Jackie Powell is the best of three good choices

Voters have three intriguing options for this Broward County Court seat: a former bar owner, a long-time foster mom and a woman who immigrated to the United States from Jamaica at age 16. Each brings engaging personal experiences and solid legal expertise to the race, but we recommend Jackie Powell for the Group 19 seat.

Powell, 50, arrived in New York City at 16 and “learned that to help my parents I had to help myself,” she said during the endorsement interview at the Sun Sentinel.

She began learning the law long before she attended college, working as a paralegal at a Fort Lauderdale firm. She got a bachelor’s degree from Florida Atlantic University in 2008, and at age 30 started law school. She earned a law degree in 2003 at the Shepard Broad College of Law at Nova Southeastern University. And she has slowly built a respectable legal career while playing important leadership roles at the Gateway Church in Fort Lauderdale.

Powell said one reason she is seeking the judgeship is because “too few blacks run” and that leaves the Broward bench with too few minorities.

Her opponents have compelling resumes, too. Allison Gilman, 50, said she “came from nothing” and built a law practice that once employed 60 people. One of her goals was to build a firm that had a predominantly female staff. “I wanted to inspire other women who were afraid to go out on their own,” she said during the endorsement interview.

Gilman said her firm is much smaller now, but she still focuses on women — clients who have been abused physically or mentally. She started her legal career with a six-year stint at the Broward Public Defender’s Office. In 1996, she started Gilman & Associates, which handles both civil and criminal cases.

Besides the law, Gilman’s passion is being a foster mother. “I believe my firsthand experience with a child who has suffered from neglect or a drug-abusing parent gives me insights to a world more people never see,” she wrote in a questionnaire for the Presidents’ Council of Democratic Clubs and Caucuses.

The third candidate in the race is John “Jack” Phillips, 62, who owned and operated a bar for more than 10 years while pursuing his legal career. Phillips owned Brownie’s on Andrews Avenue, one of Fort Lauderdale’s oldest bars.

“We weren’t fancy,” Phillips told the Sun Sentinel after he sold it in 2010. “It was dark and old and that’s why people liked it.”

Phillips is from New Jersey and learned his bartending skills working at the Jersey Shore during summer breaks from college. He said he “learned more as a bartender” about dealing with people than he did in law school. “You need to be able to relate to the litigants.”

Phillips said during the endorsement interview that having business experience helps a judge run an efficient and cordial courtroom. He touted his work as a lawyer over the last 30 years.

“I’ve been the kind of lawyer that you can call and talk to about most any legal problem because I’ve seen and successfully litigated most it,” he said in his questionnaire.

Powell spends some of her time outside the courtroom working at Gateway Church. A parishioner there for 28 years, she served as the Youth Director for 17 years. She’s also been Associate Pastor of Outreach Ministry “facilitating support to persons who have asked for any kind of help.”

Powell got her bachelor’s degree from Florida Atlantic University and her law degree from Nova. She is married and lives in Plantation.

Phillips earned a bachelor’s degree from the College of William & Mary in Virginia in 1982. He got his law degree from Seton Hall University in New Jersey. In 2005 he earned an MBA from Florida Atlantic University. He is single and lives in Fort Lauderdale.

Gilman has a criminology degree from Florida State University and received her law degree from St. Thomas University School of Law in Miami Gardens. She is single and lives in Fort Lauderdale.

If no one gets more than 50 percent of the vote in August, the top two vote-getters will face off on the November ballot.