Craig Alan McCarthy (born August 13, 1967) is a judge, lawyer, and politician from Florida. He moved to Florida in 1979, and graduated from the United States Military Academy in 1989, serving as a member of the Berlin Brigade until returning to the United States to attend law school at Florida State University College of Law. He has practiced many areas of law, eventually opening his own practice for primarily dependency law. He has been an attorney on multiple cases that have gained both national and international attention, including the Rifqa Bary case and the Sharlyn Singh case. He was elected to the Ochlockonee River Soil and Water Conservation District and ran for the Florida House of Representatives out of District 36 as a Republican. On June 1, 2021, he was appointed a general magistrate of the Ninth Judicial Circuit Court of Florida. On July 11, 2022, McCarthy was appointed to the bench as a Florida circuit court judge. Life Early life McCarthy was born in New Jersey and moved to Brevard County, Florida with his family in 1979 at the age of eleven. McCarthy attended Satellite High School, where he served as student body president; he graduated in 1985. Military service McCarthy attended the United States Military Academy on the nomination of United States Senator Paula Hawkins and then-Congressman Bill Nelson, graduating in 1989. After graduation, McCarthy became a commissioned officer in the United States Army, serving as a field artillery officer at Fort Sill in Oklahoma. Following this appointment, McCarthy was deployed overseas as a member of the Berlin Brigade. In Berlin, he was the youngest battalion staff level fire support officer in the United States military. McCarthy left active military service in 1992, but returned to service as a member of the United States Army Reserve. Legal career McCarthy received his Juris Doctor from Florida State University College of Law. He began practicing law in Florida in 1995; his career has covered multiple areas of law. Following graduation from law school, McCarthy began his career as a legal aid in Central Florida. Afterward, he worked in medical license regulation for the state of Florida, and then in employment and civil rights law. Moving to Orlando in 2001, McCarthy worked for the Florida Department of Children and Families, before opening a private firm, where he practices juvenile and dependency law and as an attorney ad litem for children