Remembering Our Friend, Fred Levin

Today we were saddened to learn about the passing of Fredric G. Levin. We take the time remember the life and legacy of Mr. Levin. He was a ruthless fighter and one of the most successful trial attorneys in the country. His career as a trial attorney included over twenty-five verdicts in excess of $1,000,000, six of those in excess of $10,000,000. While Levin was feared by insurance companies, his fellow attorneys serving plaintiffs were simply in awe of his abilities.

Fred also provided generous gifts to the next generations of lawyers, including gifts to both the University of Florida and University of West Florida. His gifts to the University of Florida Law School have totaled more than $20 million, including a $10 million gift that included the naming of the school to the University of Florida Fredric G. Levin College of Law.

The lasting impacts of Fred’s work on the 1993 rewriting of the Florida Medicaid Third Party Recovery Act to allow the State of Florida to sue to the Tobacco Industry to recover expenditures for treating illnesses caused by cigarette smoking changed the course of history. Fred wrote the legislation and was instrumental in its passage.

During the 1990s our firm had the opportunity to work with Fred and the partners in his firm including Lefferts L. Mabie Jr., who is credited as the father of bad faith insurance litigation in the state of Florida. The lessons we learned working with them changed the trajectory of our own firm’s practice in ways we would have never imagined.

While never planning to become a trial lawyer, Levin achieved great success in the field including being named to the National Trial Lawyer Hall of Fame in 2009. Throughout his life, Fred continued to fight for his clients including be awarded as the Trial Lawyer of the Year by National Trial Lawyers in 2015.

Fred’s legacy is not only that of a fierce trial lawyer, but as someone who wanted to provide opportunities for others. Today, our firm is home to six attorneys who are proud graduates of the University of Florida Levin College of Law, and we are all stronger trial attorneys from the legacy that Fred Levin has left us. That legacy will help make Florida better for generations to come.