LaShawnda K. Jackson, 48, never doubted what she wanted to be when she grew up.

“Everything I've done since I've graduated law school has been in preparation for becoming a judge,” Jackson said in an interview with VoxPopuli. “It’s something I always knew that I wanted to do.”

Jackson, a partner at Orlando law firm RumbergerKirk and the first Black president of the Orange County Bar Association, is campaigning against Assistant Public Defender Joy Goodyear in the Aug. 20 primary for a seat on the Ninth Judicial Circuit bench in Group 5. 

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One of Florida’s 20 circuit courts, the Ninth Judicial Circuit, covers Orange and Osceola counties and handles criminal cases like sexual assault and homicide as well as civil disputes that involve more than $50,000.

Nicknamed “Bullets”

Jackson was born in Titusville, the fourth child to a 19-year-old mother who was arrested for the murder of Jackson’s father when Jackson was just 3. Her brothers were eventually placed into the foster care system while Jackson was raised by her father’s sister.

Without “access to lawyers or the legal system,” she was considered a ward of the state until age 18, according to her campaign website. Jackson said as a child growing up in the projects of East Mims, located on Florida’s Atlantic coast, she didn’t have many role models and wanted to do her best to “stay out of trouble.”

“I kept busy, I did anything and everything that was available for me at school, whether it be sports, extracurricular activities,” Jackson said. “Shortly after my 10th grade year, I had an American government teacher who literally told me I had a big mouth and I agreed with her and she said I should use it to argue mock trial competition.”

These competitions were Jackson’s “first exposure” to judges, where she fondly remembers one Brevard County judge telling her she should go to law school and nicknaming her “Bullets” for the way she fired off questions.

“From that day forward, I knew I was gonna go to law school,” Jackson said.

The following year Jackson attended Girls State, a program with the American Legion Auxiliary that offers female Florida residents in their junior year of high school a “nondenominational study of government”, according to the ALA website.

Jackson said while studying the three branches of government there, she found herself most drawn to the judicial branch and was voted onto the Girls State Supreme Court by her peers.

“I remember going into the courthouse, the Florida Supreme Court, they let us try on the robes and we took pictures sitting on the dais,” Jackson said. “Looking out into the audience and people looking at me, I knew right then, at that moment, that I wanted to be a judge.”

She’s still Bullets.

“Everything I do, I do it full speed,” Jackson said, adding that while most wouldn’t describe her as “warm and fuzzy,” they would describe her as “firm and fair.”

“I don't like to waste people's time or money,” she said. “Someone comes into the courtroom, we'll have our pleasantries and then we'll stay focused. We'll stay on task, we’ll get a fast ruling that's based on the law, a ruling based on the facts.

“I am the candidate who's going to be fair and impartial to anyone who walks into my courtroom, no matter their race, their gender, sexual orientation or how much money they have or do not have.”

Judicial standards

For Jackson, who was on the nominating commission for the Ninth Judicial Circuit, efficiency and effectiveness is the key to success on the bench.

“That's what I strive to do in my practice,” said Jackson, who’s been practicing for more than 20 years. “That's what makes my clients happy. And that's what I want to do for the bench to make sure that we have efficient ruling by a judge and use that hearing time very effectively to be able to move cases through the court system.”

She feels that current judges do a “very good job” of handling cases, but that she’d like to strive for more consistency within case management.

“One of the issues that we see on the civil side is that a lot of attorneys will file motions, and they're usually just discovery motions, which should be simple,” Jackson said. “Then at the last minute, they cancel the hearing because they worked it out … And then all of a sudden, the judge has nothing [to hear], when that time could have been used to hear their cases.”

She believes one solution that might help to keep things consistent with hearings is not allowing a litigant to cancel a hearing 48 to 72 hours prior, a procedure followed by other Florida jurisdictions.

“What that effectively does is it forces the attorneys to talk about the motion prior to that deadline,” Jackson said. “They can free up the hearing space … then other litigants can come in and take up that hearing space where it's not at the last minute.”

Familiarity in the Ninth Circuit

Jackson believes what sets her apart from her opponent is experience litigating cases in both Orange and Osceola counties. This familiarity with the system is something she believes is “very important” for a judge, as is handling a variety of cases.

“Throughout the years, I've been able to shift from different practices in law, and I think that will translate to the bench where judges often rotate to different divisions,” Jackson said.

She primarily litigated civil cases including employment issues, personal injury, auto accidents, premise liability.

Managing the circuit’s “large case docket” is another area where Jackson wanted to ensure she had experience, something she said she gained by managing nearly half the cases for one of her firm’s major clients. During the height of the pandemic, Jackson said when people might have expected things to slow down, they actually accelerated, and she was managing 250 to 300 cases.

“I was the primary attorney responsible for the depositions, which were numerous,” Jackson said. “I was managing a team of about 10 at that time, including attorneys, paralegals, legal assistants and file clerks. I think that experience will help me be a judge in managing the docket.

“Nobody's ever gonna outwork me,” she added.