The 4th Circuit Judicial Nominating Commission finished its work related to the four new judicial seats in Clay, Duval and Nassau counties authorized by the state Legislature in 2025.
On Nov. 14, the commission sent three nominees for the new seat on the Nassau County court and four nominees for the second of two new seats on the 4th Judicial Circuit bench to Gov. Ron DeSantis for his consideration.
Sarah Ann Bell is a state assistant attorney general in the Medicaid Fraud Control Unit in Jacksonville.
A Fernandina Beach resident, Bell began law school in 2007 at the University at Buffalo School of Law, part of the State University of New York, then moved to Northeast Florida and graduated from Florida Coastal School of Law in 2010.
Denise Cheri May is county attorney for the Nassau County Board of County Commissioners since August 2021.
A former assistant city attorney for the city of St. Augustine, she graduated from Barry University School of Law in 2013.
W. Joel Powell is an assistant state attorney in the 4th Judicial Circuit.
He joined the office after graduating from the Levin College of Law at the University of Florida in 2005, then became claims and fraud review counsel at Fidelity National Title Insurance Co. in 2012.
In 2018, Powell joined Edwards & Ragatz as an associate attorney before returning to the 4th Circuit SAO in 2022.
Amber Donley is a magistrate in the 4th Judicial Circuit.
She was an elementary school teacher in Osceola County before graduating from Florida Coastal School of Law in 2010.
After beginning her career as an associate attorney in private practice, she founded Donley Law Firm in Orange Park in 2015, where she practiced estate planning, family, guardianship and probate law. She was appointed magistrate in 2025 and is a former president of the D.W. Perkins Bar Association.
Marquita Green is a magistrate in the 4th Circuit since 2021 who graduated from Florida State University College of Law in 2009.
She also received a bachelor’s in psychology in 2000 from the University of Virginia and a master’s from Springfield College in 2002.
Green began her legal career with the state Department of Children and Families in Tallahassee, then joined the Office of State Courts Administrator in 2014.
She moved to Jacksonville in 2018 to join Jacksonville Area Legal Aid where she was family law low bono director until she was appointed magistrate.
Jenny Higginbotham is a Nassau County judge.
She graduated from Florida State University College of Law in 2001, then joined the Office of Public Defender in Tallahassee.
Higginbotham joined Fidelity National Title Group in Jacksonville as a claims counsel in 2004, where she became associate managing counsel and senior counsel in 2015 until being elected to the Nassau County bench in November 2020. She took office in January 2021.
Nicole Deborah Saunders is an administrative law judge with the state Division of Administrative Hearings Jacksonville office.
She graduated from Jacksonville University in 2013 with a degree in psychology, then entered the University of Florida Levin College of Law, where she graduated in 2016.
Saunders began her career as an associate attorney at Fidelity Information Services in Jacksonville before joining the 4th Judicial Circuit State Attorney’s Office in 2017.
She went into private practice at a Jacksonville law firm for a year beginning in September 2019, then went to Tallahassee to be senior staff attorney for state Supreme Court Justice Jamie Grosshans until January 2022, when she became a deputy general counsel at the state Department of Education. Saunders returned to Jacksonville in September 2023 for her current role.
Each of the candidates will now be interviewed in Tallahassee by the governor’s staff. DeSantis has 60 days to appoint a nominee to each seat.
DeSantis is currently considering nominees for another seat on the 4th Circuit bench. He appointed Hector Bustos on Oct. 30 to the new seat on the Clay County bench .