by Richard Prior
Staff Writer
The best agreement is the one that gives both sides what they want.
That’s why Tishia Green is happy. So is her new law firm.
With her freshly minted degree in hand, Green began working Aug. 18 at Coffman, Coleman, Andrews & Grogan.
“I just love the people here,” she said. “That’s why I chose this firm over some of the other firms. Everyone here has a dynamic personality. And they’re very passionate about what we do.”
“We were very fortunate she came with us because I know she had other offers,” said Bob Riegel, a partner in the firm, which specializes in labor and employment and immigration law. “She’s so humble, but I can brag on her. She was top of her class at Stetson, and she had one of the highest GPAs among the graduates.”
Green had a double major in English and communications at Florida State. She had thought she might want to go on to law school but also wanted to keep her options open.
For a year, she taught an English class at Amos P. Godby High School in Tallahassee to 10th-graders who were reading on a fourth-grade level.
“It was challenging,” she said, “but all but about 10 of our students passed the Florida Writing Exam, which all 10th-graders have to take in order to graduate from high school.”
Green then worked in public relations before sitting in on a law class at Indiana University, “and that’s when I decided I really wanted to go to law school.”
She had moved to Indianapolis with her husband, E.G. Green, a wide receiver with the Indianapolis Colts who was on FSU’s national championship team.
E.G., who got out of football because of “tons of injuries,” builds residential homes and recently passed his general contractor’s exam.
After completing two years at Indiana University, Green transferred to Stetson University in DeLand.
“I’m originally from Jacksonville, and I knew I wanted to come home and practice law,” she said. “So I attended Stetson for my last year. But because I completed 60 hours at Indiana, that’s where my degree is from.”
Green studied all summer for the bar exam and, for the most part, was confident about how it would all turn out.
“I really wasn’t anxious at all,” she said. “When I walked out of the Florida part of the exam, I felt I had passed. But, after the multi-state part, I really didn’t know.”
There are three essays in the morning portion of the Florida section and 100 multiple-choice questions in the afternoon. The multi-state section, held the second day, is 200 multiple-choice questions.
“If you’re able to issue spot, and you felt you pretty much knew the issue that the essays were addressing, then you felt pretty good about that part,” she said.
As it turned out, Green had every right to feel confident about the test results. Her high scores are why she was chosen to give the keynote speech Tuesday in Daytona for the Fifth District Court of Appeals’ formal induction of new attorneys.
“It was one of the top scores,” Green said reluctantly, every bit as humble as Riegel suggested.
She is still trying to decide on a topic but is “pretty much settled” on discussing what it means to be a lawyer.
In addition to the people at Coffman, Coleman, Green said she was drawn to the type of law the firm favors.
“Labor and employment law is very interesting,” she said. “The facts surrounding the cases are even more interesting. Every day it’s something new.”
Riegel said he and everyone else at the firm is certain they made the right decision in hiring Green. And, he added, some luck got mixed in with their intuition.
“I recruit over at Stetson College of Law, and I got lucky in several respects,” he said. “Obviously, because she had been at Indiana, but she and her husband came back to Florida, and she finished up at Stetson. I was lucky to find out she finished there.
“Then we had a little problem with the fact she and I weren’t able to hook up when I was over on campus because she was out of town. But the admissions director over there, who I’ve known for many years, told me more good things about Tishia than she’s ever said about any potential recruit.
“I was disappointed when I missed her. We made arrangements for her to come up here and interview, and I got called out. Everybody loved her so much that when I came back to the office I heard, ‘Hey, we’ve found a star.’
“She is one of those standout people.”