Jamie R. Grosshans didn’t set out to be on the Florida Supreme Court, but it’s not surprising that she has joined the state’s highest court as its newest justice, according to her friend, Fifth District Court of Appeal Judge Meredith Sasso.

Speaking at a packed Supreme Court at Grosshans’ ceremonial investiture November 17, Sasso said, “What Jamie did is she thought about what was important to her and she let that lead her. My advice to ambitious law students would be if you want to be like Justice Grosshans, first figure out what you believe in and then pursue what you’re passionate about and pursue it with integrity…

As Chief Justice Charles Canady noted in opening the session, Grosshans was actually appointed to the court on September 14, 2020, by Gov. Ron DeSantis and has served since. But the ceremonial festivities to honor her being the 91st justice in the court’s 175-year history were delayed because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

But that didn’t make the session, by turns, any less joyful and solemn as friends, DeSantis, and others praised Grosshans and talked about her journey from growing up in the small Mississippi town of Brookhaven, through the University of Mississippi law school, becoming an assistant state attorney in Orlando, running her own small firm, service as a county judge and on the Fifth DCA, and then to the Supreme Court.