James William Gustafson Jr.

JAMES W. GUSTAFSON JR. is a shareholder with Searcy Denney Scarola Barnhart & Shipley PA. Mr. Gustafson is a sixth generation Florida native who served with the U.S. Army’s 82d Airborne Division and studied at St. Edmund Hall in Oxford, England.

Mr. Gustafson’s practice is focused on product liability, tobacco litigation including fraud and conspiracy, trucking negligence, and other catastrophic injury and death cases.

Mr. Gustafson is an EAGLE member, and currently serves as Treasurer of the Florida Justice Association. He is a sustaining member of The American Association for Justice, and served as chair of their Professional Negligence Section. He is a Diplomate in the American Board of Professional Liability Attorneys. Committed to teaching and writing, he has lectured to Florida’s circuit judges, at numerous Continuing Legal Education seminars, and has authored Continuing Legal Education materials for The Florida Bar, the Journal of the Florida Justice Association, and AAJ’s Trial magazine.

An AV-rated attorney by Martindale-Hubbell for over ten years, Mr. Gustafson is a Florida Bar Board Certified Civil Trial Lawyer, a member of the American Board of Trial Advocates, and received the Trial Lawyer of the Year award from the Tallahassee ABOTA Chapter in 2010. He is named in “The Best Lawyers in America,” and received the designation “Lawyer of the Year” for Personal Injury Litigation in Tallahassee in 2013. He has been named numerous times a Florida Super Lawyer, and to Florida Trend’s Legal Elite. Mr. Gustafson obtained one of the Top Ten Verdicts of 2010 as recognized by Lawyers USA, and one of the Top 100 Verdicts of 2010 by the National Law Journal.

After graduating Phi Beta Kappa from Florida State University, Mr. Gustafson studied law with his alma mater as well. He was a member of the moot court team and Phi Delta Phi, and graduated with honors.