Practice Areas & Industries: Gunster, Yoakley & Stewart, P.A.

Practice/Industry Group Overview

At Gunster Yoakley, we recognize litigation is not an end in itself, but a means to an end. Being an excellent lawyer goes beyond winning at trial. It means listening to the client, understanding the client's objectives and using the litigation process to achieve the client's goals. Sometimes that involves settling a case for as little money as possible before adverse facts come to light. Other times that means taking a case the distance. Always, the client's best interest is paramount.

Through diversity comes strength. With teamwork comes unity. At Gunster Yoakley, we have combined both to establish a litigation team, skilled in building strong cases, that is positioned to be as dominant in the future as it is today.

Services Available

• Antitrust
• Appellate
• Banking & Lender Liability
• Bankruptcy & Creditors' Rights
• Class Action Disputes
• Construction
• Eminent Domain
• Employment
• First Amendment, Privacy and Defamation
• Health Care
• Intellectual Property
• Land Use & Environmental
• Pharmaceutical
• Probate
• Product Liability
• Professional Malpractice
• Real Estate
• Securities
• State & Federal Regulatory Matters

Representative Matters

• Obtained summary judgments on behalf of a pharmaceutical manufacturer in hundreds of cases by demonstrating that the plaintiffs' claims were not based on reliable, scientific evidence.
• Successfully resolved a racial discrimination suit by proving the lawsuit was part of a sophisticated extortion scheme resulting in the award of large monetary sanctions against plaintiffs' counsel.
• Obtained one hundred percent of the requested relief on behalf of disinherited beneficiaries in a $30 million will and trust contest.
• Secured a multi-million dollar judgment after the trial of a condemnation case involving a governmental taking of commercial real estate. The result was more than 16 times greater than the offer by the condemning authority.
• Successfully defended a European drug manufacturer in a Chicago arbitration hearing by negating existing agreement provisions and preventing the plaintiff from acquiring a sub-license to sell a patented product, thereby saving our client millions of dollars.
• Successfully defended the world's largest flower distributor in Federal District Court in a patent case by getting the opposing expert to admit that the patented invention was obvious and obtained a resulting jury verdict finding that the patent was invalid.

Clients:
Arvida/JMB Partners, AutoNation, Inc., Bank of America, N.A., Bankrate, Inc., Boca Raton Resort and Club, Capital City Bank Group, Inc., Chiquita International, Inc., Citrix Systems, Inc., Flagler Development Corporation, Florida East Coast Industries, Inc., FTD, Inc., GE Capital, Gill Hotels Company, Inc., Innkeepers Hospitality, J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., Jupiter Island Club, Lee Munder Capital Group, Levenger Company, Lykes Bros., Inc., Murray Goodman Company, Park Avenue BBQ Restaurants, Pegasus Corporation of America, Pioneer Corporation, Pratt & Whitney, Ranger Construction Industries, Inc., Republic Services, Inc., Rybovich Spencer, SBA Communications Corporation, Seven Springs Golf Club, Smiths Industries PLC, Sonesta Hotels & Resorts, The St. Joe Company, Starwood Hotels & Resorts, Teva Pharmaceutical, Trump International Golf Club, Trump National Golf Club, U.S. Sugar Corporation, U.S. Trust Company, United Technologies Corporation, WCI Communities, Inc.