Laura defends companies in product liability actions and complex litigation throughout state and federal courts. Laura has extensive experience representing clients both before and at trial on legal issues and strategy. Laura's practice involves all aspects of litigation, including drafting and arguing dispositive motions, Daubert motions, pre-trial motions in limine, jury instructions and post-trial motions.
In the last ten years, Laura has served as a member of more than two dozen trial teams in various state and federal courts, assisting primarily with legal strategy, legal argument, and preservation of error. She also has handled pre-trial motions and overseen the legal strategy in dozens of other cases that have resolved prior trial.
Laura's practice also includes appeals briefing and oral arguments in a variety of substantive areas.
Laura is rated AV Preeminent by Martindale-Hubbell, with peer reviewers describing her as "a lawyer's lawyer... a necessity to have in the courtroom for her legal acumen."
Laura has been recognized by The Best Lawyers in America in Appellate Practice and Product Liability Litigation - Defendants, as well as by Florida Super Lawyers, and is a former Chair of the Florida Supreme Court Committee on Standard Jury Instructions in Civil Cases.
Publications and Presentations
Speaker, Products Liability — Pleadings, Punitive Damages and Tobacco, 2019 College of Advanced Judicial Studies, Florida (May 30, 2019).
Tina Schaefer, Laura Whitmore and Jana Wozniak, eds., Model Jury Instructions: Product Liability, American Bar Association (2017).
Speaker, Trial Preservation: The Dual Fight to Win at Trial and to Be Ready for an Appeal, American Bar Association Section of Litigation, Appellate Practice Regional Meeting, Miami, Florida (April 28, 2017).
Co-author, Genetics and Genomics: Making The Invisible Visible, DRI: For The Defense (April 2015).
Co-author, Current Regulatory and Liability Issues For Drug Compounding, DRI: For The Defense (September 2013).
Co-author, Help Thyself With A Cross-Appeal; The Courts May Not Sally Forth To Help You, The American Bar Association Committee on Criminal Litigation, Section of Litigation, Vol. 9, No. 1 (Fall 2008), republished in The American Bar Association Appellate Practice Journal, Vol. 28, No. 4 (Fall 2009).
Co-author, Snatching Defeat From The Jaws of Coverage, Committee on Insurance Coverage Litigation, Section of Litigation, American Bar Association: 2008 Insurance Coverage Litigation CLE Seminar.
Co-author, Something Funny Happened On The Way To Discretionary Sentencing: Why A Presumption Of Reasonableness Violates The Holding of Booker, Committee on Criminal Litigation, Section of Litigation, American Bar Association, Vol. 6, No. 2 (Winter 2007).
Co-author, Florida Law Regarding Punitive Damages Claims, ABA Section of Litigation, Products Liability Committee, Pharmaceutical Subcommittee’s 50-State Survey Publication (2007).
Abuse of Discretion: Misunderstanding The Deference Accorded Trial Court Rulings, The Florida Bar Journal, Vol. 79, No. 6 (June 2005).