Stefano D. Portigliatti is a trial attorney specializing in commercial motor vehicle cases at Coker Law, PA in Jacksonville, FL. He is a renowned Jacksonville truck accident lawyer who has represented clients in over a hundred trucking cases and helped obtain millions of dollars in verdicts and settlements. Stefano is one of only 20 attorneys in the United States to pass a rigorous exam on trucking laws, an intensive background check and prove that his practice is dedicated to protecting victims of truck crashes. He is also one of the youngest attorneys to be included among Super Lawyer's Rising Stars and the National Trial Lawyers' Top 40 Under 40. Stefano often presents on topics related to trial and trucking litigation. He is on the Board of Regents of the Academy of Truck Accident Attorneys. He is also the founder of truck.law™, which assists other plaintiffs' attorneys handling trucking cases with forms, resources, and seminars available at www.truck.law. Stefano was born in Sao Paulo, Brazil, to a hard-working Italian family. Before becoming a lawyer, Mr. Portigliatti was engaged in diverse business ventures across multiple continents. Mr. Portigliatti is still the Vice President of SOAR Global Institute a laboratory that researches human behavior and development. Stefano speaks all over the world in the areas of emotional intelligence, innovation and human development. He is a certified master coach and trainer and has developed several courses and systems that apply psychology and behavioral analytics to management and trial strategies. Stefano is a musician and likes to sail, golf, cook and travel with his wife, Brittany. They are the proud parents of two young boys Luca and Leo. Stefano and Brittany like to volunteer with New Beginnings Global Outreach to provide services and resources for emotional, physical and spiritual health to the needy.

Antonino Hernandez is a practicing lawyer in the state of Florida. Mr. Hernandez received his J.D. from the Boston University School of Law in 1997.

Zachary (“Zach”) W. Lombardo is a partner at Woodward, Pires & Lombardo, P.A. He is a Board Certified Specialist in City, County & Local Government Law by The Florida Bar and is the City Attorney for Everglades City. Zach’s primary focus is helping public and private clients in a wide variety of land use and local government matters, including strategizing both advocacy for as well as opposition to: comprehensive plan amendments, re-zoning, and planned unit development (PUD) zoning and amendments, conditional uses and comparable use determinations, variances and non-conforming uses, land development code amendments, official interpretations and zoning verification letters, building code appeals, floodplain determinations, code enforcement, utility conveyance, right-of-way permits and vacations, easement use agreements and vacations, and litigation related to the above. He frequently appears before the Marco Island Planning Board, the Marco Island City Council, the Collier County Planning Commission, the Collier County Hearing Examiner, and the Board of County Commissioners of Collier County. Beyond land use, Zach helps public and private clients navigate various local government and environmental matters such as: public records, property tax appeals, agricultural tax exemptions, bid protests and public contracts, interlocal agreements, environmental resource permits, sovereignty land leases, and litigation related to the above He is an experienced litigator in state and federal court both at a trial court level and on appeal. In his business matters and contract drafting, Zach focuses on practical solutions. Active in the community, Zach is a lifelong environmentalist and an Eagle Scout. He is committed to doing what he can to improve the quality of the environment in the Western Everglades. A Southwest Florida native, he enjoys canoeing the waterways of Collier and Lee Counties with his family and playing the harmonica.

Jonathan T. Gilbert is a trial lawyer and partner at Colling Gilbert Wright in Orlando, Florida. Since beginning to practice law in 2009, Mr. Gilbert has specialized in medical malpractice cases, providing top-notch legal representation to individuals who have suffered injuries or the death of a loved one due to medical negligence. As a specialist in medical practice, Mr. Gilbert regularly receives referrals from other law firms who entrust him with clients who have been victims of medical errors. Having secured several multimillion-dollar verdicts and settlements for his clients, Mr. Gilbert is a distinguished member of the Million Dollar Advocates Forum. Since 2012, the National Trial Lawyers have recognized his accomplishments as well, listing him among the “Top 40 Under 40” and more recently among the “Top 100” for the State of Florida. He has also been named as a Florida Super Lawyer for Medical Malpractice every year since 2015, having most recently received the designation of Top 50 in Orlando. In 2022, Mr. Gilbert was selected to attend Trial Lawyers College (TLC) in Estes Park, Colorado. This nearly month-long program requires acceptance by TLC’s selection committee for plaintiff and criminal defense lawyers to hone their trial skills through arduous and intense work on both legal cases and themselves. Mr. Gilbert completed the program and is a proud graduate of TLC, staying active in their mission and continuing to attend TLC’s graduate-level workshops and programs. Actively involved in his legal community, Mr. Gilbert is an Eagle member of the Florida Justice Association (FJA) and the former chairperson of FJA’s Young Lawyers Section. He is currently the President-Elect of the Central Florida Trial Lawyers Association (CFTLA), where he has continuously served on the Board of Directors since 2018. He will ascend to the role of President of CFTLA in 2026.

Lenore Brakefield is a Naples native and graduated cum laude from the University of Florida Levin College of Law. She focuses her law practice on civil and commercial litigation, including construction litigation. Lenore also handles local government law, code enforcement violations, community association law, real estate law, and contract and transactional matters. Lenore serves as board counsel to the City of Everglades City Code Enforcement Board and represents the firm’s various municipal and special district clients. Additionally, Lenore is a Certified Financial Litigator (CFL™) by the American Academy for Certified Financial Litigators.

Thank you for looking at our site. I hope we are able to help you. Rather than just giving you the “typical” biographical information, I want to tell you about myself. I have a strong sense of justice. All my friends and family would tell you it is absolutely true, but I once took a personality test that confirmed it! Seriously, when Chris [Klotz, my former partner] and I started our previous firm, we took personality tests to determine if we would work well together, and it confirmed that justice is extremely important to me. That is probably why I became a trial lawyer. The courtroom is the great leveling of the playing field. I enjoy taking on big opponents for the disadvantaged or the oppressed. I feel helping individuals fight against big corporations or the government is a calling of mine. My clients hire me because they know I will fight for them. Sometimes cases go to trial. Sometimes they do not. Regardless, I am always prepared to try a case and to aggressively represent my clients within the scope of the law. I am constantly studying the law and the latest strategies for being a successful lawyer. I regularly talk with other lawyers about what has worked best in their practice and share my own experiences with them so that they can help their clients. Many lawyers try to keep information or strategies to themselves because they are afraid that other lawyers will compete with them for business. I feel that if I can help another lawyer help his or her client, then I have not lost business, but have helped someone gain justice. I am a native Floridian. I was born in Pensacola and graduated from Gulf Breeze High School. I attended college at the University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee. I majored in American History and felt a strong call to become a lawyer after realizing just how short we sometimes fall of the American Dream. I went to law school at Cumberland School of Law at Samford University in Birmingham, Alabama and passed the Florida Bar shortly after. I am also licensed in Federal courts and in Alabama. I have represented clients from Huntsville, Hayneville, Foley, and Mobile, Alabama to Pensacola, Fort Walton, Marianna, Jacksonville, and Tampa, Florida. I have found that the American system of justice is the same in each place. It is the greatest system in the world despite its flaws. I spent my early years as a lawyer honing my trial skills through stints as a prosecutor and an insurance defense lawyer. However, I have found my passion is representing individuals in the courtroom against those who mistreat them. I grew up in the waters and the forests of Florida and Alabama’s Gulf Coast, and I chose to move back home because of the natural beauty of the area. I find strength spending time with my family on the waters of Pensacola Bay or the Gulf of Mexico or among the pine woods of South Alabama. Watching my kids play sports (they play baseball, soccer, and football) gives me great joy. If I am not in the office, I am likely enjoying outdoor activity with my wife or children. I am also active in the community and civic organizations including governing boards for Christ Church, Pathways for Change, and St. John’s Cemetery. I have played drums since I was 10 years old, and Chris [Klotz] and I play in a rock and roll band called Alcaniz. We play in different venues around Pensacola like Hopjacks, The Fish House, The Bridge Bar, and Seville Quarter. Come see us play some time!

Hi, I’m Clifford Wells and thank you for taking the time to check out my attorney bio. For the last 2 decades, I’ve worked as a personal injury lawyer pursuing claims on behalf of my clients in Pinellas, FL. I’m highly experienced with automobile collisions, tractor trailer accidents, motorcycle accidents, pedestrians who have been hit by a car, workplace accidents, faulty or defective products, negligent maintenance or repairs of property (premises liability), and slip and fall claims. Out of approximately 118,784 attorneys in Florida, only 1,037 of us have been Certified as an expert by the Florida Bar for Civil Trial. These are the only attorneys that can use “B.C.S.” after their name, which stands for Board Certified Specialist. I have extensive experience fighting insurance companies for failing to adequately reimburse their insureds and refusing to pay injury claims for injured people in cases ranging from injury, wrongful death, uninsured/underinsured motorist, homeowners insurance, and other property damage claims. I attend ongoing training and education as well as spend countless hours studying and perfecting negotiation and trial strategies. I am genuinely interested in the intricacies of negotiations and trial presentation. Although people sometimes make fun of me for it, I actually read books about trial technique and strategy while I’m on vacation.

Mr. Young received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Business Administration from Rollins College in 1982; a Master of Business Administration degree from the Rollins College Crummer Graduate School of Business in 1992; and a Juris Doctorate from Barry University School of Law in 2004. Before attending law school, Mr. Young spent over eight years working in the securities industry. During that period, he was a Vice President at a global securities and money management firm located in Winter Park, Florida, holding licenses as a General Securities Registered Representative (Series 7), a Registered Investment Advisor Representative (Series 65), a Uniform Securities Agent State Law Examination (Series 63) and Florida Insurance and Variable Annuity. Mr. Young joined the firm of Colling Gilbert Wright in September 2006 after spending several years practicing plaintiff-side securities litigation with Hooper & Weiss, LLC. He continues to focus his practice on assisting clients with recouping investment losses due to brokerage firm negligence and fraud. Mr. Young also serves as a County Court Mediator in the Orange County Florida Court System. The Supreme Court of Florida, the Young Lawyers Division of The Florida Bar, and the Florida Pro Bono Coordinators Association recognized Mr. Young for exceptional pro bono service from 2006 through 2024. Over the past 20 years, Mr. Young has personally litigated and resolved over 700 hundred FINRA (formerly NASD) arbitration Claims recovering tens of millions of dollars in investor losses. Additionally, Mr. Young serves as Co-Chair of the American Association for Justice (AAJ) Securities and Financial Fraud Litigation Group, was the 2020 recipient of the Public Investors Advocate Bar Association (PIABA) Outstanding Service Award, and currently services on the PIABA Board of Directors.

In the first part of my career, I represented several Fortune 500 companies and tried cases all across the state. I now use that knowledge to help individuals and families through the claim and litigation process. I truly enjoy taking the complicated and making it uncomplicated.

Attorney Edward Rue joined Rue and Ziffra’s team of attorneys in 2006 and was announced as a partner in 2012. Mr. Rue concentrates his practice in several different areas, from auto accident cases to long-term disability to numerous general personal injury matters. Along with being a member of our trial team, Ed is one of the firm’s top researchers for cases. Before coming to Rue & Ziffra, Mr. Rue practiced criminal and insurance defense. He understands how insurance companies and defense attorneys evaluate and defend cases, and he uses that knowledge and experience to the advantage of his current clients. As a top law student at the University of Wisconsin Law School, Mr. Rue won the Wisconsin State Bar Law School Award for the Highest Achievement in Torts. Also, as a member of the Wisconsin Law Review, Mr. Rue won the William Herbert Page Award for the best Wisconsin Law Review article. Mr. Rue presently holds admissions in the Florida Bar Association, all Florida Courts, the Wisconsin Bar, all Wisconsin Courts, the Volusia County Bar Association, the American Bar Association, the Florida Justice Association, the American Association for Justice, and the National Organization of Social Security Claimants’ Representatives. He is also admitted to practice in the United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida. Having watched a close family member go through the process of applying for disability benefits, he knows it can be a long, complicated, and frustrating process. Mr. Rue applies that personal understanding to every disability case he handles throughout his career. His experience doesn’t stop there, as Mr. Rue handles slip and fall cases, premise liability cases, and has fought for justice for hundreds of auto accident victims. Clients find it easy to speak with Mr. Rue as he is a welcoming person and goes the extra mile for his clients.