Roderick D. Vereen, Esq.

CIB Legal Counsel Roderick D. Vereen, Esq.

Roderick D. Vereen, Esq. Legal Counsel Citizens Investigative Board, City of North Miami 

Roderick D. Vereen, Esq., graduated from Florida State University, Tallahassee, Florida in 1984 with a B.S. degree in Criminology. In 1986, he attended The Southern University Law Center, located in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, where he served on the Law Review and the Moot Court Board. After graduating in 1989, he returned to Tallahassee, Florida, and began his legal career as an Assistant State Attorney for the Second Judicial Circuit. He also taught at Florida State University’s School of Criminology and Florida A & M University’s School of Criminal Justice as an adjunct professor. In 1989, he was voted Professor of the Year at Florida State University’s Panama City campus. 

In 1992, he became the first African American Assistant Federal Public Defender for the Northern District of Florida, in Pensacola, Florida. 

In 1995, he returned to Miami, Florida, and opened his solo practice, concentrating in the areas of federal and state criminal law. Some of his most notable cases, to date, are:

• U.S. V. Paul Hill (First Case in the United States to try the FACE ACT (Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances. 
• U.S. v. Salvador Magluta and Willie Falcon a/k/a “The Boys.”); 
• U.S. v. Chris Hall (Washington, D.C, drug kingpin and largest drug case in Washington, D.C., resulting in an acquittal; 
• State of Florida v. Alexander Bedford (Miami juvenile charged with the murder of his mother); 
• State v. Lionel Tate (Juvenile charged with the murder of his playmate); and 
• U.S. v. Stanley Phanor (Liberty City Seven and Liberty City Six (federal terrorism case)).

His national reputation grew even more due to his representation of Rachel Jeantel, the star witness in the Trayvon Martin case. 

Most recently, Mr. Vereen was featured in episode 6 of the Netflix documentary “Cocaine Cowboys, the Kings of Miami,” the story of the United States’ most notorious cocaine smugglers, Salvador Magluta and Willie Falcon. 

Mr. Vereen is nationally recognized as a legal correspondent and has appeared on the Tom Joyner Morning Show with Roland Martin, Piers Morgan, Nancy Grace, Politics Nation with Rev. Al Sharpton, the Martin Bashir Show, Jan Velez-Mitchell Show, and CNN with Don Lemon. 

He is a member of the Florida Bar, the Federal Bars of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida, the Middle District of Florida, the Northern District of Florida, the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals, Western District of Michigan and the United States Supreme Court. 

Mr. Vereen is past president of the Wilkie D. Ferguson, Jr. Bar Association (formerly known as the Black Lawyers Association). He is also a member of several professional and civic organizations, including the Fellows of the American Bar Foundation, the Fellows of the Dade County Bar Association, Federal Bar Association, Dade County Bar Association, Phi Alpha Delta Law Fraternity, International, Former At Large Member of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), Silver Life Member of the NAACP, Life Member of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc., Alpha Phi Omega National Service Fraternity, Inc., Seminole Lodge # 291, Prince Hall Masons, Kazah Temple #149 (A.E.A.O.N.M.S) Prince Hall Shriners, and I.B.P.O.E (Elks) and 5000 Role Models of Excellence. 

He is also a member of the Antioch Missionary Baptist Church in Miami Gardens, Florida.