Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis told two prosecutors their careers in public service will continue on Broward County benches this week. James Robert Harris was appointed to the 17th Judicial Circuit and Jeremy Franker was named to the Broward County Court bench. Harris replaces Judge Jonathan D. Lott, who was elevated to the Fourth District Court of Appeal last year. He’s been an assistant statewide prosecutor in the Florida Attorney General’s Office since June 2020, according to his LinkedIn, and previously spent more than a decade at Cole, Scott & Kissane. The soon-to-be-judge graduated from Florida State University College of Law in 2003 and was admitted to the Florida Bar in 2004. Harris was not immediately available for an interview Friday morning and AG James Uthmeier’s office did not immediately return the Daily Business Review’s request for comment. Franker is a career prosecutor who’s had stops in the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office, the Florida Office of the Attorney General and the U.S. Department of Justice. For the last year, he’s been deputy director of Joint Task Force Vulcan—the U.S. government’s efforts against the gang MS-13. He told the Daily Business Review in a phone interview Friday afternoon that his work has largely focused on large-scale investigations into organized crime and gang activity. He thinks his nearly two decades of public service is what’s best prepared him for the bench. As a judge, Franker said he will look to uphold civility and respect in his courtroom. “In my experience as an attorney, the judges I really enjoyed appearing in front of were the ones that really appreciated the lawyers that were civil to one and other, that even if they disagreed about the law or the evidence or the facts, that they could do so respectfully,” Franker said. “And that’s something that’s incredibly important to me as an attorney and I’ll carry that onto the bench with me.” Franker got the call from the governor’s office during a meeting Wednesday. The first person he phoned was his wife and high school sweetheart, Kara. The Kansas City native got his undergraduate degree from the University of Kansas and graduated from Saint Louis University School of Law in 2007. He takes the place of former Judge Mardi Levey Cohen, who resigned at the end of last year after facing suspension and reprimand for improper conduct during her 2022 reelection campaign. DeSantis made a flurry of appointments at the tail end of 2025 and in early 2026, including naming his sixth justice to the Florida Supreme Court. With less than a year left in the governor's mansion, he still has at least a few more chances to leave his mark on the state's judiciary.