Dockworker is not the typical launching pad for a career in the legal profession. But it was during the decade spent working for Southeastern Freight Lines, first on the docks and eventually as dispatch supervisor, that St. Cloud attorney Jason Willis, 44, was able to complete his education and go on to earn his law degree.

“I went to law school as a non-traditional student later on in life,” Willis explained during an interview with VoxPopuli.  

Willis graduated cum laude from Florida A&M University College of Law where he was an editor for the Law Review and vice president of the Stonewall LGBTQ Law Student Association. His focus is criminal defense, but he has also handled family law, immigration and medical malpractice cases.

After three-and-a-half years with Public Defenders' Office of the Ninth Judicial Circuit Court following law school, Willis bounced around to several Orlando law firms, according to his LinkedIn. He opened his own practice, then spent nearly two years as assistant general counsel with the Osceola Clerk of the Circuit Court & County Comptroller. Recently separated from the Law Offices of Corey I. Cohen, Willis is now campaigning to unseat incumbent Judge Tanya Davis Wilson — a 27-year veteran attorney with a decade on the bench — in the Ninth Judicial Circuit Court Group 37 election on Aug. 20.

Willis said in the decade that he's been practicing law, he’s noticed an ebbing of “faith and trust” in the judicial system. “I want to restore faith in the justice system, and I believe that I’m a good candidate for that,” he said. 

The Ninth Judicial Circuit Court, one of Florida's 20 circuit courts, covers Orange and Osceola counties and handles criminal cases as well as civil disputes that involve more than $50,000. Circuit court judges serve six years and earn $182,060.

Early voting takes place Aug. 5-18, 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. daily. Check our list for locations. The last day to request a mail-in ballot is Aug. 8. It needs to be returned to the Supervisor of Elections office by 7 p.m. on Aug. 20.

New perspectives

Born in Mission Viejo, Calif., to a single mother, Willis grew up in a low-income family and said he faced “a lot of adversity in my youth.” He was homeless at one point, living out of his car.

“It’s a miracle that I’m here today because a lot of the people that I grew up around are still living in poverty,” he said. “I didn’t have people around me that went to college, much less grad or law school.”

Those experiences have guided how he views his clients and those who might potentially appear before him on the bench if he’s elected.

“I bring the perspective that I understand, especially for indigent litigants and defendants if they’re coming before my court, of where they’re coming from,” Willis said. “I have empathy for that, I understand that perspective, which I don’t think a lot of judges can say that they understand.”

Even so, Willis acknowledges the privilege that comes with moving through the world as a white man. He points to youthful encounters with law enforcement that he believes “would [not] have gone down in the same way” had he been a person of color.

Working within the justice system, he said he sees the racial disparity in Florida’s legal system when it comes to sentencing and incarceration rates. Research backs that up. A 2023 University of Florida report about state incarceration rates found “While Black people make up 14 percent of Florida’s population, they make up 48 percent of the state’s prison population.”

“There’s something wrong there,” Willis said.

He wants judges to take a wider view of the circumstances around defendants who appear before them while remaining firm in the law. And he calls for judges to use the “leeway” the law provides when it comes to sentencing.

“If you have options as a judge and believe that they’re appropriate, you should use them,” Willis said, adding that sometimes a situation calls for leniency and sometimes it doesn’t.

“If I’m bound by certain parameters within the law or what the legislature has confined me to, I’m going to stay within those parameters. I’m also going to keep the community safe, if I believe someone is a danger, I would sentence appropriately,” he said. “I’m a defense attorney, I’m arguing for leniency all the time. But as a judge, that’s not your role,” he said.

Willis said he’s opposed to what he considers judicial activism, something he considers outside the judge’s purview.

“Those kinds of things bring politics and partisanship into the court system where it doesn’t belong,” Willis said. “My ideology is that’s not what I’m there to do. If change is needed, it needs to be done through the proper procedures [such as] through legislation, through constitutional amendments.”

This is election is personal for Willis. ”I have biracial children, and I worry about the future for them. They’re super-smart, great kids. I want to leave the world a better place for them, and I believe that, through my actions as a judge, I will set an example and at least play a small part in making a difference.”