Justia Legal Services & Lawyers Directory

Criminal defense is a very complicated and highly specialized area of law, which Attorney John Musca has devoted his professional career to. After completing his undergraduate studies cum laude at Boston College, Attorney Musca received his Juris Doctorate Degree from Case Western University School of Law in 1997. He speaks fluent Spanish and has attended international and legal studies overseas at the world-renowned Instituto International in Madrid, Spain. He is licensed to practice law in the State of Florida and the United States Federal Court, Middle District of Florida.

Serving as a Public Defender in the 20th Judicial Circuit of Florida, Attorney Musca spent considerable time in court developing the skills needed for successful litigation through extensive case preparation and jury trials.

Attorney Musca has tried misdemeanors through serious felonies. In addition to trials, Attorney Musca has extensive experience in Florida DUI arrests, violation of probation matters, drug charges, fraud, battery, domestic disputes, bond hearings, sex crimes, tourist arrests, expungements, and other criminal issues.

As a skilled and competent trial attorney, Attorney Musca has obtained successful results for even the most challenging criminal defense cases. He is proactive in the pursuit of justice for his clients and will demand a trial on the merits of their case, thereby forcing the prosecution to prove their case beyond to and to the exclusion of reasonable doubt.

As a criminal defense lawyer he thoroughly investigates the charges and aggressively challenges the evidence against his clients.
John Musca is dedicated to winning by preparing forward-thinking, strategic, aggressive representation, and always negotiating from a position of strength. The foundation of Musca Law is built on his deep passion for the law and commitment to create a new benchmark for the practice of criminal law. Attorney Musca takes pride in the results his firm has delivered to clients, many of which can be viewed on our http://muscalaw.com under case results.

Attorney Musca has established an innovative firm philosophy leading to continuous improvements of client services and competitive advantages in every respect. He believes in utilizing core concepts of Six Sigma principles as part of his commitment to deliver exceptional value to his clients, without sacrificing the quality of legal services expected from a reputable law firm. By implementing a systematic approach of Law Firm Lean Leadership, Attorney Musca has created a legal practice focusing on streamlining processes and enhancing client service. Encompassing his Firm Philosophy the utilization of each staff members skills and abilities to the fullest as a total legal team approach. Musca Law is a criminal defense law firm serving clients throughout the State of Florida that functions in a competent and winning style.
Additionally, Attorney Musca believes strongly in giving back to the community and supports numerous non-profit and charitable organizations throughout the State of Florida.

Jason Gonzalez (born September 30, 1973) currently serves as General Counsel to Florida Governor Charlie Crist. [1] He was the chief advisor to Governor Crist on the appointment of four of the seven Justices currently serving on the Florida Supreme Court.

Jason Gonzalez was born in Tallahassee, Florida, the son of Larry Gonzalez (former Secretary of the Florida Department of Professional Regulations and Director of the Florida Commission on Ethics) and Jean Gonzalez. A seventh generation Floridian, Gonzalez is the great-great-grandson of Captain Manuel Gonzalez, who founded the City of Ft. Myers, Florida in 1866,[2] and the great-great-great-great-grandson of Evander Lee, who founded the City of Leesburg, Florida in 1857.[3] Gonzalez attended the University of Florida where he graduated Cum Laude with a Bachelors degree in Business Administration and a Juris Doctorate degree. He became an attorney and Florida Bar member in 1998. While in law school, he married his high school sweetheart Sara Hicks Gonzalez. Jason and Sara are the parents of three boys.

Legal Career

Following law school Gonzalez joined the Tallahassee firm of Ausley & McMullen, P.A. as an associate attorney. His practice consisted of trial and appellate litigation. He was named a shareholder in the Firm in 2003. Gonzalez served as special counsel to the Bush/Cheney 2004 Campaign. In 2006 he was named General Counsel to the Republican Party of Florida by Chairman Jim Greer. As General Counsel, Gonzalez served as chief lawyer and member of the Executive Board of the Republican Party. In 2007 Governor Charlie Crist appointed Gonzalez to the State Executive Committee of the Republican Party of Florida as an at-large member. Gonzalez served as President of the Tallahassee Chapter of the Federalist Society, a conservative law and public policy organization. In 2005-2006, Gonzalez represented the Institute for Justice before the Florida Supreme Court in the Bush v. Holmescase that considered the constitutionality of Florida's school voucher program.

Public Service

Judicial Nominating Commissions

In 2001 Gonzalez was appointed by Governor Jeb Bush to the Judicial Nominating Commission for the Second Circuit and served as Chairman of the Commission in 2003. In 2004 Governor Bush appointed Jason to the Judicial Nominating Commission for the Florida First District Court of Appeal, which he chaired in 2006. In 2007 Governor Charlie Crist appointed Gonzalez to the Judicial Nominating Commission for the Florida Supreme Court.

Throughout his service on the Judicial Nominating Commissions, Gonzalez was known as a staunch advocate of judicial restraint. In an article published in 2006, Gonzalez wrote that judges should follow an "originalist-textualist" approach in applying the law. [4] According to Gonzalez, Courts should faithfully apply the text of our Constitution and Statutes, interpreting the meaning of the text based on the common usage of the words at the time of enactment. [5] He uses the infamous case of Plessy v. Ferguson, establishing the separate but equal doctrine, as an example of harmful judicial activism where the Court departed from plain text of the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. [6]

General Counsel to Governor Charlie Crist

Jason Gonzalez was appointed General Counsel to Florida Governor Charlie Crist in 2008. As General Counsel he is the chief advisor to the Governor on all legal matters and serves as the Governor’s Chief Ethics Officer and chief advisor on judicial appointments. In 2008-2009 Gonzalez was the chief advisor to Governor Crist on the appointments of four Florida Supreme Court Justices: Justice Charles Canady; Justice Ricky Polston; Justice Jorge Labarga; and Justice James Perry. The four appointments marked the first time in Florida history that a Governor appointed a majority of the Court in less than a year.[7]





References
^ Governor Crist Appoints Jason Gonzalez as General Counsel http://www.flgov.com/release/9870
^ History of Ft. Myers, Florida http://www.fortmyers-online.com/history.htm
^ History of Leesburg, Florida http://www.leesburgflorida.gov/history/index.aspx
^ Originalist-Textualist Jurisprudence : A Defense of Conservatives’ Views of the Courts; by Jason Gonzalez; The Journal of the James Madison Institute, p.25 (Summer 2006). http://www.jamesmadison.org/pdf/materials/497.pdf#page=27
^ Originalist-Textualist Jurisprudence : A Defense of Conservatives’ Views of the Courts; by Jason Gonzalez; The Journal of the James Madison Institute, p.25 (Summer 2006). http://www.jamesmadison.org/pdf/materials/497.pdf#page=27
^ Originalist-Textualist Jurisprudence : A Defense of Conservatives’ Views of the Courts; by Jason Gonzalez; The Journal of the James Madison Institute, p.25 (Summer 2006). http://www.jamesmadison.org/pdf/materials/497.pdf#page=31
^ Crist Will Reshape Supreme Court; The Lakeland Ledger; May 24, 2008. http://www.theledger.com/article/20080524/NEWS/805240445/1039
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jason_Gonzalez"

Mark Jackson Feather is an exceptional attorney and trial lawyer. He began his legal career at the State Attorney's Office of the Eighth Judicial Circuit of Florida in 1997. He left the State Attorney's Office in 1999 and has now been in private practice for more than 10 years. Mr. Feather is a member of the Florida Bar, as well as both the Northern and Middle Districts of Florida Federal Courts. He specializes in representing persons who are injured in accidents and citizens charged with crimes. His office, Mark J. Feather, P.A., is located across the street from the Gilchrist County Courthouse in Trenton, Florida. Mr. Feather has represented citizens from Pensacola to Melbourne and from Tampa to Jacksonville. He, however, primarily represents residents of the tri-county area (Gilchrist, Levy, and Dixie Counties).

Mr. Feather obtained both his bachelor and juris doctorate degrees from the University of Florida. He graduated with a 4.0 grade point average, with an undergraduate degree in psychology. Mr. Feather was a bit of a "late bloomer." He worked in the "real world" for nine years before returning to college. This experience gave a life perspective enjoyed by few practicing lawyers. Mr. Feather's clients are not assigned to a junior or paralegal at his office. He personally represents each of his clients and works directly with them. Mr. Feather considers himself a very blessed man with a thriving law practice and a wonderful family which includes his beautiful wife, Natalie, and their four wonderful children.

Daniel Woodring was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, but has lived in Florida for the past twenty years. In Florida, he has lived and worked in Pensacola, Clearwater, Jacksonville, Gainesville and Tallahassee. His wife Jean, who is also an attorney, was born in Miami, and grew up in Ft. Myers.

Daniel Woodring is a member of the Florida and Georgia Bars, and is admitted to practice before the Florida Federal Southern, Middle and Northern District Courts, the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals and the U.S. Supreme Court. He has worked at the trial level on cases in many of Florida's 20 judicial circuits, in addition to cases in state administrative tribunals, and has argued cases at the Florida Supreme Court and Florida District Courts of Appeal, and briefed cases at the U.S. Supreme Court.

He graduated from the University of Florida, College of Law with a Juris Doctorate, Cum Laude, and received his B.A. degree from Clearwater Christian College, Summa Cum Laude.

After law school, Mr. Woodring was in private practice doing general civil and appellate work. He then left for a two year appellate clerkship at the First District Court of Appeal. During his time at the court, he worked on cases including, but not limited to: criminal; family law; administrative law; workers' compensation; civil and constitutional law.

Mr. Woodring next worked as a counsel in the Executive Office of the Governor, Office of the General Counsel. During his time in Governor Bush's Legal Office he had diverse responsibilities, including oversight and strategic litigation management of significant legal matters at numerous Governor's agencies, including the Department of Education; Department of Management Services; Department of Business and Professional Regulation; Department of Health; Agency for Health Care Administration; Department of Children and Families; Department of Community Affairs; Department of Elder affairs; Agency for Workforce Innovation; Department of Transportation, and the Department of State. He was also legally responsible for topics as diverse as emergency operations; advising the Governor on the selection of judges; implementation of civil service reform; reform of workers' compensation; budget and appropriation matters; Indian gaming law; and advice to the Florida Cabinet sitting in its many capacities, such as the Florida Land and Water Adjudicatory Commission.

Daniel Woodring was then asked to be the General Counsel for the Florida Department of Education, which encompassed Pre-K though 12th Grade, community colleges and the Florida University System. He was also the Charter General Counsel for The Board of Governors, when that board was constitutionally created to manage the State University System. During his tenure at the Department of Education, Mr. Woodring advised and litigated on matters including, but not limited to: constitutional challenges to Florida's education programs, including Opportunity Scholarships and the charter school approval and appeal process; doing away with race as a preference in university admissions and state contracting; teacher and professional discipline cases; union, labor and employment matters; state procurement and bid protest proceedings; administrative rule challenges and rule making proceedings; IDEA and Section 504 proceedings; public records, government in the sunshine and ethical matters; contract negotiations and disputes.

Since 2007, Mr. Woodring has been back in private practice as the principal of the Woodring Law Firm, located in Tallahassee, Florida, and practicing statewide and in Georgia. He concentrates his practice on appeals; constitutional cases instate and federal court; education law matters; and state administrative matters, including state procurement, regulation and licensing.

Mr. Graham is a plaintiff's civil trial lawyer who represents injury victims and their families in automobile collision, wrongful death, nursing home neglect, and medical malpractice cases. He has tried civil cases to verdict in Leon County, Wakulla County, Gadsden County, and Taylor County, Florida, respectively.

Mr. Graham graduated from Boston College in 1982 with a B.A. in political science. He was commissioned as an Air Force officer shortly thereafter, serving as an intelligence officer, an aircrew member, a special operations staff officer, and as a judge advocate in the active Air Force and Air Force Reserve. While assigned to United States Central Command, Mr. Graham twice deployed to Kuwait in support of Operations Desert Storm and Southern Watch.

Mr. Graham graduated with honors from the Florida State University College of Law in 1996, where he was a member and officer of the Moot Court team and was selected to the Order of Barristers. He began his legal career as a Florida Supreme Court law clerk from 1996 until 1999. He clerked for Justices Harry Lee Anstead, Gerald Kogan, and R. Fred Lewis.

Mr. Graham has competed in triathlons, road races, cycling time trials, and swimming competitions, as well as directing the Top Gun Triathlon in Tampa, Florida from 1990 until 1993.