Deborah L. Greene, Partner/Shareholder

Deborah L. Greene was born in 1963, in DeLand, Florida. Deborah has also lived in Jacksonville, Florida; Atlanta, Georgia; Virginia; Alabama; and Tallahassee, Florida. Deborah's family has lived in Jacksonville, and the Northeast Florida area since before the civil war.

Deborah graduated from Wolfson High School in Jacksonville in 1981, after which she attended her first year of college at Lynchburg College in Virginia where she was a Montgomery Scholar and was inducted into the Phi Eta Sigma Academic Honor Society. After graduating with a degree in Studio Art from Florida State University in 1985, Deborah worked in advertising and as a graphic artist until she began attending law school in 1988.

In 1991, Deborah received her Juris Doctor, with high honors, from the Florida State University College of Law (graduating in the top 10% of her class).

While obtaining her education (from high school all the way through law school), Deborah always worked, including waiting tables at the famous Beach Road Chicken Dinners, teaching piano lessons, working as a secretary, and playing the piano in a piano bar.

While attending law school, Deborah: was a member, and served as president, of the Women's Law Symposium; was a member and served as vice-justice of the William Terrell Glenn Chapter of Phi Alpha Delta Law Fraternity International; received book awards for making the highest grade in the class for the classes Law and Groups, and Civil Rights Survey; served as an intern with the Majority Office of the Florida House of Representatives; served as an intern with Judge Rosemary Barkett, then a Justice with the Florida Supreme Court, and now a Judge of the United States Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeal; and served as a certified legal intern with Jacksonville Area Legal Aid.

Deborah was admitted to practice law in Florida in 1992, is also admitted in several federal district courts, and in the United States Courts of Appeal for the 9th and 11th Circuit. Deborah has practiced at the law firms of Boyer, Tanzler & Boyer; Kirschner, Main, Graham, Tanner & Demont (now part of Holland & Knight); Tromberg & Safer; Combs & Greene (where she was a shareholder); and Bartlett, Heekin, Smith, Greene & Malin (where she was a shareholder).

She is a founding partner of Smith Greene & Combs. Deborah and her firm are AV rated by Martindale-Hubbell (which is the highest rating an attorney can receive). Deborah's firm concentrates in the areas of civil litigation, family law and appellate practice.

Deborah is: a member of the Jacksonville Women Lawyers Association, served as its president for the 2005-2006 program year, and previously held other offices with JWLA; a Master in the Florida Family Law Inn of Court (and was a member of the executive committee); a member of a local Florida Bar Grievance Committee (and served as vice-chair in 2007 and chair in 2008); and a member of the Jacksonville Bar Association. Deborah also served as an adjunct professor at Florida Coastal School of Law for several semesters.