My Experience

I have handled trial and appellate cases in 44 of Florida’s 67 counties, all five state appellate courts, and the Florida Supreme Court.  I have also represented clients in all three Florida Federal District Courts, four Federal Circuit Courts of Appeal, the United States Supreme Court, and ten other states.  As of June 2017, I have tried 162 trial-level cases to verdict and written over 500 appellate court briefs.  In August 2003, I received board certification from the Florida Bar as a specialist in Criminal Trial Law.  In addition, I have an AV rating from Martindale-Hubbell dating back to 2002, have received a 10 (perfect) rating from AVVO, and a Super Lawyer rating from SuperLawyers.com since 2007.  In 2007, James Publishing released my book, “Florida Criminal Trial Procedure,” which was a legal treatise targeted at practitioners. 

In the last 35 years, I have represented people charges with crimes ranging from horse theft to first-degree murder.  In federal court, my clients have included defendants accused of money laundering, Medicare fraud, mortgage fraud, bank fraud, immigration smuggling, RICO (racketeering) violations, and public corruption.  I have also represented numerous people subpoenaed to testify in front of federal grand juries.  In one of my more interesting cases, I represented the Consulate General of Mexico in a federal mandamus proceeding in which we were attempting to intervene in a death penalty case being heard by a state Circuit Court judge in Palm Beach County.

My advocacy also involves representing defendants on direct appeal and in post-conviction proceedings.  I have argued in front of the Florida Supreme Court, the Federal Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeal, and all of the Florida state appellate courts.  Over the years, I have secured many appellate reversals for my clients and been involved in numerous published opinions.  In 2005, I succeeded in having my client’s sentence overturned by the United States Supreme Court.  Some of my representative appellate cases are the following—Levy v. United States, 545 U.S. 1101, 125 S.Ct. 2542, 162 L.Ed.2d 272 (2005);  Pardo v. State, 596 So. 2d 665 (Fla. 1992);  United States v. Machado, 333 F.3d 1225 (11^th Cir. 2003);  Consulate General of Mexico v. Phillips, 17 F.Supp.2d 1318 (S.D. Fla. 1998);  Hernandez v. State, 186 So. 3d 1103 (Fla. 3d 2016);  Masaka v. State, 4 So. 3d 1274 (Fla. 2d DCA 2009).  During the last 15 years, I have filed numerous post-conviction motions and have succeeded in having many convictions and sentences set aside.  Some of my cases have received attention in the local and national media, and I have been quoted in the New York Times and appeared on the Today show.