Thirty-four years, equally divided.

A trial lawyer learns early that most cases are won or lost on two or three facts, not on the volume of paper filed. That same discipline applies from the other chair. A hearing scoped to what actually matters serves the parties better than one that tries to leave no stone unturned.

Having appeared before tribunals as both the party with the burden and the party defending against it, certain habits carry over: read everything before the hearing, not during it. Say what the ruling is, and why, in language the losing party can understand even when they disagree with it. Treat delay as a cost the parties are paying, not a courtesy extended to counsel.

None of this is particular to any one dispute. It is simply what thirty-four years of practicing law, on every side of it, leaves a person believing about how disputes ought to be decided.

Genuine neutrality is demonstrated by a career equally divided rather than asserted. Service as a federal prosecutor was followed by representation of defendants. Corporate defense of mass-tort claims was followed by six years representing individual plaintiffs in comparable litigation.

Service

Board Chair, Florida Legal Services. Board Member, The Florida Bar Foundation. Adjunct Professor, University of Miami Business School.

Admitted in Florida and Massachusetts. No bar discipline in thirty-four years.