Jim Rosica
Rachel Nordby, who’s been a deputy solicitor general for Attorney General Pam Bondi, is heading to the Shutts & Bowen law firm as a partner in the Tallahassee office, the firm announced Friday.
Nordby, who starts Sept. 10, will be vice chair of the firm’s Appellate Practice Group.
Her hire follows another recent high-profile addition from state government: Ben Gibson, a former deputy general counsel to Gov. Rick Scott, joined the firm as a partner in its Business Litigation Practice Group in Tallahassee.
“Shutts & Bowen is Florida’s oldest statewide law firm, founded in 1910 when Henry Flagler recruited his favorite lawyer, Frank Shutts, to relocate to Miami and handle legal affairs for his railroad and resort hotels,” said Jason Gonzalez, managing partner of the Tallahassee office.
“With the hiring of Rachel Nordby and Ben Gibson, we are carrying on Flagler’s tradition of recruiting the best legal talent in Florida.”
Nordby, a 2008 graduate of the Florida State University College of Law, is married to Daniel Nordby, currently general counsel to Scott — and a former Shutts partner. As general counsel, he’s Scott’s top legal advisor holds great sway over who Scott taps for judicial appointments.
Gonzalez himself is a former general counsel to the Republican Party of Florida and to Gov. Charlie Crist, whom he advised on four state Supreme Court appointments: Charles Canady, Ricky Polston, Jorge Labarga, and James E.C. Perry.
“I hired Dan Nordby, Rachel Nordby and Ben Gibson as my law clerks when they were in law school over a decade ago,” Gonzalez said.
“Rachel and Dan have become hands-down the most talented husband and wife lawyer duo in this state,” he added. “Just look at the cases they have won at the highest courts and the clients they have been representing (the governor and attorney general). It’s an amazing record of winning.”
To name a few, those cases include successful defenses of Florida’s teacher evaluation policies, the state’s fuel tax policy (challenged by the Seminole Tribe of Florida), and the Communications Services Tax and Tax Credit Scholarship Program, Gonzalez said.
Rachel Nordby was less successful on another high-profile case this year: She was on the team of lawyers that lost a challenge organized by Orlando attorney John Morgan of the state’s ban on smoking medical marijuana. That decision is now under appeal, however.
