Page 17 - First Coast Vol 4 No 2
P. 17

ASSOCIATE BRIAN MOORE, PARALEGAL LYNDA WEEDEN AND SCOTT SHEFTALL.
ATTORNEY OF THE MONTH
Dad’s father was a special person and became a strong in uence in my young life. Daddy Grandpa was my only grandfather as my mother’s father had died when she was only six. I remember telling him that I had read A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens’ classic story of the French Revolution in which English Barrister Sydney Carton sacri ces himself to be guillotined to spare the life of Charles Darnay, the look- alike husband of the woman he loved. I guess my  rst  ctional hero was a depressed, self-sacri cing trial lawyer. And I told him that the injustice of the mob lynchings in  e Oxbow Incident really upset me. Perhaps he also saw that I had self-con dence and might someday stand on my feet to tell another person’s story and make an argument.” As exempli ed by his civil litigation and arbitration successes, She all has demonstrated those admirable qualities many times over. He has been a board certi ed specialist in civil trial law since 1988. His peers invited him to membership in the prestigious American Board of Trial Advocates (ABOTA) and  e International Society of Barristers. During his impressive career, he has recovered more than $100 million for his personal injury and business clients. And this true Southern gentleman has done it in a way that is built on trust, commitment and care. Many of She all’s clients view the attorney with the so  drawl as a family friend rather than simply a legal advocate. His genuine respect for people and honest concern about their problems drives the
way he practices law every day.
“I tell every client that we must build a relationship with one
another of trust and con dence and that once we do, we will become the kind of team that can withstand the hard knocks of litigation and win. People who are entering the litigation system are o en burdened with the most di cult challenges of their lives, such as a catastrophic injury, the death of a loved one, or a threat to their business. Achieving a successful outcome usually puts them back on their feet. It is deeply satisfying to champion a person or a family through that process.”
ESTABLISHING A PRACTICE
During summer breaks while an undergraduate at Davidson College, She all got to see a real law  rm in action while employed as the librarian and all-round errand boy at the Jacksonville  rm of family friend Mark Hulsey, a past president of the Florida Bar.  e Smith Hulsey  rm focused its practice in corporate, real estate, securities and other business areas during the heyday of Charter Company. Yet, while he enjoyed observing the  rm’s talented transactional attorneys at work, the experience taught She all that he was better suited for trial advocacy.
She all competed for the National Moot Court Team and earned his Juris Doctor at the University of Florida. He also studied international trade law at Trinity College, Cambridge. A erwards, She all went to work for the Miami trial  rm of Frates, Floyd, Pearson, Stewart, Richman and Greer, then regarded by many as the top trial  rm in Florida.
“ e chance to be mentored by so many great and famous trial lawyers was too precious an opportunity to turn down, so I launched my career in the strange and exciting city of Miami. Looking back, it was the best decision I could have made. Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes once wrote that ‘your legal education begins when what is called your legal education ends.’ My formative years at the Frates  rm taught me just how true that was.”
“ e partners at the Frates  rm threw us young lawyers into the stormy seas right away, and we learned to swim real fast,” She all recalls. “Bill Frates had defended John Ehrlichman in Watergate and
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