Many of the nation's premier defense attorneys won critical cases in Florida while CVN cameras recorded the action in 2015. But the year's winner earned the title as CVN Florida's Defense Attorney of the Year with a hard-fought win in a million-dollar trial against a Florida prep school.
CVN Florida's Defense Attorney of the Year: Wicker Smith's Michael Reed
The trial: Goberman v. The Out-of-Door Academy.
The verdict: Jurors found The Out-of-Door Academy not liable for the electrocution that allegedly damaged Robert Goberman's heart and led to his death.
The details: The trial swung on whether personnel from The Out-of-Door Academy, a Sarasota, Florida prep school, exposed a lamp prong that electrocuted Robert Goberman as he was installing a sprinkler system.
Michael Reed punched holes in the plaintiff's case by highlighting conflicting stories of Goberman and one of his coworkers while leading jurors through a timeline that he argued made it more likely Goberman or one of his crew inadvertently exposed the prong. "All of those (explanations) are more likely, frankly, than anything that was suggested that there was this bulb change (by school employees) in a closet that's closed and the lights turned off," Reed said in closings.
Reed saved the school from a potential seven-figure award and earned his place as CVN Florida's Defense Attorney of 2015.
Related Information
Watch Goberman v. The Out-of-Door Academy on demand.
Not a subscriber?
Learn how you can watch CVN Florida's unparalleled coverage of the state's key trials.
