by Joe Wilhelm Jr.
Staff Writer
Jacksonville home to 11 of 208 in state
Knowledge. Skills. Proficiency.
These are items everyone would like their attorney to have when they need one. But how does the public know where to find these traits when thumbing through the phonebook or surfing the Web for legal representation?
The Florida Bar has developed a program of board certification in 22 practice areas to develop a group of attorneys who have voluntarily submitted themselves for review. The lawyers who are awarded board certification are the only lawyers allowed to identify themselves as experts or specialists in a particular field. Business litigation is one of those fields, and only 208 of 87,000 members of the Florida Bar have gained that certification. Jacksonville is home to 11 of those 208, which includes: John DeVault, Bedell Firm, certified 1997; Michael Drews, Law Offices of Michael S. Drews, 1996; Braxton Gillam, Milam Howard, 2005; Jon Michael Lindell, Lindell & Farson, 1996; Fredrick Lotterhos, Holland & Knight, 1997; Timothy McDermott, Akerman Senterfitt, 1997; Niels Murphy, Murphy & Anderson, 2009; Jeffrey Regan, Regan, Zeboni & Walker, 2008; Michael Tanner, Tanner Bishop, 1997; Kenneth Tomchin, of Tomchin & Odom, 2007; and Gerald Weedon of Marks Gray, 1997.
“The general area of trial certification was pertaining more to personal injury at the time,” said DeVault, a former Florida Bar president who appointed the board for the development of business litigation certification. “Commercial and business litigation needed another identity.”
Requirements for lawyers seeking business litigation certification include having practiced law for five years prior to application, handling a minimum of 25 contested business litigation matters during this time and the lawyer must have been responsible for all or most of the presentation of evidence, argument to the court and representation of the client with at least one case tried before a jury.
The Florida Bar describes the function of business litigation certified lawyers as those helping to “solve problems arising from business relationships, including resolving disputes.”
Board certification is valid for five years, during which time the attorney must continue to practice law and attend Florida Bar-approved continuing legal education (CLE) courses.
“The process includes an extensive all-day exam and peer review process,” said Gillam. “It was difficult, but the reason I would recommend it to anyone practicing business litigation is because I came out of it with a better education of the law.”
Drews was one of the first attorneys in Jacksonville to be certified in the field in 1996, shortly after the certification was available.
“The practice area that I had worked in since getting out of law school was business litigation, so I was pretty excited to know that was going to be an area of certification,” said Drews. “The Bar provided a very good concentrated seminar to take before the exam. It was a two or three-day course and had good speakers and good written materials.”
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