The General Counsel provides legal advice and counsel to the Sheriff, Sheriff’s Office command staff, and employees in a variety of legal areas, including (but not limited to) the duties, responsibilities, and authority of the Sheriff; criminal law; constitutional law; public records law; and labor and employment law. The General Counsel also conducts forfeiture litigation, reviews and drafts contracts policy, and mutual aid agreements, and provides legal updates for the agency. The General Counsel is not a legal advisor for the General Public. If you are in need of a lawyer, you may refer to the Florida Bar – https://www.floridabar.org.
General Counsel Jacob Rush’s Biography
A Gainesville native, Jacob Rush graduated from the University of Florida and joined the Alachua County Sheriff’s Office as a cadet in the Santa Fe College Institute of Public Safety upon appointment by Sheriff Steve Oelrich. Working in the Court Security Bureau and the Uniform Patrol Division, Deputy Rush also served on special teams including the Honor Guard and SWAT Team in 2005 before resigning from service to attend law school. His law thesis paper was on International Money Laundering and included study abroad in The Hague, Netherlands. While in private law practice, Attorney Rush returned to ACSO as a Reserve Deputy where he taught new deputies legal testimony.
Rush worked for over a decade as a litigator in state and federal civil and criminal courts in the region, a practice including police liability and civil rights. In addition to teaching law enforcement training, he served as attorney for the Alachua Police Department. Statewide, Jacob Rush served on the Florida Bar YLD Board of Governors, on the Board of Directors of the 8th Judicial Circuit Bar Association, as a Member of the Adkins Inn of Court, and as Chair of the Unlicensed Practice of Law Committee. He has served as faculty at the CSI Academy of Florida and as a volunteer judge at the UF Levin College of Law.
His professional memberships include the Federal Northern and Middle District Courts and the Supreme Court of the United States. He is a member and past-President of the Rotary Club of Greater Gainesville.
Sheriff Watson appointed Rush to be the ACSO General Counsel in January of 2021.