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Hon. William H. Burgess, III
William H. "Bill" Burgess, III, was elected as a Circuit Court Judge in Florida’s Sixth Judicial Circuit on November 6, 2012. His judicial commission became effective on January 8, 2013. Prior to his election, he spent more than 17 years as a trial attorney and prosecutor for the State of Florida.

Education
Judge Burgess received his J.D. from Washington College of Law, The American University; his M.P.A. from Clark University; and his B.A. in Political Science from the University of Massachusetts.

Professional Experience
Mr. Burgess is Board Certified in Criminal Trial Law. He is a member of The Florida Bar’s Standing Committee on the Unlicensed Practice of Law and a past member of The Florida Bar’s Judicial Administration and Evaluation Committee, the Standing Committee on Professionalism, and the Judicial Administration, Selection and Tenure Committee. Mr. Burgess has also served as an adjunct professor at St. Petersburg College, lecturing on the law to future police officers. He lectures at the Criminal Law Certification Review for the Florida Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, and has lectured on sentencing, evidence, professionalism, trial practice, and other criminal law-related topics for the Florida Prosecuting Attorneys Association, the Florida Public Defender Association, the Broward County Bar Association, the St. Petersburg Bar Association, the Pinellas County Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, and the judges of the Sixth Judicial Circuit. He has also taught trial advocacy as an adjunct professor at Stetson Law School. Mr. Burgess is also the author of Florida Sentencing (Vol. 16, Thomson West Florida Practice Series), the definitive treatise on Florida state sentencing law used by judges and lawyers throughout the state. Mr. Burgess also writes a blog, Florida Sentencing, which can be found here and here.

Military Service
Mr. Burgess enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1976. He received his commission as a Second Lieutenant in 1978. Mr. Burgess served in Infantry, Military Intelligence, and, for most of his career, Special Forces, including wartime command experience in the Persian Gulf. While in the Army, Mr. Burgess worked and trained with several allied special operations forces, including Britain’s 22 Special Air Service. He is a charter member of the Army’s Special Forces Combat Arms Branch. Mr. Burgess authored the Army’s first Special Reconnaissance doctrinal manual and made significant contributions to other doctrinal publications pertaining to sensitive special operations and intelligence matters. Mr. Burgess also lead pioneering efforts in research, development, and application of strategic targeting methods in support of National Command Authority objectives. He has written a number of open-source articles about the concepts and history of special operations for a variety of national and international magazines and journals, and he edited and contributed to Inside Spetsnaz, the most definitive open-source book of its time on Soviet special operations forces.

At the time of his retirement in 1995, Mr. Burgess was serving on the personal staff of the Commander-in-Chief, United States Special Operations Command. Mr. Burgess is a member of Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 2473 and has remained active in veterans affairs since his retirement.

2012 Political Campaign
Mr. Burgess filed to run for ...

Miscellaneous
Mr. Burgess resides in Seminole, Florida. He and his wife, Collette, have been married for 35 years and have two grown children.