Joni Armstrong Coffey

Prof. Joni Armstrong Coffey specializes in Land Use and Planning. After receiving her J.D. from the University of Florida, Joni continued to South Florida, where she joined the Miami-Dade County Attorney’s Office in 1982. In addition to being Chief in the Zoning, Land, Use and Environment Section, Professor Coffey teaches at St Thomas University School of Law and the University of Miami School of Law.

Prof. Joni Armstrong Coffey heads the Zoning, Land Use and Environment Section of the Miami-Dade County Attorney’s Office in Miami, Florida. Her practice includes litigation in federal and state courts and administrative agencies, as well as advising local government officials and agencies in transactional and regulatory matters. Ms. Coffey is currently Chair of The Florida Bar’s statewide Board of Legal Specialization and Education, which oversees the board certification program for the Bar. She has been a Florida Bar Board Certified City, County and Local Government Lawyer since 1996. Ms. Coffey is past chair of the City, County and Local Government Law Section of The Florida Bar, and has served on the Executive Council of the Section since 1990. She has been the recipient of the statewide Paul S. Buchman and the Ralph A. Marsicano Awards for public law service. She has lectured in numerous continuing legal education courses, including those presented by the National Judicial College, The Florida Bar, and the Florida Planning and Zoning Association, and she teaches as an adjunct law professor in the areas of land use and state constitutional law. Ms. Coffey is AV-rated by the Martindale Hubbell® peer-review attorney rating service, and has been recognized in Florida Trend’s Legal Elite and the South Florida Legal Guide (Government Attorneys). Published articles include High Hopes, Hollow Harvest: State Remedies for Partial Regulatory Takings, The Urban Lawyer, Vol. 39, No.3 (Summer 2007); Practical Aspects of Quasi-Judicial Hearings: Basic Tools, Recent Fine-Tuning, Stetson Law Review, Vol. XXX No.3 (2001) and Private Property Rights Protection Legislation: Statutory Claims for Relief From Government Regulation, Florida Environmental and Land Use Law Treatise, Vol. III, Chapter 30 (Florida Bar 2001). Ms. Coffey received her B.A. summa cum laude from Florida State University, and graduated with honors from the University of Florida Law School, where she served as executive editor of the University of Florida Law Review. She was privileged to serve as judicial law clerk to the Honorable Peter T. Fay, U.S. Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit.