Kent Wetherell is a Judge on the First District Court of Appeal, where he has served since his appointment by the Governor in 2009. He previously served for seven years as an Administrative Law Judge of the Florida Division of Administrative Hearings, where he heard a wide variety of cases, involving rule challenges, bid protests, hospital certificates of need, environmental permit challenges, employment discrimination claims, and professional license disputes. Before becoming a judge, Judge Wetherell served for two years in the Office of the Florida Attorney General as Deputy Solicitor General. Prior to entering government service, Judge Wetherell spent four years in private practice at the Tallahassee firm of Hopping Green Sams & Smith, where his practice focused on representing landowners and developers on land use matters before local governments and State agencies and representing corporate clients in administrative rule challenge and bid protest hearings. Judge Wetherell earned his B.S., magna cum laude, from Florida State University and his J.D., with high honors, from the Florida State University College of Law, where he was inducted into the Order of the Coif and served as an articles editor of the Florida State University Law Review.