Erica Pless

Joseph W. "Jay" Fleece, III, is a native Floridian having been born and raised in St. Petersburg. Mr. Fleece started practicing law in 1980 with the firm of Belcher & Fleece, P.A., and subsequently joined Holland & Knight, where he was a partner heading up the litigation department of the St. Petersburg office. In 2004, Mr. Fleece joined with Hamden H. Baskin, III, and founded the law firm of BaskinFleece, located in Clearwater, Florida. In 2017 Mr. Fleece moved his practice back to S...

Caitlin M. Powell joined the Trust & Estates team of Johnson, Pope, Bokor, Ruppel & Burns, LLP, as a probate, trust, and guardianship litigator in July 2019. Caitlin represents individuals and entities across Florida in a range of matters related to probate, trust and guardianship administration and disputes. Caitlin has focused her career on probate, trust and guardianship law since law school, when she volunteered at the North Florida Office of Public Guardian, Inc., and worked with...

Zachary D. Messa is a Board Certified Intellectual Property attorney. He has lived in Pinellas County since 1998 and joined Johnson Pope in the fall of 2001 after graduating from Stetson University College of Law. He is a member of the International Trademark Association and has served as an editor of The Trademark Report, The Law Journal of the International Trademark Association. Since joining the firm, Zachary has gradually focused his practice to all facets of intellectual property law, s...

Thomas B. Smith is a part of the Johnson Pope Health Care Team, and has been involved with the health care industry for more than thirty-five years. Tom is Board Certified in Health Law by The Florida Bar. After receiving his Master in Business Administration specializing in hospital administration, he served in senior administrative positions with several hospitals in Florida for seven years, including serving as Assistant Director for a major 600 bed teaching hospital. He then received his ...

Joel has over 40 years of experience in tax, business, asset protection, and estate and gift tax planning for high net worth individuals and entrepreneurs. He consults on business entities, including limited liability companies (LLCs), S corporations and limited liability partnerships (LLPs). He structures and prepares shareholder agreements, operating agreements and other business agreements. He also routinely handles sophisticated estate planning including the preparation of wills, revocabl...

EXPERIENCE Charles joined the firm after graduating law school in 1989. He is a board certified civil trial attorney and handles a wide variety of civil litigation cases. His experience includes cases involving businesses disputes, trust and estate litigation, construction defect litigation, and litigation involving non-competition agreements and other restrictive covenants. DISTINCTIONS & MEMBERSHIPS Admitted to The Florida Bar – 1989 Florida Bar Board Certified in Civil Trial Law ...

Mike Magidson is Board Certified in Health Law by The Florida Bar. Board certification is the highest evaluation of an attorney’s competence and experience comprising only 5% of Florida’s lawyers. Fewer than 130 lawyers in Florida are Board Certified in Health Law. Mike is a transactional lawyer specializing in the representation of health care providers and health care companies in their regulatory, compliance and health care business matters. He also provides counsel to business...

Bob served as a Law Clerk to Honorable William Terrell Hodges, United States District Judge, U.S. District Court, Middle District of Florida from 1982 – 1984. From 1988 to 1998 he handled catastrophic child and infant injury cases throughout the United States and Canada. While clerking he learned of Johnson Pope’s well-known reputation for quality legal work and ended up joining the firm in April 1999. He is the author of “The Primary Carrier Caught in the Middle with Bad Fa...

Michael G. Little is a top attorney recognized by Best Lawyers in the practice area(s) of Trusts and Estates. Michael G., who practices law in Clearwater, Florida, has been recognized since 2014. This recognition is based on an exhaustive peer-review survey, reflecting the high esteem in which Michael G. is held by other top lawyers in the same geographic and legal practice area.

Rachael comes to Johnson Pope with diverse experience in employment law and trial litigation. While a student at Stetson College of Law, Rachael was a member of Stetson’s nationally recognized trial team and a member of the Stetson Law Review. Since being admitted to the Florida Bar in 2008, Rachael has represented clients in federal, state, and appellate courts on a variety of employment related matters. Rachael is an active member of the St. Petersburg Bar Association where she co-cha...