A second complaint with the Florida Bar has been filed against an employee of Florida Polytechnic University, a sign of a growing lawlessness that has marked of President Stephenson's administration since he eliminated the University’s Office of General Counsel last fall.
Joshua Millikan, now Chief of Staff, graduated from the University of Arkansas law school in May 2025. He is 26 years old. His bio page on Floridpoly.com uses the language of a decades-long elite legal career to describe pre-graduation law clerks and internships:
Millikin worked in both private legal practice and Fortune 1 corporate legal environments, where he concentrated on complex commercial matters spanning mergers and acquisitions, corporate structuring, commercial contracts, regulatory compliance and governance frameworks, joint ventures and strategic partnerships, and wealth management.
His five months at Florida Poly were described also so hyperbolicly:
Prior to his current role, Millikin built deep experience in university legal affairs, serving as university and legal advisor at Florida Poly, advising on governance, employment matters, Foundation and Direct Support Organization (DSO) relationships, Sunshine Law compliance, and complex institutional agreements. He is particularly skilled in navigating board processes, public records issues, and executive-level decision-making in Florida’s public higher education environment.
Millikin passed The Florida Bar Exam in September 2025. two months into his five-month tenure. President Stephenson said he was eliminating the university’s in-house legal team in October 2025 for cost reasons.
Just before the complaint was filed in May 2026, President Stephenson posted to x.com that "Florida Poly is committed to a culture grounded in Merit, Excellence, and Intelligence.”
"Yes, it's hilarious," said Mike Sanderson. "But it's also serious. There is no legitimate reason to mischaracterize his experience, and for a lawyer, it's a violation of the rules regulating the Florida Bar for a lawyer to have their legal experience mischaracterized like this in order to justify putting them in a executive-level nonlegal role for which they have no relevant experience.”
"It makes a mockery of any suggestion of merit or excellence, or intellegence," said Sanderson. “However, the more important word is professionalism. We have already seen that the Trustees will ignore the complaint in the sunshine and then discuss what to do after they cut their mics. The Florida Bar will have to answer if it wants, in the heart of Florida, to let this monumental unprofessionalism fester at what should be a place where merit reigns.”
Possible Rules Violated
● Rule 4-4.1 Truthfulness in Statements to Others
● Rule 4-5.7 Responsibilities Regarding Nonlegal Services
● Rule 4-7.13 Deceptive and Inherently Misleading Advertisements
● Rule 4-8.4 Misconduct
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Mike Sanderson is a writer and computer programmer from Miami, Florida. Sanderson is an alum of New College of Florida, where he was editor of the student newspaper.
