needs. She then provides the families free legal assistance on issues such as navigating discriminatory health insurance issues, ensuring access to bathrooms and consistent use of affirmed names and pronouns at school, and obtaining legal name/gender marker changes and amending government-issued identification documents, among others.
Chriss serves as an Attorney ad Litem for the Eighth Judicial Circuit's registry for dependent children with special needs. She is a member of The Florida Bar, the U.S. Northern, Middle, and Southern District Courts of Florida, and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. Chriss is a member of the National LGBTQ+ Bar, a member of the Executive Council of the Public Interest Law Section (PILS) of the Florida Bar, as well as the PILS Children's Rights Committee and the Advocacy Committee, and was appointed to the Florida Bar's Standing Committee on Diversity and Inclusion. Chriss is a recipient of the National LGBTQ+ Bar Association's 2022 Award 40 Best LGBTQ+ Lawyers Under 40, and was awarded the 2021 “Voice for Equality Award” by statewide LGBTQ+ advocacy group Equality Florida.
CHELSEA DUNN (SHE, HER, HERS)
Director of DECRIMINALIZING Poverty Project
Chelsea Dunn joined Southern Legal Counsel as a Staff Attorney in July 2018. She helped establish SLC’s Healthy Kids Medical-Legal Partnership with UF Health, which seeks to resolve the health-harming legal needs of some of Florida’s underserved children. She also leads SLC’s efforts to end the criminalization of poverty by challenging governmental laws and policies aimed at arresting rather housing people experiencing homelessness.
Dunn came to SLC from the Child and Family Law Division of Committee for Public Counsel Services (CPCS), the Massachusetts Public Defender’s office, where she worked as a Supervising Staff Attorney, representing indigent parents and children in dependency cases. During her seven years with CPCS, Dunn was frequent presenter in a number of trainings, including trainings to certify Massachusetts practitioners in dependency and termination of parental rights cases. She co-authored a model memorandum distributed to child welfare practitioners statewide regarding the Department of Children and Families’ (DCF) provision of services under the Americans with Disabilities Act, an update on the “Privilege and Confidentiality” chapter of the Massachusetts Child Welfare Practice Manual, as well as two letter commentaries on new DCF regulations related to family assessments and service planning.
Dunn is a member of The Florida Bar and the three federal Florida district courts, as well as a member of both the Massachusetts and Virginia State Bars, and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. She obtained her J.D. from the University of Richmond School of Law in 2009, where she graduated magna cum laude and received the Nina R. Kestin Service Award for contributions to the school, community, and legal profession. She served as an editor for the Richmond Journal of Law and the Public Interest, in which she had two comments published. After graduating from law school, she spent two years clerking for Senior Justice Harry L. Carrico of the Virginia Supreme Court. Chelsea received a B.A. in English and a B.S. in Sociology at the College of Charleston in South Carolina.
Daniel Marshall (he, Him, HiS)
PRO BONO DIRECTOR
Daniel Marshall joined SLC in 2022. He is a civil rights attorney who has focused his legal career advocating for criminal justice reform and its impact on prisoners, their families and the community. He has litigated numerous criminal, federal civil rights, and state public records cases, including dozens of jury trials. He also has lectured on numerous issues, including prisoners’ civil rights, Florida’s “Stand your Ground” law, medical marijuana, and issues concerning the elderly and criminal law, as well giving presentations in a number of schools in the community.
After earning his J.D. degree from the University of Connecticut School of Law, Dan worked at the Office of the Public Defender in West Palm Beach, Florida for nearly nine years handling felonies, misdemeanors, juvenile delinquency, and appellate cases. After leaving the public defender’s office, Dan has worked at several organizations focusing on criminal defense and civil rights litigation.
Dan is admitted to practice in all Florida state courts, as well as the U.S. Supreme Court, the U.S. District Courts for the Northern, Middle, and Southern Districts of Florida, the Eastern District of Michigan, the District of New Mexico and the District of Columbia. In a prior life, Dan worked as a spacecraft engineer at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., as part of the team that controlled one of NASA’s science satellites. He graduated cum laude from Colgate University with a B.A. in physics and astronomy.