Our Attorneys
Deborah A. Ruster
Deborah Ruster was born in Pacific Grove, California. She received her B.A. degree, with high honors, in 1978, and her law degree in 1981, both from the University of Tennessee. She was admitted to The Florida Bar in 1981. She is also admitted to practice before the Middle District of Florida.
Prior to joining Peterson & Myers, she was a law clerk to Judge Monterey Campbell of the Second District Court of Appeal; an assistant public defender with the Public Defender’s Office in Bartow, Florida; Assistant State Attorney, with the State Attorney’s Office in Tampa, Florida; and senior condemnation attorney at the Department of Transportation for six years.
Ms. Ruster is a member of the Lakeland Bar Association and the Tenth Circuit Association for Women Lawyers. She is past member of the Willson American Inn of Court. She is a member of the Academy of Florida Trial Lawyers acting as the programming officer.
She served on the Board of Directors of the Camp Fire USA Sunshine Council for seven years, having been elected to the position of president and is a recipient of Luther Halsey Gulick, a national award for an outstanding volunteer from Camp Fire. She was a founding director of Special Sitters, a program to train caregivers for special needs children. In 1990, Ms. Ruster was the Junior Woman’s Club of Lakeland 1990 Nominee for Outstanding Community Service.
Ms. Ruster’s Bar activities include her membership on the Eminent Domain Committee of The Florida Bar since 1990, serving as Secretary of the Committee in 1993. She served as Chairman of the Committee from September, 1996 through June, 1997. She has lectured to the Committee as well as the Florida Chapter of American Planning Association on condemnation issues. Ms. Ruster practices in the firm’s Lake Wales office in the area of civil litigation, concentrating in eminent domain.
