Bryan Gowdy

Bryan Gowdy is a Florida Bar board-certified appellate specialist who has briefed and argued numerous appeals in state and federal courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court and the Supreme Court of Florida. AV-rated by Martindale-Hubbell, Bryan is listed as a “Legal Elite” by Florida Trend magazine and as one of Florida's Top 100 “Super Lawyers.” Bryan’s curriculum vitae is here. His notable recent cases can be found here, and examples of his briefs and oral arguments can be found here. Recent articles on Bryan can be found here and here.

Bryan was born in 1970 in Wilmington, Delaware. At a very young age, his family moved to Tampa, where he remained through high school. Bryan Gowdy then attended the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., where he received his undergraduate degree in international economics. Bryan also played NCAA Division I soccer as a goalkeeper and was a scholarship Naval ROTC student. After graduation, Bryan served as an active-duty naval line officer on ships home-ported in Italy and Japan and deployed to the Persian Gulf. Bryan later entered the Naval Reserves and became commanding officer of a 60-person reserve unit.

After leaving active-duty, Bryan returned home to Florida and entered the University of Florida College of Law, where he graduated first in his class in the summer of 1999. He also was inducted into the Order of the Coif and served as Management Editor of the Florida Law Review.

After law school, Bryan served as a judicial law clerk, first for Judge Maurice M. Paul of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida and then for Judge Susan H. Black of the U. S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. Following his clerkship with Judge Black, Bryan joined the Jacksonville office of McGuire Woods, where he practiced primarily commercial litigation at the trial and appellate level. Bryan handled appeals in state and federal courts on commercial and class action matters, as well as some matters of family law, post-conviction relief, and civil rights.

Bryan subsequently joined the firm, then known as Mills & Carlin, to become a full-time appellate lawyer. In addition to his work in commercial matters and class actions, Bryan’s substantive practice runs the gamut from criminal to family law to personal injury and products liability appeals. Bryan frequently lectures at legal seminars on appellate topics.

Bryan has devoted numerous hours to pro bono cases. He has received awards for pro bono service from the Appellate Practice Section of The Florida Bar (2009), Jacksonville Area Legal Aid (2010), and The Florida Bar (The President’s Award for the Fourth Judicial Circuit (2011)). Currently, Bryan is the chairperson of the pro bono committee of the Florida Bar’s appellate practice section, and he serves on the board of directors for Jacksonville Area Legal Aid.

In June 2011, the Florida Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers will present the Stephen M. Goldstein Criminal Justice Award to Bryan and Professor Paolo Annino of Florida State University for their work on life-without-parole sentences imposed on juvenile offenders.

Bryan is past chairperson of the appellate law section of the Jacksonville Bar Association. He is also master of the First District Appellate Inn of Court and an alumnus (barrister) of the Chester Bedell Inn of Court.

Notable Recent Cases:

• Graham v. Florida. The U.S. Supreme Court for the first time in its history categorically applied the Eighth Amendment’s Cruel and Unusual Punishment Clause to non-capital sentences. The Court ruled unconstitutional any life-without-parole sentence for a juvenile offender who has not killed. The Court further held that the Eighth Amendment required that such offenders be given a meaningful opportunity for release based on their demonstrated maturity and rehabilitation.

• G.S. v. T.B.. The Supreme Court of Florida answered a question of great public importance and ruled that a court may not deny an adoption petition simply to preserve the orphaned children’s relationship with non-parental relatives who have not filed a petition for adoption.

• Rando v. GEICO. The Supreme Court of Florida answered a question of first impression certified by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit concerning the interpretation of Florida’s uninsured motorist statutes.

• Griffin v. McNeil. The Fourth District Court of Appeal in 2008 granted a petition for writ of habeas corpus, resulting in the immediate release of Mr. Griffin from prison. Mr. Griffin was released because he had been unlawfully sentenced to a life sentence in 1975, even though the maximum sentence authorized by law was fifteen years. Mr. Griffin, without counsel, had thrice before petitioned the courts for release based on the same grounds, but all three of his pro se petitions had been unsuccessful both in the trial and appellate courts.