Melissa Gross-Arnold has been an environmental and land use attorney with Lewis Longman & Walker for four years.
HER SPECIALTY?
She focuses on water and waste water and anything dealing with land development including due diligence, permitting, zoning and land use. “We represent public and private clients. So if we are talking about a developer, if they were interested in a piece of property, we would help them do their due diligence, which is to investigate the property to see whether it could be zoned or if it has the land use that would support the development that they want to have on that property. We review the environmental report to see if there are wetlands on the property, which makes development more expensive. They want to know about wetlands and contamination on the property before they event take title.”
AND . . .
“We also represent private land owners and local governments in all types of government permitting. It’s not just related to development. The other thing that is different about our practice is that it isn’t strictly transactional or litigation, it’s both.”
EDUCATION
After earning her bachelor’s degree in business from the University of Florida, she and her husband wanted to attend law school, so they moved to West Palm Beach where they worked for three years as paralegals for Lewis Longman & Walker. They attended law school at the same time at the University of Florida College of Law. She passed the Bar in 2000. He’s with the State Attorney’s Office.
WHY BECOME AN ATTORNEY?
“Ever since I can remember I’ve been a person who wants to help people do what they want to do. That is what I see attorneys doing. That’s the kind of practice that I want to continue to develop. Maybe it’s more of a business perspective, but what we do is figure out ‘What is the goal and how can we get there?’ I’ve always been that way, so I saw law as a way to help people in that way.”
WHY LAND USE AND ENVIRONMENTAL LAW?
“It is a very basic core area of the law in Florida. It has to do with our commerce, health, education and touches a wide variety of topics.”
ISSUES
“There are a lot more folks out there who are watching development. They want to oppose it. It’s a challenge to developers to learn the concerns and either try to address them or find an area that is not so controversial. Their goal is to be able to develop, still have profit margin and have a successful development.”
MENTORS
Gross-Arnold said working with two lawyers at her firm, Wayne Flowers and Brenna Durden, has helped her immensely. Durden focuses primarily on land use and development and Flowers focuses more on environmental and water. “Their background has really helped me figure out where I want to specialize in my own practice.”
OTHER ISSUES
She said there are a lot of people who are interested in buying property right now who have never done it before. They are buying it because they want to try and develop it themselves or they want to have a little rental property. “I don’t know why they are doing it. Maybe it’s because of the economy and they just want to own something. I think those people need to know that there is a lot more to owning land. Once you take title on that land, you could be liable for any environmental contamination on it. They don’t realize that there are these layers of government permitting that would be required to develop the land.”
OTHER ACTIVITIES
She is a member of the Speaker’s Bureau for the Super Bowl Host Committee, a member of Commercial Real Estate Women of Jacksonville, Florida Bar Environmental and Land Use Law, Administrative Law and City, County and Local Government Law Sections; Florida Water Environment Association and American Water Resources Association.
ON A PERSONAL NOTE
She was born in Miami, but she was raised in Melbourne. She and Shawn have been married for eight years and have a two-year-old son. They live in Mandarin.
— by Michele Newbern Gillis