Top Guns
Pensacola’s Trial Attorneys
by Roane Beard
Pensacola may be a small city, but when it comes to trial attorneys, Pensacola is home to some big guns. Pensacola trial attorneys have fought it out with major corporations and government agencies from across the country, on both sides of the cases. They’ve secured billion dollar settlements and successfully defended clients from crippling claims. The common denominators between them are a willingness to enter the arena of the courtroom to put their hard-won litigation skills to the test, and a desire to make a difference.
Clearly, one of the keys to being
a successful trial attorney is developing top-notch trial skills. But these are
low priorities at many law schools, says Mike Papantonio, a partner in the
Levin Papantonio firm.
“Most law schools don’t place enough importance on
developing trial advocacy skills. These are the most important skills you can
have as a lawyer if you want to create results for your clients,” he says.
Virginia Buchanan, another attorney with Levin
Papantonio, agrees that trial skills are important but believes that the right motivation
is crucial for a person to succeed as a trial attorney.
“I think a person has to be really honest with him or
herself if they’re thinking about going into law,” she says. “I see a lot of
people who are very unhappy in the world that I’m in. You have to have a desire
to work a lot of hours under very trying circumstances. And have to struggle
along with your clients. You have to be a person and lawyer to do this.”
Marcus Michles, an attorney who
recently opened the firm Michles and Booth after leaving his position with
Kerrigan, Estes, Rankin and McLeod, agrees that it takes more than just
courtroom skills to be a successful trial attorney. The right motivation will
make or break you in this career.
“It can be a very unsatisfying
career unless you’re motivated to helping someone,” he says.
Climate has interviewed six of Pensacola’s top trial attorneys, asking them about their practices, the cases they’ve tried, their plans for the future, and their motivations. Some of the lawyers we interviewed are primarily defense attorneys; others focus on prosecution. All of them have years of experience trying high-stakes courtroom cases.
Rainey
C. Booth and Associates
438-4848
Rainey Booth focuses on drug
litigation, suing companies that sell harmful drugs. Currently, he and his
partner are building a case against Parke-Davis/Warner-Lambert, the drug
company that manufactures Rezulin. The drug, used to treat diabetes, was
recalled on March 31, 2000 after the FDA declared that the use of Rezulin was
associated with liver failure.
“There were a number of things
that the company has done wrong,” says Booth. “Forty-eight countries rejected
the use of the drug. South America and Europe rejected it. It was on the market
in Britain for only three weeks. Only Japan, the US and a very few other
countries approved it. We believe the FDA had been manipulated into approving
it.”
After working on the Rezulin
case five days a week for the last 10 months to get it ready to bring to trial,
Booth’s expertise on the subject earned him some unexpected attention.
“My partner, Zoe Littlepage, and
I were consultants for a recent episode of The Practice. They did an episode
about a little girl that got liver failure from a drug similar to Rezulin. The
writers were very thorough. They did a good job with the material.”
Rainey Booth has been practicing
law for 17 years. He earned his law degree from the University of Florida
College of Law in 1984.
Levin
Papantonio
435-7165
Mike Papantonio has made a name for himself developing
and trying product liability cases involving thousands of plaintiffs and
hundred million dollar settlements; at the same time, he views his pro-bono
environmental work as some of the most important work he does. The common
ground between the two are the people his work affects.
“The mass tort cases I
specialize in involve products that hurt thousands of people, such as
asbestos,” he says. “I specialize in developing those cases and trying them. We
worked on the Fen-Phen litigation, a diet drug that killed in excess of three
thousand people. We were involved in the early days of asbestos litigation,
when we were finding that it was killing tens of thousands of people. Right now
we’re working on the Rezulin case.”
Papantonio’s mass tort cases
have resulted in some very large settlements—the Fen-Phen settlement was about
1 billion dollars—and the money he earns gives him the leeway to try the
environmental cases he feels strongly about.
“Most of the environmental work
I do right now is pro-bono,” he says. “These are the cases I feel the most
committed to and get the most pleasure from. In the future, I’m probably going
to move towards handling more environmental cases, particularly toxic tort
cases with pervasive impacts in specific communities. Right now I’m building
coalitions to handle those cases. I think we’ll have some of the best lawyers
in the country handling them when we’re through, because we’re simply bringing
on people who we feel are the best, most qualified trial lawyers in the
country.”
Mike Papantonio has been
practicing law for nearly 20 years, and has tried cases all over the country.
There have been very few major tort cases in the last few years that he hasn’t
been involved in. He graduated from the Cumberland School of Law at Sanford
University in 1982.
Virginia
Buchanan
Levin
Papantonio
435-7023
Over the years, Virginia Buchanan has worked on a
number of the big cases that came through the doors of Fred Levin’s prestigious
law firm, including the groundbreaking multi-billion dollar tobacco settlement.
Still, many of her smaller cases are the ones she remembers best.
“One of my very first trials still stands out in my mind,” she say. “We represented three teenagers whose mom and dad were killed by a drunk driver while coming home from celebrating their anniversary in Panama City. Worked very hard on the case, and got extremely close with the three children. We remain close to this day. It’s been something that’s made my life better, to have worked on a case that was so tough, took so much out of me, and gave so much back. We won a settlement for them that was a record in Leon County, but they looked to us to be more than lawyers.”
Buchanan’s practice focuses on
plaintiff trial work. She typically handles a variety of product liability,
medical negligence, and accident cases.
“I’m working on some very important cases right now, such as the newlywed death case,” she says, referring to the death of Lori Weekley Dwelle, who was killed in a car wreck just hours after marrying her high school sweetheart. “I love my job. I continue to be touched and made better by these people who have been affected by these devastating things. I’ve looked forward every day to coming into work for the last twelve years. I’m lucky to be with a good firm.”
Virginia Buchanan has been
practicing law for twelve years, after earning her degree from the University
of Florida College of Law in 1988.
Clark,
Partington, Hart, Larry, Bond & Stackhouse
434-9200
Don Partington is a longtime of veteran trying civil
suits. He runs a civil trial and appellate practice, handling commercial and
medical litigation cases, principally for the defense. He represents a number
of local hospitals and physicians.
“Our business is helping people
or companies who have been wrongly accused of something or are seeking relief,”
he says. “Just helping people. Companies and corporations are just as sensitive
to the need for good legal advice as is an individual.”
His practice has covered a gamut
of cases, from local school board and construction cases to an assortment of
medical malpractice cases, to small, pro-bono cases for individuals in need of
help.
“When somebody comes in who needs help, we try to help
them,” he says. “Legal services need to be accessible. But we’re kind of a
quite company. We don’t do a lot of talking about those things.”
In fact, Partington’s soft-spoken nature makes it
difficult to get the details of the cases he’s worked over the years. He’s very
sensitive to the feelings of the people he’s represented.
“I don’t want to bring up a lot of the work I’ve done
over the years, because so much of it is still very painful to the people
involved,” he says.
Don Partington earned his law degree
from Washington and Lee University in Lexington in 1964.
He
has practiced law in Pensacola since he moved here in 1967, after getting out
of the army.
Michles
& Booth
444-4444
Marcus Michles focuses on medical malpractice, an area
of specialty that he says he finds fulfilling because it gives him the
opportunity to help people who have been injured through the negligence of
others. His recent cases have involved getting a settlement for a woman whose
heart attack was misdiagnosed, representing a child who underwent unnecessary
surgery, and suing on behalf of a woman who was misadministered medicine.
“I’m really very proud of a case
involving a little old lady named Francis Smith who lost an eye as the result
of a medical malpractice case,” he says. “She had the courage to see it through
after being offered a tiny amount of money.”
Currently, Marcus is suing Dr.
James Graves, a Pace physician and pain management specialist who is facing
five counts of manslaughter in the deaths of five patients as a result of
overprescribing narcotics. Graves also faces drug trafficking and racketeering
charges.
“I’m representing the families
of the victims on the civil side,” says Michles.
Michles was admitted to the
Florida Bar in 1986 after graduating from the Stetson University College of Law
in St. Petersburg. After serving a stint in the Army’s Judge Advocate General’s
office, Michles practiced statewide as a medical malpractice defense attorney.
He moved to Pensacola in 1990, and spent eight years practicing law at
Kerrigan, Estes, Rankin and McLeod. He has recently opened up his own firm,
Michles & Booth, where he will continue his medical malpractice work.
Beggs
& Lane
432-2451
With the increasing number of medical malpractice
lawsuits, hospitals need experienced attorneys to defend them, and there are
few local attorneys with more experience in medical malpractice defense than
Nix Daniel. Beggs & Lane has represented Baptist Hospital since it opened
its doors in 1951, and in recent years Daniel has handled much of the caseload,
for the hospital and individual doctors alike. It’s work that he’s good at, and
finds greatly rewarding.
“The cases that I get the most
satisfaction from are cases where doctors have been accused of malpractice,” he
says. “These accusations have a substantial emotional effect on the people
involved. Those are satisfying cases. I hope to continue representing Baptist
Hospital and the people there until I retire.”
Daniel has defended several high
profile cases during his time as a defense attorney, including the lawsuit
surrounding the plane crash death of former Gulf Power executive Jake Horton in
1989. The suit was tried in Key West due to the amount of publicity the event
received in the local press.
Daniel, a Pensacola native, has been practicing law for 24 years. He earned his law degree from the University of Florida College of Law in 1976, and was admitted to the Florida Bar in 1977.