from staff
Charles T. Wells, Justice of the Florida Supreme Court, has joined the law firm of GrayRobinson in an “of counsel” capacity. He will maintain offices in the firm’s Orlando and Tallahassee locations.
“We are pleased that former Chief Justice Wells has chosen GrayRobinson to continue a legal career marked by excellence,” said the firm’s president Byrd F. “Biff” Marshall. “His experience will provide great benefit to our lawyers and their clients.”
Wells served as a Justice on the Florida Supreme Court from 1994-2009 and as Chief Justice from 2000-02. His experience includes presiding over the presidential election cases that came to the Florida Supreme Court in 2000 and guiding Florida’s court system through the post 9-11 security conscious era. He also served on the Board of Directors of the Conference of Chief Justices and as a member of the Federal Judicial Conference Standing Committee on Rules of Practice and Procedure from 2000 through 2006, along with several other Court committees.
The firm’s Tallahassee managing partner, Jason Unger, welcomed Justice Wells back to the private practice of law.
“Clients having unique legal issues of statewide dimension will particularly need his unparalleled insight into the law and our State,” said Unger.
GrayRobinson has several offices in Florida, including one in Jacksonville.
During Wells’ tenure in private practice, he was a certified mediator of the Florida Circuit Court and United States District Court. He also was admitted to practice law by all Florida courts in addition to the United States District Court, Middle District of Florida; United States Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit (now the 11th Circuit); United States District Court, Southern District of Florida; United States Court of Claims; and the Supreme Court of the United States.
Wells is a native Floridian who lived in Orlando and Washington, D.C., where he served as a Department of Justice trial counsel, until he moved to Tallahassee for his tenure service on the Supreme Court. He received his bachelor’s degree and his juris doctorate from the University of Florida and is a member of Phi Beta Kappa, Florida Blue Key and the University of Florida Hall of Fame.
Wells speaks frequently before legal and business groups throughout the United States on a variety of legal topics. Since the 2000 election, he has lectured extensively on the Florida court’s processes for and administration of election cases.