Mills & Carlin is an appellate law firm in Riverside. Their office is located in a historic home on May Street that attorney Arnold Tritt vacated in December.
MEET THE FIRM
There are three partners: John Mills, Tracy Carlin and Rebecca Creed. Support staff members include Jennifer Bryant and Kim Rentz.
“Rebecca and I are certified in appellate law,” said Tracy Carlin.
“We’ve all been trial lawyers, but now, we do exclusively appeals,” said John Mills.
WILL THEY TAKE ON ANOTHER PARTNER?
“We all came from big firms and don’t like a lot of things that go along with big firms,” said Mills. “We want to keep it small. We’re not opposed to adding somebody down the line but we’re not looking to. Our biggest challenge will be saying no to cases so we can stay small.”
TALK ABOUT THE WORK THE FIRM DOES
“We handle cases where another lawyer, almost always, has handled the trial,” said Mills. “Occasionally, we’ll handle a case where the party was representing themselves. We do not handle trials. We do occasionally work with trial lawyers in a support role but we do not compete with trial lawyers for business. After a trial, one party wins and one party loses, generally. The losing side or the winning side hires us to represent them on appeal. We take on all kinds of commercial cases, family law, criminal law, administrative law and injury cases, but we do not handle personal injury defense. The appeals can be in either state court or federal court, either at the intermediate level or the Supreme Court [Florida or United States].”
WHAT IS THEIR
CASE LOAD LIKE?
“We handle cases throughout the state and federal cases throughout the United States,” said Mills. “Right now, we have an appeal in every District Court of appeals, every Appellate Court in Florida and the Supreme Court of Florida and five federal Circuit Court of appeals.”
WHAT IS THE
FIRM’S HISTORY?
Mills & Carlin opened its doors Jan. 1. The firm was a departure from John Mills’ short-lived The Mills Firm. Prior to The Mills Firm, Mills was employed at Foley & Lardner. Before that, he clerked for U.S. Court of Appeals Judge Gerald Tjoflat on the 11th circuit.
Carlin began her legal career with Commander, Legler, Werber, Dawes, Sadler & Howell, which later merged with Foley & Lardner in 1991.
Creed practiced law in Greensboro, N.C. Subsequently, she married and moved to Jacksonville, where she worked at Baumer, Bradford & Walters. That firm merged with Smith, Gambrell & Russell, which is where she stayed until joining Mills & Carlin.
WHY MOVE OUT
OF DOWNTOWN?
“The Mills Firm subleased out of the Greenleaf Building,” said Mills. “When I joined with the other two attorneys, we needed more space. And, we didn’t necessarily need to be downtown because all we do is appellate work, which means we don’t go to court every day. We looked at Riverside and San Marco because we wanted to be near downtown. It’s also less expensive over here.”
EDUCATION
Mills graduated from the University of Georgia; Carlin studied at the University of Florida and Creed earned her law degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
WHY PRACTICE
IN THIS FIELD?
“I prefer the intellectual aspect, focusing on legal arguments,” said Mills.
“I really like the discourse between the panel during oral argument,” added Carlin. “You have two minutes of question and answer to persuade them.”
“It’s a more civilized practice to me,” said Creed. “You’re not arguing about discovery; you’re just focusing on the facts.”
HOW IS APPELLATE
LAW DIFFERENT?
“It’s a different skill set,” said Carlin. “As trial lawyers, except in federal court, you don’t get an opportunity to do a live briefing to a judge. In appellate court, you are writing a detailed appellate brief so there is a lot more research and writing. When you go to do your presentation in court, you have three judges at the intermediate court level, seven on the Supreme Court of Florida and nine at the U.S. Supreme Court. Instead of trying to argue about facts, you are arguing the law and public policy.”
HOW IS THEIR ROLE DIFFERENT FROM TRIAL LAWYERS?
“A trial lawyer investigates the case, interviews witnesses and decides what to present to the court to prove the case. The trial lawyer argues, often to a jury, about what the evidence says, puts up witnesses, cross-examines the other side’s witnesses and makes an argument based on the facts. Then the jury or the judge reaches a decision as to who wins. On appeal, we don’t interview witnesses. The facts are what were put into the record at the trial level. We have to convince three judges, typically, that the trial court did something wrong or applied the law incorrectly or abused its discretion. Half of the time we represent the party that won and argue that the trial court got it right.”
WHO IS THE
CLIENT IN THESE CASES?
The firm always represents the person that is party to the suit and not their attorney. “Although we are not neutral from an advocacy standpoint, we are neutral in a sense when we first get a case in that we’re a fresh set of eyes looking at it,” said Creed. “The trial lawyer is so wrapped up in the facts that they don’t have much perspective. Initially, we look at it from a more objective standpoint to see what facts might support this argument.”
WHAT IS THE
COMPETITION LIKE?
“We are in a niche that has not been fully developed in Jacksonville,” said Mills. “The cases have always been there, but a lot of trial lawyers did their own appeals. One reason why that has changed is because cases don’t go to trial as frequently as they used to. Mediation has resulted in a tremendous amount of civil cases being settled. Even the best trial lawyers in town don’t have as many cases as they used to.”
— by Monica Chamness