Jason Gonzalez joins Shutts & Bowen as partner in Tallahassee

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - Jan. 16, 2014 - PRLog -- Jason Gonzalez, a 17-year veteran of the courtroom and Florida’s Capitol, has joined the law firm Shutts & Bowen as a partner in its Tallahassee office.

Mr. Gonzalez’s extensive experience in litigation and government affairs includes past service as General Counsel to the Florida Governor, General Counsel to the Republican Party of Florida and Gubernatorial Appointee to the Florida Supreme Court Judicial Nominating Commission.

“Jason Gonzalez has already made a great impact both as a public servant and as a litigator,” said Bowman Brown, Chairman of Shutts & Bowen’s Executive Committee. “We expect that his energy, legal ability and knowledge of state government will add fresh power to our firm and our clients for years to come.”

In Tallahassee, Mr. Gonzalez, 40, joins former Lieutenant Gov. Bobby Brantley, Shutts & Bowen’s Government Law Consultant and a former member of the Florida House of Representatives, Secretary of the Florida Department of Commerce and Secretary of the Florida Lottery.

“I’m thrilled to team with a firm with a strong statewide presence, impact, resources and depth, and I look forward to broadening my practice,” Mr. Gonzalez said.

In his new position, Mr. Gonzalez litigates cases and provides government affairs consulting. He represents clients in matters involving contracts, government procurements, class actions, tort defense, declaratory judgments, banking and finance, professional licenses and elections. He was most recently a shareholder in the Tallahassee law firm Ausley McMullen.

In 2008-2009, Mr. Gonzalez was chief advisor to the governor on the appointment of 64 Florida judges and four of the seven justices currently on the Florida Supreme Court. He served on the Florida Supreme Court Nominating Commission in 2007-2008, after service on the First District Court of Appeals Judicial Nominating Commission from 2004-2007, and on the Second Circuit Judicial Nominating Commission from 2001-2004. He chaired each of the latter two commissions in his last year.

Mr. Gonzalez has also won notice in court. In 2010, immediately following the explosion and sinking of the Deepwater Horizon, the vessel’s owner, Transocean Ltd., selected him to serve as its lead counsel for litigation and state and regulatory matters in the Florida Panhandle.  Over two years, Mr. Gonzalez successfully obtained orders dismissing or removing every one of the more than 70 individual and class action lawsuits filed against Transocean in Florida.

Mr. Gonzalez’s Florida roots run deep. A seventh-generation Floridian born in Tallahassee, he is the son of Larry Gonzalez, former Secretary of the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation and Director of the Florida Commission on Ethics, and Jean Gonzalez. He is the great-great-grandson of Captain Manuel A. Gonzalez, who founded the city of Fort Myers in 1866. He received both his J.D. and his bachelor’s degree in business administration, with honors, from the University of Florida.

Shutts & Bowen, established in 1910, is a full-service business law firm with approximately 250 lawyers in offices in Fort Lauderdale, Miami, Orlando, Sarasota, Tallahassee, Tampa, West Palm Beach and Amsterdam.

Learn more about Shutts & Bowen at www.shutts.com.

Distributed by:

Wragg & Casas Public Relations

1221 Brickell Ave., Suite 730

Miami, FL 33131