 He returned in Gainesville in 1971, when he became an adjunct professor at the University of Florida College of Law, a post he still holds today, and entered private practice as the first black lawyer in Alachua County.Mickle was also a special assistant public defender for the Eighth Judicial Circuit in 1974.Mickle was a judge on the Alachua County Court from 1979 to 1984 and was a circuit judge of the Eighth Judicial Circuit from 1984 to 1992.