Celeste Higgins began her legal career clerking for the Honorable Federico A. Moreno in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida. Building on that experience—and knowing she wanted to become a trial lawyer and criminal defense attorney—she joined the Federal Public Defender’s Office in the same district.

For more than 35 years, Celeste has represented individuals in federal court in cases spanning a broad range of complex criminal matters, including international terrorism, drug trafficking, OFAC violations, aggravated identity theft, and numerous fraud cases involving securities, banking, insurance, consumer, mail, and wire fraud. Her experience also includes defending clients charged with bank robbery, Medicare fraud, extortion, firearms violations, drug and immigration offenses, child pornography, and crimes committed on the high seas.

Celeste has tried more than 100 federal cases, including bench trials and civil forfeiture matters, and has appeared as counsel in over 1,000 federal cases in the Southern District of Florida. As a Federal Public Defender, she represented clients from all walks of life, including professionals and business leaders, and was recognized in Super Lawyers for government representation. She later served as a Supervising Attorney, mentoring and training new lawyers.

Celeste has extensive pretrial motion practice experience, including motions to suppress, motions to dismiss, post-trial motions, sentencing memoranda, and post-conviction litigation. She also has significant appellate experience. Known for her unwavering dedication, Celeste approaches each case as if it were the most important of her career—because for her clients, it is. She is fierce in her commitment to defend every client, every case, and every charge.

A passionate educator, Celeste has devoted much of her career to teaching trial advocacy. She has served as an Adjunct Faculty Member at the University of Miami School of Law for more than 20 years—originally appointed as one of the youngest attorneys ever to receive that honor. Between her tenure at the Federal Public Defender’s Office and founding her own firm in 2019, she served as Acting Director of the University of Miami Litigation Skills Program.

For over 15 years, Celeste has also taught trial skills, oral advocacy, and rule-of-law principles internationally. She has lectured to students, attorneys, professors, and judges, and her fluency in Spanish allows her to teach, train, and write in Spanish for native-speaking audiences.

In 2017, Celeste was elected to the American College of Trial Lawyers (ACTL). She serves on the State Committee, which vets prospective Fellows, and on the National Mock Trial Competition Committee, which oversees the organization’s prestigious national law school competition.

Education

• B.B.A., University of Miami School of Business, 1984

• J.D., University of Miami School of Law, 1990

  CLERKSHIP

• Hon. Judge Federico A. Moreno, U.S. District Court, Southern District of Florida, 1990-1991

  
  ADMISSIONS

• Florida

• U.S. Court of Appeals, Eleventh Circuit

• U.S. District Court, Southern District of Florida

• U.S. District Court, Middle District of Florida

  ASSOCIATIONS  

  American College of Trial Lawyers
  (Inducted 2017)

• State Committee Member

• National Mock Trial Competition Committee Member

• Regent Selection Committee Member

  Federal Bar Association

• Past President 2008-2009

• Member, Board of Directors

• Chair, Women’s Initiative Programs

• Florida Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (FACDL), Miami Chapter, Member, Past Secretary, and Past Board Member

• Criminal Justice Act (CJA) Committee, Member

• Criminal Justice Act (CJA), Panel member

• National Criminal Defense College, graduate, 1993

• Southern District of Florida Ad Hoc Committee on Attorney Admissions, Peer Review, and Attorney Grievance, Member

• Florida Bar, Member Criminal Law Section

• Florida Bar Grievance Committee, Member (2 terms)

  
  PUBLICATIONS & LECTURES 
  

• Presenter, 2024 American College of Trial Lawyers Annual Meeting

• Panelist, ABA, 39th Annual National Institute on White Collar Crime, Skills – Trial Practice Fundamentals III: Opening and Closing Statements

• University of Miami School of Law, Adjunct Faculty Member Litigation Skills Program (2000-present)

• University of Miami School of Law, Associate/Acting Director of the Litigation Skills Program (2018-2019)

• University of San Diego, Lecturer, OASIS Justice in Mexico Program

• American Bar Association, Lecturer and Consultant, Rule of Law Initiative Programs, Caribbean and South America, Lecturer and Professor, Colombia, Ecuador, Panama, Guatemala and Mexico

• National Institute of Trial Attorneys (NITA), Presenter and Lecturer

• Conference of Western Attorneys General (CWAG), Lecturer and Consultant

• Attorney General Alliance (AGA), Lecturer and Consultant

• Checchi and Company, Rule of Law Initiative Programs, Central and South America, Lecturer and Consultant in Colombia and El Salvador

• National Public Radio, Morning Edition: Ex-Florida Deputy Faces 11 Charges After Not intervening in School Shooting, Analyst

• Wall Street Journal, Deputy at Parkland School Shooting is Arrested, Analyst

• Miami Law Explainer (University of Miami School of Law): Season 2, Episode 1: A Billionaire Pedophile’s Sweetheart Deal

• New York Daily News: The Patriot Act and the Patriots owner: How the government abused its power to spy on Robert Kraft and sex workers, OP ED

• TC Palm: Could Robert Kraft skate because of “fake bomb threat” used to get video evidence? Analyst

• Sun Sentinel: Is sex trafficking enough reason for sneak-and-peek cameras? Legal experts aren’t so sure, Analyst