Elizabeth Gardner

A personal note to potential clients from Elizabeth:

Thanks for looking at my profile.  I am originally from North Carolina.  I come from ancestors who helped colonize this country and have lived here since before it was the United States.  My parents were Douglas and Carol Gibbs, and he served in the war in Vietnam and she was a nurse.  My father was Mormon and my mother was Baptist.  One month later, my father died at age 26, when I was 3 years old.  My mother remarried John Guill, my stepfather, and he legally adopted me and my name changed to Guill.  These experiences were not easy on me as a child, but they helped me to be compassionate today and I am confident in the advise I give divorce clients who are having blended families and experiencing major change.  I mean, it was strange to be a Gibbs in the first grade and then a Guill in the others.  And, I had to always go through so much red tape to get a copy of my birth certificate to travel and apply for schools because those records are confidential.

I skipped a grade and I was 17 when I entered the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1984.  I had so much fun in college.  I was involved in the International Student Organization, and I joined Sigma Sigma Sigma Sorority.  I graduated with a degree in communications, and I even worked as a newscaster on WXYC-Chapel Hill radio station.  I was a waitress and I worked as a lab technician in research sciences to put myself through college.  I have worked in teratology, toxicology, immunology and histology.  I enjoyed scientific research which led me to my interest in DNA sciences.  I have taken DNA courses for legal professionals and I have a strong knowledge of it.  I also research DNA for ancestry purposes as a hobby.  All of my experiences in coming into contact with so many diverse peoples in Chapel Hill, NC, really help me be a better lawyer today in South Florida's melting pot.

After working for a large market radio station, G105, Raleigh-Durham, I went to Research Triangle Institute to work in science again before heading to law school in Ft. Lauderdale.  I felt so privileged to attend law school that I didn't complain about the 750 pages each night.  I took advantage of many internships at Nova Southeastern U.:  Pretrial Diversion Program for first time juvenile offenders throught the Broward State Attorney's Office and the mediation department;  the EEOC doing research for them, I taught 2 classes of inner city youths at Dillard High School who were in drop-out prevention to perform mock trials and they did so very well; and I was a Certified Legal Intern with the Broward County Public Defender's Office, and I conducted 7 jury trials in the domestic violence unit, all resulting in acquittal.  A CLI is a non-licensed lawyer who works under permission of the Supreme Court of Florida and a supervising licensed attorney. There was a trial each week at the domestic violence unit then.

I accepted a position at the Palm Beach Public Defender's Office as an Assistant Public Defender.  I truly enjoyed my experience there and the friends and colleagues whom I worked in the trenches with.  In misdemeanor court, I got 150 new cases each week.  It was non-stop criminal defense.  I worked at all the courthouses in felonies and misdemeanors.  This kind of experience should be called "Trial by Fire".

I had brought my infirmed grandmother to my home in Loxahatchee to care for her, but she passed away.  After her death, I turned a new page in my "book" and I opened a private practice where I am still located today.  The first year I had a partner, Stanley Constant, but he lives near Atlanta now.  Our firm was called Constant and Gardner.  After he left, I changed the name to the Gardner Law Firm.   We have a good location and nice neighborhood to work in.  Most of our clients come by to visit us even long after their cases are over.

A year after being alone in the office, Robert Guerrier, Esq. came to share office space with me.  I call him my "daytime husband" although each of us have real spouses because we are always working.  On some cases, Rober t and I will team up.  This is always very effective on jury cases and some complex family law trials.  We have interns who have come and gone and are now on their way to being lawyers themselves.  We have a private investigator with whom we work most frequently and his business is called Scope Investigations.  He is a former engineer who is very diligent and patient in getting the jobs done.  We have some pyschologists with whom we often work.  We offer many choices and options to our clients.

I truly feel privileged to be an attorney.  I love what I do- most days.  I also enjoy being in Loxahatchee with my 3 dogs - some of which can often be seen and petted in my office - and my husband, Chris.  Chris is a USCG licensed charter boat captain and a published author.  He is also a Cree Indian and he was adopted. In the time that I get to call a vacation, we like to go to the mountains or to the keys.  We dig for gemstones and minerals in Northern Nevada.  I decorate fancy cakes.  I bake and cook.  I research geneaology and history.   And, I play the drums in Rock Band most every friday night.

I  hope this personal bio has helped you get a better idea of who I am.  I know that if you come to me for help, that you are most likely already stressed and I don't want you to come to my office and continue to feel that way.  I am a straight-shooter with my opinions and advice; however, I will do all I can to give you honest advise and information about your legal problem.  I learned to be this way after having to hire a lawyer myself when my grandma died and I had to deal with claims on her estate.  The lawyer made me feel like a little girl who had broken the good china.  My office will not ever make a client feel that way.  We don't use stress and pressuring about your choices.  Your cases and the facts of your matter are going to be stress enough.

Hope to see you soon!

Elizabeth