From forklift operator to the bench: Lance Neff appointed 2nd Judicial Circuit judge

Lance Neff, general counsel for the Florida Department of Corrections and a judge advocate for the Florida National Guard, has been appointed to the 2nd Judicial Circuit bench, succeeding the late Circuit Judge Kevin Carroll.

Gov. Ron DeSantis announced the appointment of Neff in a news release Oct. 19, more than seven months after Carroll’s death March 15 from a heart attack. The timing means the seat, which would have appeared on ballots next year had the governor made the appointment sooner, won’t come up for grabs until 2026.

Neff went to high school in Waycross, Georgia, and earned a bachelor’s degree at Valdosta State University and a law degree at Florida Coastal School of Law, where he was a founding member and president of it chapter of the Federalist Society, a conservative legal organization.

He spent much of his career with the Florida Attorney General’s Office, serving as assistant attorney general from January 2008 to April 2012 and senior assistant attorney general from December 2012 to August 2014. After a brief stint in private practice, he worked again as senior assistant attorney general from December 2014 to June 2020, when he was appointed to the FDC post.

“I have served the people of the state of Florida my entire career, both in state government and in the Florida Army National Guard,” Neff said in an email last week to the Democrat. “I am humbled that Gov. DeSantis appointed me to the 2nd Judicial Circuit, and I look forward to serving all the residents of this circuit."

Neff, who resigns Nov. 3 from the Department of Corrections, will be sworn in Nov. 6. His investiture has not yet been scheduled.

In his application for circuit court nomination, Neff said that he grew up on a dirt road in South Georgia, but also lived in Rome, Italy, and Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he attended Harvard Divinity School.

“I have been a forklift operator in a warehouse and an auto parts salesman,” Neff wrote. “I have interned for a federal magistrate judge and clerked in a state appellate court. I have manned a M240B (machine gun) for a 12-hour shift while deployed to a declared hostile fire zone. I have performed prison ministry in a county jail and assisted soldiers in obtaining treatment for PTSD and drug abuse.”

He said his “wide range of life experience” will help him bring “perspective and understanding” to the bench.

“Having trial experience and the ability to run a courtroom is only part of what makes a good trial judge,” he wrote. “Trial judges should have a broad base of experience and interaction with many different groups of people. Such experience helps a judge understand why people have found themselves in a court of law and helps the judge understand their issues.”

Neff said he has a “deep appreciation and respect” for the rule of law and understands “the proper role” of a judge, writing “never would I stray from Federalist No. 78 and substitute my pleasure of what the law should be rather than what the legislative body enacted.”

“In becoming a member of the Florida Bar, a member of the Georgia Bar, an officer in the United States Army and an officer in the Florida National Guard, I have sworn oaths to defend and protect the United States Constitution and the Florida Constitution several times," he wrote. "I take those oaths earnestly and I will act fairly and justly in all that I do.”

He noted in his application that he serves as general counsel for the state’s largest agency, with 24,000 employees, 85,000 inmates and 145,000 probationers. He said that in litigation alone, he oversees 1,500 cases in state and federal court and administrative agencies.

Neff, 44, is married with two children. In 2017, he was the recipient of the Florida Government Bar Association’s Government Attorney of the Year award.

Contact Jeff Burlew at jburlew@tallahassee.com or 850-599-2180.

This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Lance Neff appointed 2nd Judicial Circuit judge by Gov. Ron DeSantis