Sunny Isles Beach City Attorney Hans Ottinot was elected chair of the Miami-Dade Circuit Judicial Nominating Commission, the Florida Bar announced Monday.

Ottinot served as vice chair under outgoing chair Luis Suarez, a Boies Schiller Flexner partner in Miami. The new vice chair is Miami attorney Hayden O'Byrne, a K&L Gates associate who was appointed to the commission in January.

The nonpartisan nine-member commission screens applicants for the Miami-Dade circuit and county bench, sending three to six names to Gov. Rick Scott for his consideration. In recent years, the JNC has heard calls from voluntary bar associations to help promote diverse candidates.

Ottinot is a member of the Haitian Lawyers Association, Caribbean Bar Association, the historically black Wilkie D. Ferguson Bar Association and Cuban American Bar Association.

O'Byrne is a commercial litigator and the leader of the South Florida Lawyers chapter of the Federalist Society, a conservative and libertarian group.