John Mills began his legal career as a law clerk for Judge Gerald B. Tjoflat of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. He then practiced commercial litigation in an international law firm for several years before starting his own practice in 2002 to focus exclusively on developing an independent appellate practice.
Over the years, John has collaborated with and mentored many talented appellate lawyers at The Mills Firm, including six who are now board-certified in appellate practice, five of whom have moved on for new roles on the bench, in the academy, or leading their own law firms. He continues to mentor many young appellate lawyers and student law clerks both in his firm and outside.
In 2019, The Mills Firm was a founding member of a Jacksonville-focused litigation boutique that handled trials and appeals and conducted much of its appellate practice through that firm. After several years, The Mills Firm amicably separated to refocus solely on its own appeals and providing trial support to leading trial lawyers and firms across the state.
John has been lead counsel in hundreds of appeals in the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit and Florida’s district courts of appeal. He has a robust practice before the Supreme Court of Florida, where he has argued and won many ground-breaking civil cases, exonerated an innocent man on Florida’s death row, and frequently authors amicus curiae briefs. He has served as special counsel to the Florida Judicial Qualifications Commission in the successful prosecution of judicial misconduct charges against four Florida judges and often provides legal advice to judges and judicial candidates.
He has also served as appellate counsel in several cases in the Supreme Court of the United States, where he was the last lawyer to answer a question from Chief Justice Rehnquist at oral argument in the course of winning an immigration rights case that ended the indefinite detention of over 2,000 Cubans who came to this country in the Mariel Boatlift.
John is the Amicus Chair of the Florida Justice Association. He previously chaired the Appellate Practice Certification Committee and the Appellate Court Rules Committee of The Florida Bar, and he served on the executive committee of the Appellate Practice Section for many years. He is a bencher in the Chester Bedell Inn of Court and an alumnus (originally a founding master) of the First District Appellate American Inn of Court. He also served several years on the boards of the Florida Supreme Court Historical Society and Jacksonville Bar Association.
John frequently lectures on advanced appellate topics. For the past several years, he has presented countless webinars and in-person sessions at the annual conventions of the Florida Justice Association. John has also led presentations and participated in panels at the Eleventh Circuit Judicial Conference, the Eleventh Circuit Appellate Practice Institute, the Florida Appellate Justice Conference, and the Florida Bar Appellate Practice Certification Review Course, where he taught federal appellate practice for several years to Florida appellate lawyers preparing to sit for the board certification exam.
