Top Zoning and Local Government Law Attorney Santiago Echemendia Joins Shutts & Bowen's Miami Office

MIAMI - March 13, 2014 - PRLog -- Shutts & Bowen LLP is pleased to announce that leading South Florida local government lawyer Santiago D. Echemendia has joined the firm as a partner.

Mr. Echemendia focuses his practice on municipal law, including land use and zoning, encompassing appeals, environmental, property rights, competitive bidding, ethics, public records and administrative law.

He will join Shutts & Bowen's robust Zoning and Local Government Law Group in Miami, which already represents many of South Florida's top developers in major projects and is part of the firm's statewide Land Use Practice Group. Mr. Echemendia most recently served as partner and chair of the Local Government Law Group at Tew Cardenas LLP in Miami.

"I'm thrilled to join a statewide team which, I believe, has the greatest legal depth in Florida," Mr. Echemendia said. "I very much look forward to collaborating with colleagues I have known for years and working together to grow our local government practice."

"We are delighted to have Santiago Echemendia on board," said Bowman Brown, partner and chair of Shutts & Bowen's Executive Committee. "His addition adds firepower to our overall statewide government law practice, which we believe is as strong as any in Florida. We are building on our success by continuing our growth with the addition of top zoning lawyers."

Mr. Echemendia's experience is far-reaching. He serves as special counsel to the City of West Palm Beach and board counsel to the Early Learning Coalition of Miami-Dade/Monroe. He has also served as special counsel to the City of Miami and the Town of Medley, and he was board counsel for five years for the South Florida Water Management District Governing Board, attending all board meetings and workshops, and advising on policies pertaining to conflicts of interest, procurement, competitive bidding, minority participation, the Sunshine Law, and other issues.

In addition, he has served as senior public affairs consultant to the Florida Department of Transportation, and has also represented Monroe County on environmental issues and the Miami-Dade County School Board on matters involving transferable development rights and historic preservation issues.

Mr. Echemendia is a former member of the board of directors of the Miami-Dade Planning Advisory Board, the South Florida Regional Planning Council, the Miami-Dade Housing Finance Authority, and the FIU Wolfsonian Museum.

He received his B.A. and J.D. from Georgetown University, and LL.M. from the University of Miami in real property, land development and finance.

Shutts & Bowen, established in 1910, is a full-service business law firm with nearly 250 lawyers in offices in Ft. Lauderdale, Miami, Orlando, Sarasota, Tallahassee, Tampa and West Palm Beach. Learn more about Shutts & Bowen at www.shutts.com.