NORTHEAST FLORIDA PARALEGAL ASSOCIATION INC.

Shannon Schott

Plata Schott

Shannon Schott was raised in Jacksonville, Florida. She attended The Bolles School and matriculated to the University of Florida, from where she graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science with a certification in Public Affairs. She went on to Stetson University College of Law where she interned with a local Personal Injury law firm, an ERISA and Personal Injury law firm in Clearwater, the Attorney General’s Office, Children’s Legal Services Division and the State Attorney’s Office for the 4th and 6th Judicial Circuits. She interned with the Honorable Philip J. Federico in the 6th Judicial Circuit. She received the Blews Pro Bono Award for logging more than 300 hours of service while at Stetson Law, and received a certification in Trial Advocacy.

Shannon has practiced law in Jacksonville since her admittance to the Florida Bar in 2010. She is admitted to practice in Florida and the Middle District of Florida. She has tried more than 30 trials to verdict and represented more than 2000 clients. She has been named an Ultimate Attorney by Jacksonville Business Journal and named a “Rising Star” by Super Lawyers Magazine in 2016-2021.  She was also honored by The Florida Bar Young Lawyers Division in 2014-2019 for her pro bono work.

Shannon is a Board Certified Specialist in Juvenile Law. Adopted as a child, she is committed to helping children in the Dependency system.  She also dedicates her time to educating children and their families about their legal rights in Criminal and Personal Injury cases.

Shannon is actively involved in legal, civil and philanthropic organizations.

Shannon presented a rousing CLE during our April seminar about social media in the context of discovery and privacy concerns. She discussed recent cases that allow for the limited production of social media information or photos, along with common pitfalls in producing these records. 

Robert Miller

Fisher, Tousey, Leas & Ball, P.A.

Rob joined Fisher, Tousey, Leas & Ball in 1998, and became a shareholder in 2002. He specializes in estate planning, estate and trust administration, probate, and elder law, with his elder law practice focusing on Medicaid planning and guardianship. Rob was educated at Washington & Lee University, where he received his B.A. degree, magna cum laude, in 1985, and his J.D. degree, cum laude, in 1994. While in law school, he was a member of the Law Review. Between college and law school, he served as a Lieutenant in the United States Army with the 6th Battalion, 8thField Artillery, 7th Infantry Division (Light). He is board certified in Wills, Trusts, and Estates by The Florida Bar.  Rob has been selected to the: “Florida’s Legal Elite” by Florida Trend Magazine; “The Best Lawyers in America”; and as one of the “Top 100 Lawyers in Florida” by Florida Super Lawyers (2016).

Rob presented a comprehensive overview of the fundamentals of estate planning at our April CLE seminar. He also discussed how various estate documents function such as wills, revocable trusts and power of attorney documents, and he warned about some common issues that arise in probate cases. Robert gave a very thorough understanding of how to manage one's assets to avoid probate after death.

Keith Koford

Healogics

Keith Koford, General Counsel, is responsible for the entire legal function of the organization, including implementing all strategic and tactical legal initiatives. He is also corporate secretary. Keith joined Healogics in 2018 with a combined 20 years of legal and business experience.

Prior to Healogics, Keith served as Vice President, General Counsel and Assistant Corporate Secretary for a publicly traded, international medical device and biologics manufacturer and distributor, where over the course of his career he had executive leadership responsibility for world-wide legal affairs, intellectual property, compliance, regulatory affairs, and clinical affairs and reimbursement. He was previously an attorney at the law firm of Holland & Knight, LLP, where he worked as part of its International and Cross-Borders Transactions Group and its Healthcare and Life Sciences Team. Prior to his legal career, he worked in the field of molecular biology at a genomics-based pharmaceutical company.

Keith earned his MBA from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, his Juris Doctor degree from the University of Florida, and his Bachelor of Science in Molecular Biology from Auburn University. He also earned graduate credits at The Johns Hopkins University, where he was enrolled as a Master of Science degree candidate.

Keith presented a segment during our April CLE seminar regarding ethics in the legal field. He gave an in-depth review of varying ethical dilemmas that one might face in their day to day work, and how it can be handled correctly, as well as the consequences when those dilemmas are handled incorrectly. Most importantly, Keith stressed the importance of healthy mentors as one grows in their career as either a paralegal or attorney, and how that can ultimately shape the choices you make in your work.

Stephen Pitel

Jacksonville Area Legal Aid, Inc.

Stephen Pitel has been a staff attorney at Jacksonville Area Legal Aid, Inc. since 2015. Prior to that, he was in private practice for five years. A graduate of the University of Rochester and Vermont Law School, Stephen is the managing attorney of the Northeast Florida Medical Legal Partnership providing free legal services to pediatric patients and their families in the Jacksonville area. He previously spent four years in the Fair Housing Unit at Jacksonville Area Legal Aid, including two years managing the unit. His practice focuses on advocating for changes to the social determinants of health, particularly housing and consumer issues.

Stephen presented a CLE regarding disability rights in housing and reasonable accommodations. He discussed protected classes of individuals under the Fair Housing Act. He also reviewed the Americans with Disabilities Act, qualifying disabilities and related reasonable accommodations. Most notably, he presented a segment on assistance animals and examined the differences between service and support animals.  

Dr. Lantie E. Jorandby, MD

Lakeview Health

Lantie Joranby, M.D. is the Chief Medical Officer of Lakeview Health, a dual diagnosis and addiction treatment center whose in-patient facility is located in Jacksonville, FL. Dr. Joranby graduated with honors from Vanderbilt University with a Bachelor of Science in Neuroscience. She attended medical school and completed her residency at the University of Florida. For seven years, Dr. Joranby worked as a staff psychiatrist and mental health supervisor at the Veterans Affairs Outpatient Clinic in Viera, Florida. After completing her Addiction Psychiatry Fellowship at Yale University, Dr. Joranby became Medical Director for the dual diagnosis unit at McLean Hospital in Belmont, Massachusetts, which is ranked the top psychiatric hospital in the United States. She also served as faculty at Harvard Medical School in the Department of Psychiatry. She is one of less than 200 physicians in the United States who is dual board-certified in addiction medicine, and psychiatry and neurology.

Dr. Jorandby presented a CLE on the Covid-19 crisis and its resulting consequences on mental health and substance abuse. She discussed trends in substance abuse and mental disorders over the past years and factors that have led to the change. Dr. Jorandby described the challenges of our mental health system pre- COVID and outlined strategies to tackle these new mental health and substance use challenges in a covid world. Her CLE can be found on our website on this page.

Matthew Waring

Waring Law, PLLC

Matthew Waring is an experienced Personal Injury Lawyer based in Boca Raton. After graduating from the University of Florida, one of the nation's best law schools, Matthew joined one of Florida's top trial law firms to represent insurance companies. He defended insurance companies for years. Matthew Waring later flipped sides. He joined Steinger, Iscoe & Greene, P.A. where he handled hundreds of personal injury cases. Here, he proudly recovered millions of dollars for injury victims throughout South Florida.

Christine Michel

The Law Offices of Christine Michel

Christine graduated from the University of Denver, Sturm College of Law in 2013 and was admitted to practice law in the State of Colorado. From there she began working with the United Nations Assistance to the Khmer Rouge Trials as a Trial Chamber Clerk Intern conducting research and analyzing evidence before the Trial Chamber before relocating to Phnom Penh, Cambodia where she clerked for the Honorable Rowan Downing of Australia and the Honorable Chang-ho Chung of South Korea. In 2015, Attorney Michel returned the United States and after being admitted to practice in the State of Florida. In 2017, Attorney Michel opened her own firm and has been in private practice serving clients in the areas of Criminal, Family, Immigration, and Personal Injury Law.  She has been appointed to serve on the Special Committee for Professionalism for the 2021-2022 term by the current Florida Bar President, Michael Tanner and most recently served as President of the D.W. Perkins Bar Association.

Christine presented a CLE on voting rights and the 4th Amendment. She educated attendees on the history of clemency and the enactment of the 4th Amendment. She provided an overview of the requirements to restore voting rights under the 4th Amendment, and discussed more recent initiatives to assist those who have lost their voting rights. Her CLE can be found on our website on this page.

Mark M. O'Mara

O'Mara Law Group

Mark M. O’Mara has been a fixture in the Central Florida legal community since 1982. While he started his career as a prosecutor for the State Attorney’s office in Seminole County, he crossed to the other side of the courtroom and has served as a defense attorney ever since. Mark is one of the very few lawyers in Florida who is Board Certified in Criminal Trial Law and Marital and Family Law, he is certified in Collaborative Law and he is a Supreme Court Certified Family Mediator and Circuit Civil Mediator. He has practiced in both state and federal courts throughout the eastern seaboard and has co-counseled on matters throughout the nation. As a trial consultant, Mr. O’Mara helps other lawyers perform at their peak in trials with complicated legal issues and intense media scrutiny.

While leading the high-profile defense of George Zimmerman, Mr. O’Mara received acclaim for his even-handed management of the controversial case. His on-camera experience during the trial won him a spot as a CNN legal analyst, a position he has proudly held since 2013. Since the verdict, Mr. O’Mara has decided to use his voice to contribute to the national conversation about race, guns, self-defense, the media, and the criminal justice system and he speaks frequently on these topics.

Mark presented a litigation "must see" CLE on strategies for getting the discovery you need. In this CLE, Mark discussed the importance of native-file discovery production and strategies to avoid inadmissible evidence. His CLE can be found on our website on this page.

Christine Phipps

Phipps Reporting

Christine graduated from Broward College with her Associate of Science in court reporting. She began as a freelance official working with Judge Milian, Judge Dakis, and Judge Day in Miami-Dade County. She then became a freelance official for Judge Feiner and worked with most judges in the Broward County Courthouse. Reporting over 200 jury trials as a new reporter was a great foundation to her career. Christine then went on to freelance with Merit Reporting and finally at Klein, Bury, Reif & Applebaum, where she worked for Richard Applebaum. Christine became their number-one reporter and was their only reporter providing realtime streaming services at that time on the east coast of Florida.

In October 2010, with a vision for excellence, valuing people, and cultivating the highest skill levels, she began Phipps Reporting in a bedroom of her home, in a downturned economy, and with a savings account of her freelance earnings. Within the first seven years, Christine has opened eight offices, acquired seven companies, and hit Inc. 5000’s fast-growing companies in America every single year, among multiple other business awards.

Christine presented a CLE on realtime remote litigation which educated members and those in the legal field about advanced features in realtime, which is live streaming of testimony. We explored all the different browsers in which realtime feeds are provided and Christine provided a deeper understanding on how to interact with realtime in making annotations, notes, keywords, advanced issue identification, advanced navigation skills, exporting/importing files into law firm management software, in addition to other key features. She also discussed the role of the stenographer versus other methods of making the record and their ethical responsibilities to those they serve. 

Blake F. Deal, III

Briley & Deal, LLC

Licensed for 25 years, Blake F Deal III is a Commercial Real Estate Law and Aviation Law lawyer in Jacksonville Beach, Florida who attended University of Florida Levin College of Law. Blake moved to north Florida in 1990 from his native Charlotte, NC after graduating from engineering school. His first job in Jacksonville was working for Unison Industries as a Mechanical Engineer designing aircraft ignition systems. His permanent magnet alternator and ignition exciter box project designs are on the Boeing 777 (GE90 Engine), Canadair Regional Jet (Rolls Royce RB211 Engine), Allison 250 jet helicopter engine, and the Saab Grippen fighter jet.

An entrepreneur at heart, Blake has owned several small businesses including Sterling Flight Services Air Charters and Flight Instruction at Craig Airport, Ocrakoke Investments real estate development, and Briley & Deal. Blake's engineering background coupled with experience building houses gives him an in-depth understanding of the needs of both builders and clients who are building houses. Blake also has experience in land development, having been a managing partner in the development of the Ponte Vedra East and Payasada Estates communities in St. Johns County. During his almost two decades of real estate law practice he has successfully handled over 10,000 closings ranging in value from $100 to $72,000,000. His experience has covered almost every aspect and area of real estate transactional law. He is an Airline Transport Rated Pilot with over 8,000 hours flight time and is rated in the Sabreliner and Cessna Citation Series business jets.

Blake presented a CLE covering Homestead Related Property Tax Law. His presentation included an overview of the Save Our Homes Act, portability, tax exemptions, and recent developments in property tax law related to portability. The on-demand CLE can be found on our website on this page.

Hayley L. Folmar

McConnaughhay, Coonrod, Pope, Weaver & Stern, P.A.

Hayley practices a broad spectrum of employer-centered litigation.  Specifically, she handles defense work in the areas of workers' compensation defense, insurance defense, and civil liability defense.  Hayley handles trial practice, appellate practice, and administrative hearings before the Florida First DCA, County and Circuit Courts, the Judge of Compensation Claims and the Florida Department of Administrative Hearings. She has represented state agencies, national insurance companies, PEOs, TPAs and self-insureds.  Hayley handles matters in the areas of premises liability, auto liability, sovereign immunity, medical-malpractice, professional-malpractice and wrongful death.

Hayley enjoys presenting educational lectures throughout the southeast about a variety of specialized defense topics.  She is licensed by the Florida Division of Financial Services to provide continuing education instruction.

Expanding across the State line, Hayley appears before the Georgia State Board of Worker's Compensation and the Superior Court of Georgia for civil matters.

Hayley presented a CLE on worker's compensation including process, procedures and hot topic issues.