Shutts & Bowen LLP is pleased to announce that Tallahassee partner and Chair of the Constitutional Law Section, Ricky Polston, was recently appointed Chair of the Florida Supreme Court Workgroup, charged with determining the role of the American Bar Association (ABA) in Bar admission requirements.
Ricky and his fellow esteemed panel members have been tasked with evaluating the current ABA accreditation requirements in the Bar admission rules and to propose possible alternatives. Currently, the Florida Supreme Court’s rules require graduation from an ABA accredited law school as a prerequisite to taking the Bar exam. The Court believes a study of this kind is warranted due to increasing public interest in governments’ reliance on ABA accreditation in regulations dealing with lawyer licensing and access to financial aid.
A former Chief Florida Supreme Court Justice, Ricky was appointed Chair of the Workgroup, which will submit its report to the Court by September 30, 2025. A distinguished litigator who works across the Insurance, Appellate and Government Law practice areas, Ricky also was an adjunct professor at the Florida State University College of Law, teaching various courses including Insurance Law, Florida Constitutional Law, and Florida Alternative Dispute Resolution for twenty years.
The Florida Supreme Court formed the workgroup as an advisory body to assess the current rules requiring ABA involvement in the Bar admission process. The workgroup will be guided in its study and deliberations by the goals of promoting excellence in Florida’s legal profession and providing high-quality, cost-effective, and innovative legal education and meeting Floridians’ need for legal services.
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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.