Gov. DeSantis elevates one judge, appoints four lawyers to the bench

One sitting judge is getting a promotion, and four lawyers are donning robes for the first time, courtesy of appointments by Gov. Ron DeSantis.

At the top of the list is Judge Katherine Miller of Daytona Beach, who has served as a Judge in the Volusia County Court since 2023. She’s now taking a seat on the 7th Judicial Circuit, which covers Flagler, Putnam, St. Johns and Volusia.

Miller is filling a vacancy created under SB 2508, a measure DeSantis signed this year that increases the number of circuit and county court Judges statewide.

Also assuming judgeships due to SB 2508 are lawyers Frank Talbot of St. Johns County and Katherine Mish of Fort Pierce.

Talbot has served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Florida since 2002 and previously worked as an Assistant State Attorney in the 10th Judicial Circuit. DeSantis also appointed him to the 7th Judicial Circuit.

Mish, meanwhile, has worked as an attorney for Treasure Coast Legal since 2015 and was previously an associate attorney for Cleaveland & Cleaveland. The Governor named her to the 19th Judicial Circuit, which covers Indian River, Martin, Okeechobee and St. Lucie counties.

Steve Wilson of Vero Beach will join Mish there. A former Assistant State Attorney for the 19th Circuit, he has been an associate attorney at Rossway Swan Tierney Barry & Oliver since 2021.

He’s filling a vacancy created by the retirement of Judge Lawrence Mirman, an ex-Gov. Jeb Bush.

Kenneth Johnson, an Elkton lawyer, is also bound for the Putnam County Court after 16 years of service as an Assistant State Attorney for the 7th Judicial Circuit. He prosecuted cases in the 2nd Judicial Circuit.

Johnson fills a vacancy created by the Nov. 30 retirement of Elizabeth Morris, the 7th Judicial Circuit’s longest-serving judge.

Miller earned her Juris Doctor from Florida Coastal School of Law; Talbot earned his from Mercer University; Mish and Johnson earned their law degrees from Florida State University; and Wilson learned to practice law at the Thomas Goode Jones School.