CFACDL 2023-2024 BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Rachel Mattie - President
Rachel Mattie is a criminal defense attorney at The Umansky Law Firm in Orlando, Florida. Ms. Mattie majored in Legal Studies at the University of Central Florida before graduating from Barry Law School in 2014. In law school, Ms. Mattie was Editor-in-Chief of the law review and a Research Assistant, with edited articles appearing in the Harvard Law & Policy Review and other publications. Ms. Mattie has also had her own articles published in law reviews, with topics including the Florida’s Stand Your Ground Law and the National Organ Transplant Act.
Ms. Mattie has devoted her entire legal career to criminal defense, starting out as a legal assistant for a criminal defense firm in Orlando, and then becoming an Assistant Public Defender for the Ninth Judicial Circuit in 2014 upon graduation. In 2017, she made the transition into private practice. In 2023, the firm appointed her head of the criminal defense department. Ms. Mattie handles many different criminal cases but focuses primarily on DUI defense. She is barred in Florida and in the U.S. District Court of the Middle District of Florida.
Diana Miers - President-Elect
Diana Miers is a criminal defense attorney with the Office of the Public Defender, Ninth Circuit. An avid Gator fan, she studied criminal justice at the University of Florida before graduating from Western Michigan University School of Law. Diana started her career as an Assistant State Attorney before turning her efforts to indigent defense. A transplant to Orlando from the Midwest she was quickly taken with the Orlando spirit and has worked to serve the community in many areas including helping to establish the Orange County Veteran’s Court and organizations focusing on the empowerment of women and children like Ronald McDonald House Charities of Central Florida and the Junior League.
Melissa Vickers - Vice President
Melissa Vickers is Board Certified by the Florida Bar in Criminal Trial Law. She has been practicing law for over 20 years and has represented adults and juveniles in every aspect of their cases. Ms. Vickers is a native Floridian. She was the recipient of the Joe DuRocher Foot Solder of the Constitution Award as well as the Franklin Graham Award for outstanding service. Ms. Vickers has served in almost every role one can serve at a public defender’s office, starting her experience in public service as an intern. Ms. Vickers is a member of the National Association of Criminal Trial Lawyers, Florida Association of Criminal Trial Lawyers, and a member of the Central Florida Association of Women Lawyers and the League of Women Voters.
Andrew Reath - Secretary
Andrew Reath is originally from Miramar, Florida. He graduated from the University of Florida in 2016, triple majoring in Philosophy, Linguistics, and English. He returned to the University of Florida and obtained his law degree in 2019. While in law school, Andrew was the recipient of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyer’s (NACDL) Diversity Summer Law Fellowship in 2018. Through the fellowship, Andrew interned at the public defender’s office in San Francisco. He also gained valuable experience learning death penalty and federal criminal law interning at the Florida Capital Resource Center and the Middle District Federal Defender’s Office. After law school, Andrew began his career as an Assistant Public Defender for the Ninth Judicial Circuit. As a public defender, Andrew handled hundreds of cases. In 2023, Andrew was awarded the James T. Miller Scholarship Award by the Florida Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (FACDL). Andrew is also a member of the Greater Orlando Asian American Bar Association (GOAABA) and the Orange County Bar Association Foundation (OCBAF).
Andrew Clark – Treasurer
Andrew Clark is an assistant public defender, working in Seminole and Orange Counties for the past 13 years. At the Orange County office, he is responsible for a serious felony docket and trains new attorneys in jury selection. Mr. Clark has earned his reputation as an excellent trial attorney in his over 100 felony jury trials. He is board certified in Criminal Trial law by the Florida Bar since 2012. A member of the CFACDL Board of Directors for the past several years, Mr. Clark has a passion for the organization and its mission in the Central Florida legal community.
Jim Skuthan - Director at Large
Jim Skuthan has been an attorney with the Federal Defender’s Office in the Middle District of Florida since 1990. From 2000 to 2019 he served as First Assistant Defender in the office. During that time, he was Acting Federal Defender in 2008 and also from January 2020, until June 2021. He is currently the First Assistant Federal Defender, MDFL and is board certified by The Florida Bar in Criminal Trial Law and Criminal Appellate Practice. For the past twenty five years, he has lectured at the Florida Board Certification seminar on the topic of federal sentencing. He serves on the Board of Directors for the Florida Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, (FACDL). He is a past president of the Federal Bar Association, Orlando Chapter and has served on The Florida Bar Judicial Nominating Committee for the 18th Judicial Circuit, and The Florida Bar Grievance Committee for the 9th Judicial Circuit. He is a past president of the Central Florida Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (CFACDL). Mr. Skuthan received his undergraduate degree from Auburn University and his law degree from Florida State University.
David Varet - Director at Large
David Varet is a passionate, lovable, and charismatic defender of criminal rights of the indigent in Central Florida. Following his graduating FSU Law in 2012, Mr. Varet came to Orlando to work at the Office of the Public Defender, 9th Circuit, where he quickly worked his way up the ranks to felony court. After a quick sojourn to private practice, Mr. Varet returned to the Office of Regional Conflict Counsel, 5th District to continue defending the indigent, where he currently remains. When not visiting clients or researching case law, Mr. Varet enjoys spending time with his perfect, perfect dog, cooking, and watching his beloved New York Yankees.
Susan Malove - Director at Large
Susan Malove is a Board Certified Criminal Trial Attorney practicing exclusively criminal defense in Florida state and federal courts. In addition to her private practice, since 2015 she has served as a Criminal Justice Act panel attorney for the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida, Orlando Division. Through the CJA panel, Ms. Malove represents indigent defendants in federal court at the trial court level as well as on federal habeas petitions. In January of 2020, she was one of two Orlando attorneys appointed to the CJA Panel Advisory Committee by Chief United States District Judge Steven D. Merryday to serve alongside nine United States Magistrate Judges from across the Middle District of Florida, and in 2021 she was selected to serve on the Orlando Division CJA Mentor Panel to advise and assist panel attorneys handling the defense of various types of federal prosecutions.
Ms. Malove is also a member of the Florida Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, and has served on the FACDL board of directors since 2019. She currently serves on the Jim Miller Scholarship Committee, and previously served on the Marsy’s Law/Legislative Committee. In 2017 she served on the faculty of the Florida Bar’s Basic Criminal Law seminar and presented on Sentencing Law for the Florida Bar Young Lawyers Division.
She began her legal career as an Assistant Public Defender in the Ninth Judicial Circuit after earning her Juris Doctorate, cum laude, from the University of Florida Levin College of Law in 2009 and her bachelor’s degree in Public Relations from the University of Florida in 2006.
Muna Abraham - Director at Large
Muna Abraham is a Central Florida native, she graduated from the University of Central Florida in 2014 majoring in Legal Studies. She then attended the University of Florida and obtained her law degree in 2014. During her time in law school, she interned with the Florida Capital Resource Center where she assisted in representing defendants facing the death penalty. Muna was one of the few participants selected for a rigorous Advanced Trial Advocacy course, where she was trained by experienced Federal Judges and top Florida Bar attorneys in Miami, FL. She was a competing member of the Alternative Dispute Resolution Team at the University of Florida and competed in national competitions against students from top-tier law school. Putting her legal experience to work, Muna began her career as an Assistant Public Defender for the Ninth Judicial Circuit. She then transitioned to private criminal defense in 2022 and continues to be an aggressive advocate for her clients. Muna is an active member of the Central Florida Association of Criminal Defense Attorneys, Orange County Bar Association, and the Young Lawyers Section of the Florida Bar.
Dominique Cunningham – Director at Large
Dominique Cunningham is currently an Assistant Public Defender with the Ninth Judicial Circuit. She has been with the office since being barred and has been very passionate about criminal defense work since the start of my higher education. She’s always been one to try to be involved, from e-board positions in undergrad to SBA in law school. She is honored to have been nominated for one of the positions with CFACDL. She would like to have the opportunity to help plan events and help further criminal defense attorneys in the Central Florida area.
Nancy Miceli - Director at Large
Nancy Miceli is currently an Assistant Public Defender at the Ninth Circuit. After clerking for Judge Leblanc while in her final year at Barry University School or Law, Nancy discovered her passion for criminal defense. Ms. Miceli spent her undergrad at Hawaii Pacific University. She also has a passion of service. While in law school she would travel around the country and give seminars on Mental Health to Student Athletes. Ms. Miceli looks forward to continuing to serve and promote the interests and ideals of criminal defense lawyers by serving as part of the CFACDL Board.
Daniel Cull - Director at Large
Daniel Cull is a criminal defense attorney with the Office of the Public Defender for the Ninth Judicial Circuit. He graduated from the Ohio State University at the undergraduate level and received his Juris Doctorate from Washington State University in St. Louis in 2018. Mr. Cull practices full time with a felony docket and has over thirty criminal trials. While in law school, Mr. Cull participated in multiple criminal law clinic and interned with the Ohio Justice and Policy Center. Mr. Cull also received the CALI awards for Criminal Procedure: Adjudication and Legal Research Methodologies; the Dean’s Public Service Award; and the Dean’s Fellowship Award. Mr. Cull was published in the Washington University’s Global Studies Law Review on a criminal subject. At the undergraduate level, Mr. Cull received a Phi Beta Kappa designation and graduated magna cum laude. Prior to law school, Mr. Cull worked as a pricing analyst.
Lorena Kcomt - Director at Large
