Nicholas Glance is an attorney with The Rickman Law Firm with over thirteen years of experience in criminal court. As an experienced criminal attorney, he has handled thousands of cases including murders, other violent crimes, drug offenses, firearms cases, traffic offenses, economic crimes, and sex offenses.
Nicholas Glance graduated Magna Cum Laude from Gannon University in Pennsylvania with a Bachelor of Arts degree in legal studies, a Bachelor of Arts degree in criminal justice, and a minor in philosophy. Prior to attending law school, he worked as a law enforcement officer patrolling communities, working with residents to address issues, executing arrest warrants, searching residences and people, enforcing orders of probation, writing reports, and testifying in court. He earned his Juris Doctor degree from Stetson University in St. Petersburg, Florida and interned at the State Attorney’s Office in Pinellas County.
He has tried to jury all types of homicides such as first-degree premeditated murders, first-degree felony murders, second-degree murders, and manslaughters. As an accomplished litigator, Nick has tried over 100 cases before juries, and handled thousands of trials and motions in front of Judges. Some of his complex jury trials include multiweek murder trials, racketeering (RICO) cases, armed robberies, burglaries, drug trafficking, conspiracies, aggravated batteries, aggravated assaults, firearms charges, robberies, violent obstruction and resisting charges, thefts, drugs charges, criminal mischief cases, money laundering, fleeing to elude, witness and evidence tampering, false imprisonments, dealing in stolen property charges, stalking, violations of injunctions, and numerous traffic offenses. Mr. Glance also has extensive experience in high level negotiations. He frequently presented his cases to the homicide and traffic homicide committees for decisions on plea negotiations and whether or not to seek the death penalty. He has conducted thousands of depositions with all types of witnesses including experts in the fields of narcotics, fingerprints, toolmark analysis, DNA, cell site data, accident reconstruction, forensic pathology, toxicology, anatomic pathology, and cause and manner of death.
Nick began his career as a prosecutor for the Office of the State Attorney in Hillsborough County. He first worked in juvenile and county criminal courts where he prosecuted all juvenile delinquency matters, adult misdemeanors, and all traffic cases including DUIs. He was promoted to a felony trial division where he handled all felony cases prosecuted in Circuit Criminal Court. He was the designated domestic violence specialist for his division, and he was soon promoted to Lead Trial Attorney after extensive trial experience. As a Lead Trial Attorney, Nick litigated numerous competency hearings, sealing and expungement applications, violation of probation hearings, bond motions, motions for pretrial detention, pretrial diversion contracts, civil commitment proceedings, post-conviction motions, appeals and ineffective assistance of counsel claims. Due to his stellar work both in and out of the Courtroom Nick was promoted to Training Director, where he supervised all the juvenile and county criminal prosecutors in the agency. He taught prosecutors how to handle cases, prepare for trial, litigate motions, and he ran the mock trial program. Prior to joining The Rickman Law Firm, Nicholas Glance was promoted to Deputy Chief of a felony trial division. He worked directly with the Division Chief to handle the filing, assignment, and prosecution of all felony cases assigned to the trial division. As a Deputy Chief, he reported directly to the Chief of his Division and the Elected State Attorney. Additionally, he was responsible for trying complex cases including drug trafficking and homicide cases, and for supervising attorneys in the division.
Due to his extensive knowledge and experience with criminal law, Nick was called upon to teach and train attorneys, law enforcement, and experts in multiple areas of law. As a legal educator, Nick has lectured on sentencing, jury instructions, discovery, DUI prosecutions, sentencing enhancements, and many other areas of criminal law. He worked with the Tampa Police Department legal team to develop the curriculum and presentation for more than 900 officers, and he personally taught report writing and courtroom testimony classes during in-service training. He also worked with the Tampa Police Department and State Attorney’s Office to implement the use of body worn cameras, and the data storage and sharing protocols between the agencies.