Local counsel, co-counsel, trial counsel, and conflict counsel in Florida state and federal courts, for national firms that need a lawyer here or a lawyer they cannot be.
In Florida state court, a lawyer admitted elsewhere may appear in a particular case only if a member of The Florida Bar in good standing is associated as an attorney of record. More than three such appearances in separate cases within a year is presumed to be a general practice, which a foreign attorney may not engage in.
In the Southern District of Florida, a pro hac vice motion has to designate a member of that court’s bar who is authorized to file electronically, who stays in ready communication with the court and opposing counsel, on whom filings are served, and who electronically files and serves everything in the case.
A firm can satisfy those requirements with a name on a pleading. It gets more than that from us.
The other reason firms call has nothing to do with admission. A firm representing a company frequently cannot represent everyone the matter touches. A related entity, a subsidiary, a joint venture partner, or an officer or employee the company has agreed to indemnify may need counsel of their own.
We are regularly called upon to take on those engagements. The officer or the affiliate is our client, even where the company is paying the bill, and that distinction is the entire point of separate counsel. We coordinate wherever interests align, under a joint defense or common interest arrangement where one is appropriate, and we say so early if they stop aligning.
Which judge sets a firm trial date and which one will move it. How the local rules get enforced in practice as opposed to written. Which mediators the other side will actually accept. How a South Florida jury decides a case.
We have tried cases in these courtrooms and we know the people in them.
The client came to you. Our engagement is the case in front of us, and we do not pursue the client’s other work.
Firms send us the next one because of that as much as anything else.
Chambers USA 2026 · Litigation: General Commercial: Highly Regarded respondent
Our lawyers have served on The Florida Bar’s Civil Procedure Rules Committee and on the Southern District of Florida’s Local Rules Committee, and have been appointed to that court’s Federal Magistrate Judge Merit Selection Panel, its Federal Criminal Litigation Committee, and its Ad Hoc Committee on Rules and Procedures. One has served as co-chair of its Bench and Bar Committee.
Some firms want us arguing the motions and trying the case. Some want us ensuring compliance with local rules and procedure and serving as the court’s point of contact, while their own team carries the substance. Most want something in between, and want to decide as the case develops.
What we do not do is lend a name and step back. Counsel of record carries real obligations to the court.
We work as part of your team rather than beside it, which starts with dividing the work before the first court deadline approaches.
