Carlton Fields, P.A.

In January 2014, the law firms of Carlton Fields, PA and Jorden Burt, LLP merged to form Carlton Fields Jorden Burt, which now boasts more than 375 attorneys and 10 offices nationwide. The firm has deep roots in Florida, where it was founded in 1901, and has since become a household name in legal circles. The merger bolstered the firm’s already robust class action defense practice while further strengthening its national presence. Class action defense is only one of Carlton Fields’ fortes—its top practices include national trial practice, antitrust, real estate, construction, insurance, health care, and M&A.

Spreading Through the Sunshine State and Beyond

Strategically growing coast to coast, with a roster of Fortune 100 clients and a large number of attorneys and government and financial services consultants, Carlton Fields ranks among the nation’s largest law firms and is particularly well regarded in its home state of Florida. Giddings Mabry founded Carlton Fields over a century ago with the help of his father Milton Mabry—a former Florida Supreme Court Chief Justice—and Doyle Carlton—who would go on to become Florida’s 25th governor. With its first office in Tampa, Carlton Fields initially remained mostly Florida-centric until 2004, with offices in Miami, Orlando, Tallahassee, and West Palm Beach. By the time of its January 2014 merger, the firm had branched out beyond the sunshine state with offices in Atlanta and New York and then to Hartford and Washington, DC with the addition of Jorden Burt’s offices. But expansion did not stop there: the firm opened a Los Angeles office in April 2014.

A Diversified Endeavor

A leader in legal diversity, Carlton Fields has been recognized for its diversity initiatives by such publications as the Minority Law Journal and MultiCultural Law. The firm has repeatedly been named a top-ranked firm for Overall Diversity by Vault. Since 2010, Carlton Fields has offered a Diversity Scholarship Program, which provides select first-year law students with a paid summer associateship and an academic scholarship. The firm also sponsors mentoring and scholarship programs for Florida law students and helps fund events for the Cuban American Bar Association, a group that has several Carlton Fields attorneys as current or past leaders.

Lawyers at Carlton Fields have the opportunity to participate in several active business resource groups. Through its Minority Alliance, the firm sponsors diversity scholarships, as well as professional development events for minority attorneys and firmwide presentations by prominent minority attorneys outside the firm. Carlton Fields also has an active women’s forum, known as the Women’s Alliance, which promotes networking among female attorneys and holds events designed to help women pursue career goals. The firm counts among its female leaders shareholder Edith Osman, who was the second woman in the state’s history to be elected president of The Florida Bar; shareholder Sylvia Walbolt, who has been named one of the top 10 women litigators by The National Law Journal; and Gwynne Young, the 2012 President of The Florida Bar.

Moreover, the firm’s LGBT Alliance powers initiatives that have an impact within and beyond the firm. The LGBT Alliance recently partnered with Equality Florida Institute to create and distribute the third edition of A Legal Handbook for LGBT Floridians and Their Families, an estate planning handbook for gay and lesbian families. Carlton Fields also teamed up with Jenner & Block to represent the American Psychological Association as amicus curiae in the appeal of Florida’s gay adoption ban (in holding that the ban violated the Florida Constitution’s equal protection clause, the Court quoted the brief submitted by Carlton Fields and Jenner & Block).

A Class Act, and More

Carlton Fields’ class action attorneys are leaders in their field with hundreds of high-stakes mass torts, employment, and other multi-plaintiff cases under their belts. They even conduct and publish a nationwide survey addressing companies’ best practices for handling risks and costs associated with class litigation. While the firm is well known for its class action defense and trial work, it also advises on a broad range of practices, including antitrust regulation and bankruptcy law for a variety of industries, and lobbies state legislators on its clients’ behalves through its Government Law and Consulting Practice Group. Its corporate experience ranges from start-ups to private equity and non-profit organizations. The firm stays on the cutting edge of intellectual property and technology law by maintaining expertise in electronically based transactions, outsourcing, and data protection. Recently, Carlton Fields attorneys helped wage a major battle against prepaid mobile phone trafficking, securing a $7.8 million victory for TracFone Wireless Inc. in a trademark and copyright infringement lawsuit filed against multiple defendants. Carlton Fields is also a leader in addressing telecommunications fraud and is the only law firm in the country combatting wireless phone trafficking, which costs the industry hundreds of millions of dollars.