Ricky Polston, a partner in the Tallahassee office of Shutts & Bowen LLP and Chair of the firm’s Constitutional Law Section, recently spoke with City & State Florida about his decision to step down from the bench and ultimately join Shutts.
In a Q&A session with the publication’s Editor-in-Chief, Ricky spoke about the most challenging cases that came before him as a judge; his decision to join Citizens Insurance and then Shutts & Bowen; the type of work he will take on at the firm; and his background and personal story.
“I have a working life that is rapidly coming to a short runway and I would like to be able to better provide for my family in the rest of my working career,” Ricky stated during the interview. “And so when (Citizens’ CEO) Tim Cerio called about working there, it was a good opportunity for me to do that. And then Shutts & Bowen presented another opportunity that I just could not pass up, to be able to work on the kinds of cases, to work with this firm that I have a deep respect for, and to be able to further my career in a way, hopefully, to end it with them, was too good of an opportunity to pass up.”
For the full discussion, please click here.
About Ricky L. Polston
Ricky Polston is a partner in the Tallahassee office of Shutts & Bowen LLP, where he is the Chair of the Constitutional Law Section and a member of the Appellate, Government Law, Insurance, and Litigation practice groups. A former Florida Supreme Court Justice from 2008-2023, he has more than 14 years of experience and has helped shape Florida jurisprudence for the last two decades. His experience at the Court includes various civil cases, statutory and constitutional validity issues, bond validations, orders of the Public Service Commission on utility rates and services, jurisdictional petitions, habeas corpus, mandamus, prohibition, and all writs petitions, various criminal cases (including those with the death penalty), various attorney disciplinary cases from The Florida Bar, attorney admission cases from The Florida Board of Bar Examiners, judicial discipline cases from the Judicial Qualification Commission, and rules petitions from various Florida Bar and Florida Supreme Court committees.