BY DAN HILDEBRAN
Former Keystone Heights City Councilman and Clay County Commissioner Gavin Rollins passed the Florida bar exam earlier this year and has joined a Mount Dora-based law firm.
Rollins resigned from the county commission in 2020 after the Florida National Guard assigned him as the executive officer of the National Guard Bureau in Washington.
Rollins said his job for two years was coordinating the 50 separate state National Guard units.
The former local lawmaker said he had always had a passion for law, and after he completed his active-duty assignment, he was accepted into Florida A&M’s law school in Orlando.
“Normally, law school is three years,” Rollins said. “I did it in two and a half. I kind of squished it in and did some summers to get out.”
Rollins graduated last December, took the bar exam in February, and was sworn in as a Florida attorney on April 14.
The new lawyer is an associate with The Sabatini Law Firm, led by former Eustis City Commissioner and State Representative Anthony Sabatini.
“I’m doing a lot of civil litigation, some government work, and I’m still in the National Guard,” Rollins said. I’m a major now working for an air defense artillery unit.”
The former Lake Region resident said he still owns a home in Keystone Heights and sits on the Lake County Water Authority, whose mission is to protect water quality in Lake County’s lakes.
“Obviously, lakes and water are still close to my heart, and I’m excited to see the pipeline and what’s happening with the Keystone lakes,” he said.
Rollins said he watches developments in the Lake Region closely, noting Dave Weldon’s recent five-vote win for Seat 2 on the city council.
“That’s where I started as a kid and won by three votes,” he said of the city council.
