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April 2005
Phelps Dunbar Tampa Office Expands with the Addition of Five New Partners
Phelps Dunbar announces the expansion of the Tampa office to include five new partners and three new areas of practice. Karl J. Brandes, John E. Phillips, Seth M. Schimmel, John David Mullen and Dennis M. McClelland joined the firm effective April 15, 2005.
Through this expansion, Phelps Dunbar will add Petroleum Marketing Litigation to the listing of client service areas that the firm currently offers. The Tampa office will now have full-service Employment Law capabilities and a Construction Litigation practice, which will enhance the firm’s regional capabilities in those areas.
"Firm clients throughout the region will benefit from the knowledge and experience of these lawyers," said Lawrence P. Ingram, Tampa managing partner. "In addition, this announcement demonstrates Phelps Dunbar’s commitment to the Tampa market and our overall goal to provide a full complement of legal services in each of our regional locations."
Mr. Brandes will join the regional commercial litigation practice group and will practice in the area of petroleum marketing and commercial litigation. He is a 1981 graduate of Golden Gate University School of Law.
Mr. Phillips will join the regional labor and employment practice group and will serve as the practice leader of the group in the Tampa office. He is a 1989 graduate of Boston University School of Law.
Mr. Schimmel will join the regional commercial litigation practice group and will practice in the areas of construction and complex commercial litigation. He is a 1993 graduate of Vanderbilt University Law School.
Mr. Mullen will join the regional labor and employment practice group and will practice in the area of employment law in conjunction with securities litigation and arbitration. He is a 1994 graduate of New York University School of Law.
Mr. McClelland will join the regional labor and employment practice group and is a Board Certified specialist in labor and employment law. Mr. McClelland is a 1996 graduate of the University of Florida College of Law.
All attorneys listed above are admitted to practice in Florida.
Since the Phelps Dunbar Tampa office opened in April of 2001 with four partners and two associates, the office has grown to 25 total attorneys, consisting of 12 partners, 11 associates and two counsel attorneys. In addition to the services the new lawyers bring to the firm, the Tampa office also handles transactional work to include business and finance and real estate; and litigation to include insurance and reinsurance, commercial litigation and admiralty and tort litigation.
Phelps Dunbar is a regional law firm of more than 250 attorneys, with offices in New Orleans and Baton Rouge, Louisiana; Jackson, Tupelo, and Gulfport, Mississippi; Houston, Texas; Tampa, Florida; and London, England. The firm has been nationally recognized in the area of diversity by the Minority Law Journal (2002, 2003, 2004) for having the highest percentage of African American lawyers, received the Defense Research Institute’s National Diversity Award (2002), and ranked among the Top 100 Firms by the Multicultural Law Magazine (2005).