As a Floridian with family in the state going back to 1829 (including a state legislator who cast his vote against secession), and a native Tampan with roots there that began when my great-grandfather drove in the first locomotive ever to arrive, I feel a deep sense of history in a state that has become a mecca for transplants. My undergraduate years at the University of Virginia impressed upon me how different the nation the founders envisioned was from the then-existing European monarchies and the freedoms they envisioned for their new republic.
Wanting to return to the state, I got my J.D. at the University of Florida and began working in Gainesville right out of law school, later gaining more experience at the Florida Department of Transportation in Tallahassee where I handled damage claims for the southern half of the state and refined standardized contracts to do things like significantly improving the Road Ranger program. I spent a decade practicing business law in Miami then launched the first internet-based incorporation service in Florida, which prospered until the state itself made it possible to do so directly online with them. In the decade after that, I published Debt Hope: Down and Dirty Survival Strategies and practiced in the collections field, before making a decision to transition into family law.
My Strengths
From an early age I was a problem-solver, whether it was building a model kit, reactivating old telephone wiring in our home to add extensions, or putting a new antenna and rotor on our TV mast. I carried this approach through to early adoption of the then-primitive personal computer and used it through law school while others were still using typewriters or hiring typists.
After law school, I had an opportunity to join what was then a very successful divorce firm in Tampa, but interviewing with them turned me off–it was such an adversarial area of law at the time that the attitude was take-no-prisoners. My interviewer told me that the entire firm was in therapy and wanted to know whether I was willing to join them in that. I wasn’t. To me, solving others’ problems could not mean adding to mine. So you could say I had a strong sense of boundaries.
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As the years went on, changes in how family law cases are handled in Florida have made it a much less contentious area to practice in, with presumptions that children will spend equal time with their parents, assets will be divided equitably, and most recently changes in the law that ended permanent alimony. Many cases involve finding good reasons for the courts to shift those notions a little–or a lot.
What I Find the Most Exciting in Legal Practice
In law, each case may have aspects of what you have seen before, but no two cases are exactly alike. Every client has different motivations, and some of them may be contrary to what can be achieved. It is the lawyer’s job to shape the reality that can be achieved while allowing the client to accept what the practicalities of life and realities of the law will deal with regardless.
My Personal Life
As the father of a collegiate son, I have lived the hardships and joys of having a child. My wife has recently left a multinational company she joined when its foothold in the U.S. was tenuous to help a different European company essentially start here from scratch. Sometimes she wakes me up at 4 AM looking to bounce some ideas off me before an important meeting. I run or cycle every day that weather permits, and pull a half hour on the elliptical in the garage if it doesn’t. I prefer my cars with a manual transmission and a top that goes down.
My Qualifications:
- Member Florida Bar
- Ayo & Iken Associate
- Former FDOT lawyer at its main headquarters in Tallahassee
- Former Associate Delgado, Befeler, Starkman & Magolnick
- Former Associate Law Offices of Eilon Krugman-Kadi
- LLM in Taxation from University of Denver
- Juris Doctor from University of Florida
- Interdisciplinary BA from University of Virginia