We are introducing CFLABOTA’s member spotlights:
William E. Ruffier
While in junior high school my mother wanted to know what I planned to do when I grew up. I told her I planned to be a journalist. She told me they don’t make much money and to come up with a better plan. Her father was a lawyer, and his mother was a legal secretary so she suggested the law.
I was no academic over-achiever in the Orange County Public School system. I graduated with a 2.9 GPA from Edgewater High School in 1979, after posting a 3.6 GPA my senior year when doubt was expressed over my college potential. That and an 1100 on the SAT got me admitted to the University of Florida, where I majored in Finance as a backstop in case the law school thing didn’t work out. As a side note, all my buddies that majored in Finance with me are successfully retired, and here I am.
Somehow I over-achieved on the LSAT, and combined with my rigorous major, I was accepted into the UF College of Law. I must confess, having done nothing but math in my undergraduate days I was not prepared for the writing law school required and finished my first semester with a 2.2 GPA, with my only “B” in torts, which makes sense. Fortunately, that freed me up from all my classmates trying to “write on” law review. With some writing advice from my classmates, and lots of practice, I climbed out of the abyss and graduated in the top third of my class.
Upon graduation I had a few options for employment, and began working at the old Sanders, McEwan, Mims and Martinez firm. I was blessed with trying my first circuit court case in front of Judge Muzinski a month after passing the bar exam, against Linton Waterhouse. From then on I was hooked on trying cases and thanks to the mentorship of partners Jack McEwan and Ralph Martinez, as well as their lack of risk management concerns, I was off and running. I made friends for life at that firm, and have great memories from my 15 years with them. However, I became restless for a change. Well, that and two kids in private school.
Early in my career I had a case against Bob Dellecker, and we became friends. He was looking for a lawyer and I am a lawyer, so the rest is history. I get to work two blocks from my house, and ride my bike to work. I count my blessing each day that I get to practice law and look forward to many more years as I truly enjoy it. I’ve made so many friends in the practice, and most are in ABOTA. I tell my wife that I hate to miss an ABOTA event because I get to catch up with all my buddies that I don’t often get to see. Probably my greatest blessing is having a mother who 45 years ago could foresee the collapse of the newspaper industry and steer me into a profession that I love.
Michael Damaso
It is a huge honor to be invited to ABOTA. As we hopefully come out of COVID, I look forward to getting to know all of you as we resume more in-person events.
I look around our group and see so many lawyers I respect, try to emulate, and learn from to improve my practice of representing others dealing with difficult and tragic situations. Our clients don’t know what to do, don’t know where to turn, and need counsel and guidance. They are at a loss for solutions to their legal dilemmas until we come in, advise them, and try to help them.
Since I was young, I wanted to be a lawyer. When you grow up in a Spanish and Italian family in Tampa, by default you grow up around debate. Someone always knows everything, and then someone else always knows more. Fact finding and problem solving always interested me.
I graduated from H.B. Plant High School, came to Orlando for college in 1997 and never left. I graduated from UCF in 2001, where I met my wife, Jamie. I went on to graduate from Barry Law School and started working with the Wooten Honeywell firm in 2005.
During my time with our firm, I have been so fortunate to have been trained and mentored by so many wonderful lawyers: Butch Wooten, Dan Honeywell, Orman Kimbrough, Bruce Gibson, Patti Doherty, and Ed Normand. While one of the most important things for any trial lawyer to remember is to remain your true self, I can’t deny the influence these mentors have had on me and my practice. These lawyers within our firm have taught me how to be a trial lawyer, counselor, and how to practice with civility. Outside of my parents, these mentoring lawyers have been the most powerful influences on who I am today both as a lawyer and a person.
Also, I’ve had the privilege to handle cases against many formidable opponents from our group including Dennis O’Connor, Kurt Spengler, Gary Vasquez, and others. I have learned so much from cases against these fine lawyers and managed to take with me lessons from each of them.
To be a part of a group which holds high the values of civility, professionalism, honesty in relationships with each other, and works tirelessly to maintain the constitutional right of a jury trial to resolve disputes, is a very special honor. Often today these traditional values are lacking in our profession or are targeted by other branches of government and special interest groups. I am proud to be part of a group aimed at preserving them.
John Robinson
After almost 40 years of practice, becoming an ABOTA member in 2010 was the highest reward. I clearly remember Attorney Sam King kindly indicating he was going to recommend me for membership. Keep in mind Sam and I were adversaries for decades since we were in our 20s and 30s as young fathers. While always an adversary, always civil. The hallmark of ABOTA membership is true ability and honest courtesy (as Judge Edwards has ably taught all of us). ABOTA members are always the lawyers I admire and respect the most. It is a great resource for the referral of plaintiff or defense cases to other attorneys in Florida and across the United States.
I lived in Orlando all my life attending Boone High School and UCF. The same for my wife, Chris, and our 43 years together. When asked why I became a lawyer, the answer was simple, I simply followed my father’s advice. While I had studied to be a Foreign Service Officer, his advice was to go to law school. I am glad I listened.
I think I was born to be a defense PI atty. My father was the first State Farm agent in Orlando in 1948. My third job interview occurred in 1984 with Dean Ringers Morgan & Lawton. I was lucky enough to be hired that day and it has been my work home for 38 years. I became the firm president in 2011.
In addition to my PI defense practice, I have enjoyed working with many plaintiff attorneys to obtain court approval of settlements for minors and probate cases to appoint the needed personal representative in wrongful death cases. When I was a new lawyer, I was asked to begin the probate process for a firm client. My first personal representative was appointed. After the first one, it has now been hundreds. It is a rare legal practice to combine PI and probate law.
My friends know travel is probably my biggest hobby. Chris and I have traveled around the world by air and sea to 53 countries and 6 continents. I am proud that my son, Nicholas, is continuing the family tradition as a defense attorney at Fisher Rushmer. John Fisher and the other very able ABOTA partners will train him well (with some help from his dad). After almost 40 years, there are always new things to learn. My late partner, Goble Dean, wisely told me that is why they call it “a practice.”
Anthony J. Caggiano
Growing up in the Boston area in an Italian American family, I learned that faith, family and food were most important. As a child, food appeared to take center stage. Every Sunday, I would wake to my mom preparing the “gravy” for our pasta. What non-Italians would refer to as “tomato sauce.” Meatballs would be simmering in the oven, sausages and chicken cooking on top of the stove. Freshly baked bread, creamy cannolis and ricotta cheese pies from Esposito’s bakery were on the kitchen counter. Always ready for a feast, it was difficult to leave the aromas in the kitchen to go to church.
After church, my aunts, uncles and cousins would often join us for lunch. Having only sisters, my male cousins were like my brothers. My aunts were like second mothers. Everyone knew everything about each other. In the days before texting, my precious mom had to spend a number of hours each day on the telephone with my aunts to keep up with the goings on in the family. Like my aunts, my mom did not work outside the home until I was in junior high school. My parents were so protective – I was able to share at their 50th wedding anniversary that my sisters and I never experienced being left with a babysitter.
Not having the opportunity to go to college themselves, my parents and grandparents encouraged me to attend college and beyond. While in elementary school, I recall sitting with my father, grandfather and my Uncle Fred – to discuss what I wanted to be when I grow up. Then and there, it was decided that I would be the first doctor or lawyer in our family. As the son of a Navy Sailor, Boston police officer and Italian father, I understood respect and devotion to family. From that moment, I had narrowed my career choices. After watching “Perry Mason”and seeing himprotect others and battle for justice – I decided that becoming a trial lawyer was my future.
Treating people like family has been and continues to be a way of life. Everyone that works with me hears that “life is all about relationships.” While I cannot share a bowl of pasta with everyone, I can take the time to listen – and – I can guarantee that my word is my bond. Cultivating loyal, long-lasting relationships with clients, attorneys and other professionals is an integral part of my practice. It is a privilege to be a member of ABOTA, Board Certified in Civil Trial Law, a past chair of The Florida Bar Civil Trial Law Certification Committee and to be able to do what I love.
Professionally, ABOTA is such an inspiration. The importance of the right to trial by jury cannot be overstated. For this reason, it is my absolute pleasure and honor to serve as our chapter’s program chair of the Seventh Amendment Symposium. This essential program provides an opportunity for our attorneys and judges to share the benefits and blessings of the right to trial by jury with high school students interested in law. I have been blessed to be married for 34 years to my wife, Sara. We have four adult children, Garrett, Caitlin, Courtney and Jackson, our daughter-in-law, Sara, and our son-in-law, Maika. While we had to say goodbye to our 14-year-old yellow lab, Tater, we adore our two grand puppies, mini Australian shepherds Violet and Sugar, and look forward to the joy of grandchildren.
Thomas E. Dukes III
Tom Dukes has been with McEwan, Martinez, Dukes & Hall, P.A. since receiving his Juris Doctorate in 1984. He concentrates his practice in medical malpractice defense. He is a graduate of the University of Florida (B.A. 1981) and the University of Florida College of Law (J.D. 1984).
Tom is AV-rated by the Martindale-Hubbard Law Directory. He was president of The Florida Defense Lawyers Association in 2001 and 2002. He received the 1996-1997 and 1999-2000 President’s Award from the FDLA for outstanding service to the organization. He also received the 2005 Joseph P. Metzger Outstanding Achievement Award for lifetime service to the FDLA. He received CLE awards from the FDLA in 2006 and 2011. He also served as one of the founding Chairmen of the Florida Liability Claims Institute, a statewide organization seeking to improve the working relationship between insurers and defense counsel. Tom has served on and chaired one of The Florida Bar’s local grievance committees.
While specializing in medical malpractice defense, Tom has tried a wide variety of cases, including wrongful death, automobile negligence, civil fraud and civil negligence. He is a frequent lecturer and writer on trial and litigation-related topics. Tom is Board Certified as a Civil Trial Lawyer by The Florida Bar, The National Board of Trial Advocacy and The American Board of Professional Liability Attorneys. He is Board Certified in Civil Pretrial Practice Advocacy by The National Board of Civil Pretrial Practice Advocacy. He is a member of The American Board of Trial Advocates. He also served on The Florida Supreme Court Jury Instruction Committee. He is a regular faculty member at the Florida Bar Trial Lawyer’s Section’s Advanced Trial Advocacy Program.
In 2016 Tom was admitted to the American College of Trial Lawyers. The College was founded in 1950 and is composed of the best of the trial bar from the United States and Canada. Fellowship is extended by invitation only and only after careful investigation, to those experienced trial lawyers who have mastered the art of advocacy and whose professional careers have been marked by the highest standards of ethical conduct, professionalism, civility and collegiality.
Tom has been blessed to practice at the same firm for over thirty-five years. He has exceptional partners in fellow ABOTA and American College of Trial Lawyers members Ralph Martinez and Mary Jaye Hall, and will always be grateful to his mentor and former ABOTA Trial Lawyer of the Year Jack McEwan. He is also blessed with a thirty-eight year marriage to his wife Susy, three happily married children, two grandchildren, and two more on the way.
Tom has two keys for the practice of law: perspective and the drive for excellence. Perspective comes from recognizing our role as advocates. No one wins every time in the adversarial arena. Understanding that, and understanding that the measure of lawyering is not necessarily the outcome, helps bring peace to a stressful practice.
Also, Tom believes an adversarial business need not be adversarial. Professionals who disagree can do so with civility and respect. Tom’s favorite lawyer is Abraham Lincoln, who was famous for extending every courtesy to opposing counsel and stipulating to every fact that was not essential to his client’s cause. Tom has learned that no single matter defines a career, and that the only true measure of success is whether a lawyer has done his or her best. This philosophy helps keep his work in its proper place in life.
As to striving for excellence, Tom believes it’s important to do the little things well. Good habits, in life as in the law, are hard to acquire and easy to break. Discipline in small matters leads to success in larger matters. As lawyers, if we work as hard as we can to be fully prepared, we will be more at peace with the result, knowing we’ve done our best.
Outside the practice of law Tom and Susy are active in multiple ministries at St. James Catholic Church in Orlando. Over the years Tom has coached youth basketball and youth flag football. He is an exercise enthusiast, a country music fan, and a diehard Florida Gators fan.
Paul Perkins
The American Board of Trial Advocates is a distinguished group of consummate professionals that are the cream of the crop of the most honorable of professions: Trial Lawyer. Somehow, they let me in this thing.
Everything I have ever had has been handed to me on a silver platter with a note that said, “Don’t screw this up.” On more than a few occasions, I lost the damn note. The legal profession is in my blood. Daniel Webster Perkins was my great uncle. He passed the Florida Bar in 1914 and practiced in Tampa before settling in Jacksonville, Florida in 1921. He was a trial lawyer when Blacks in Florida could not serve on juries or cross examine white witnesses. (This, of course, makes it extremely difficult for me to feel sorry for myself when I am struggling with a difficult witness or run out of peremptories.) My wife and I were honored to attend his posthumous induction into the Florida Civil Rights Hall of Fame in 2018. Uncle Dan was an unabashed workaholic, who practiced until he was in his late eighties and died at his desk. As I have said many times before, the only way I can envision my own demise occurring at my desk is if I’m shot by somebody’s husband due to a horrible misunderstanding.
My father, Paul C. Perkins, was raised in Elizabeth City, North Carolina. He was the youngest of ten children and was determined from the age of seven to grow up to be a preacher. After serving as a Captain in the segregated US Army Quartermaster Corps, he attended Howard University Law School in Washington, DC. Lucky for him, he never got the call to the pulpit, because the two young boys he would eventually have would have scandalized him into unemployment. He did, however, move to Jacksonville to work under the tutelage of his uncle Dan. This lasted about a year until the young upstart became so annoying, Uncle Dan gave him $500, a new Buick and ran him out of town. He settled in Orlando, Florida where he partnered with James Collier, a friend from law school.
My mother, Melva J. Perkins, was born in 1931 in Ft. Gaines, Georgia as one of 6 children. Her father left her mom with the children and moved to Arizona where his light complexion would allow him to pass as a Native American. I don’t think he was a historian. Anyway, soon after, her mom had what was commonly referred to at the time as a “nervous breakdown.” The modern medical terminology for the condition is “Six Damn Kids By Myself Syndrome.” She was institutionalized, and the children were divided among relatives all over the country. My Mom was sent to live with a slightly less poor cousin in Orlando that lived on Garden Street in the Parramore District, commonly referred to as Black Bottom or The Quarters at the time. She went to school in a one room schoolhouse with children as young as 4 and as old as 14, when most Black kids, especially boys, left school to work in the groves. My mother was very smart and very pretty, so she was given an opportunity to finish high school at 15 and go off to college at FAMC now FAMU in Tallahassee. She was a schoolteacher at Callahan Elementary School on Parramore Ave. when a new young lawyer came to town from Jacksonville, named Paul Perkins. The two of them married in 1954.
I was born on October 14, 1966 at Orange Memorial Hospital in Orlando, Florida at 11:30am. The spoiling commenced immediately. My mom was astute enough to send me to school at 4 years old knowing how to read, spell my name and count. My pre-school teachers then lumped me in with the bright kids and I never fell out of that group. My parents also sent me to Trinity Preparatory School. I would literally wake up in the morning as the richest kid in the neighborhood, get on a school bus across town and step onto a campus where I was one of the poorest kids. Every day. I will never forget my Dad’s daily words of wisdom when I would go into his sock drawer for my lunch money. “Study hard. Have fun. And if you mess with any of those white girls, I will throw you out of the house.” I loved that man.
My father died on July 4, 1985, when I was 18 years old. I was really lucky to have spent a lot of time with him. My brother and I sat at his feet when he and his friends started a Savings & Loan, a recreational center, built churches, and supported youth sports in the community they lived in. They were always talking about ways to be impactful, and never told the kids or the women to leave the room or any of that nonsense. I remember a household full of laughter and purpose, all at the same time. For that reason, I have always believed I could do serious things without ever taking myself too seriously.
My father’s reputation as a great lawyer and even better person preceded me wherever I went throughout my career here in town. My livelihood was handed to me with that note I talked about at the beginning. I have tried to use those blessings to help young people, particularly in education. My mom taught me what an incredible advantage a good education can be for someone, and I have always tried to make sure those avenues were available to others. I have served on the board of my alma mater Trinity Prep, and was chair of the board when we hired its first African American Head of School. I support St Andrew Catholic School in Pine Hills, which serves a community of Catholic kids that are the children of immigrants from the British West Indies and Haiti. More recently, I have supported a scholarship for HBCU (Historical Black Colleges and Universities) graduates to The University of Florida College of Law. Two of the first recipients are Perkins Scholars and they both went to Morehouse College, my collegiate alma mater.
All those things bring me joy, as well as the time I spend with my wife of 29 years, Andrea and our two kids Gillian 25, and George 22. My hobby is sitting around and chatting pure nonsense with my buddies with a glass of rum and a good cigar. Sometimes with a golf club or a fishing rod, but always chatting nonsense. It is an honor to do what we do and to be able to have fun in our vocation. I’m just trying not to screw it up.
Clay “Chip” Coward
It was during our recent meeting while talking with Chuck Ingram and Joe Amos that I realized that I am CFLABOTA’s version of Kevin Bacon, with 6 degrees of separation (or less) from nearly every member of our Chapter. I have worked with several of our members throughout my career, and have had cases with many more.
I graduated from high school in Ft. Lauderdale, and then earned a degree in journalism from the University of Colorado. I went to law school at the University of Florida, where I was on the moot court team with our President, Patti Doherty, and our Executive Director, Marybeth McDonald. After graduating in 1983, I was fortunate to spend the fall of that year job shadowing Gainesville trial lawyer Jack Langdon with the firm Jones and Langdon. He moved to Orlando in 1984 with a plan to stay in Central Florida for about 5 years, and has been here ever since.
I am a shareholder at Wicker, Smith, O’Hara, McCoy & Ford, P.A. My current practice, as it has been for many years, is focused on the defense of medical and legal malpractice cases. I represent hospitals, physicians and allied health professionals of all specialties. I have defended lawyers who practice in many different areas, including both plaintiff and defendant civil litigators and trial attorneys, real estate lawyers, transactional lawyers, immigration lawyers, commercial litigators, and family lawyers. I have tried cases in state and federal courts throughout central Florida.
I have been most fortunate during my years of practice to work with and learn from many legends of the Central Florida legal community. Among those lawyers are many ABOTA members who have served either as indirect (through their example of professionalism) or direct mentors throughout my career: Bill Mateer, Dick Bates, and Scott Bates at his first job, Mateer, Harbert, and Bates; Bob Hannah and Mac Voght at Hannah, Marsee, Beik & Voght; John Fisher, Gary Rushmer, Ren Werrenrath, and Rick Wack at the Fisher Rushmer firm; and Dick Ford at Wicker Smith for the last 18 years. I have many fond trial memories, including my first jury trial before U.S. District Judge Kendall Sharp with Dick Bates, which resulted in a directed verdict for their client; the time Mac Voght told a Lake county jury that a blow up medical record exhibit with blue highlighter all over it “looked like something from Picasso’s Blue Period”; when David Corso wrote a key portion of his closing argument for him in a trial they shouldn’t have won in Bartow; and how during trials Dick Ford can’t read his notes furiously written on small post-its.
I live in Winter Park with my wife Catharine, and we have two children: Lauren, who is in the fashion industry and lives in Brooklyn, and Christopher, who is a first-year associate at Wicker Smith in Melbourne. Our faithful rescue dog Mocha is a constant source of joy. I enjoy a morning swim or Peloton ride, Sunday morning tennis doubles with friends, and the occasional round of golf at the Winter Park 9.
Being selected a member of CFLABOTA is the highest honor of my career, and I am humbled to be among such good friends and outstanding trial lawyers.