Jack Eugene Fernandez Jr.

Zuckerman Spaeder LLP partner Jack E. Fernandez advises clients in high-stakes civil and criminal litigation, principally in the health care and government contracting industries. He has tried and won dozens of criminal jury and non-jury trials in federal court, and has argued and won numerous civil and criminal appeals in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. Additionally, Mr. Fernandez has litigated a multitude of state and federal civil cases. He has advised and represented business entities, hospitals, nursing home chains, law firms, lawyers, judges, corporate officers and directors, and many individuals. He has been recognized in numerous industry rankings, including Chambers USA, The Best Lawyers in America, Benchmark Litigation, and Florida Trend’s “Legal Elite.”

Beginning with his days at the U.S. Naval Academy, then as a Navy fighter pilot aboard the USS Independence, Mr. Fernandez learned and internalized the core values of loyalty, discipline, hard work, creativity, and teamwork. He brings these qualities to bear on behalf of clients in their most challenging cases—for individuals facing the prospect of criminal indictment and in bet-the-company civil matters. Mr. Fernandez believes the best advocacy begins well before a case even begins, while the case or the indictment might still be avoided. But if it becomes necessary to go to trial, Mr. Fernandez is an experienced litigator who has tried many federal cases to jury verdict. He won the first criminal anti-kickback statute case in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida following the formation of the district’s Health Care Fraud Task Force in 1996. He also has extensive civil litigation experience. He successfully represented a client in an environmental case in a Middle District of Florida jury trial. He has litigated numerous civil cases on behalf of national health care companies. He has tried administrative bid dispute cases, theft of trade secret injunctions, and has litigated numerous other commercial matters. He has argued numerous appeals before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit, most recently winning a major qui tam defense victory in United States ex rel Hopper v. Solvay Pharmaceuticals. He was part of the Zuckerman Spaeder team that won summary judgment in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida for a large Washington, DC communications law firm in a $100 million federal legal malpractice claim involving Federal Communications Commission (FCC) regulations.

In addition to his practice in Florida state and federal courts, Mr. Fernandez has practiced in many other federal jurisdictions. He successfully defended the vice president and general manager of a national prescription benefits manager (PBM) company in a federal False Claims Act case in federal court in Philadelphia. He is currently representing a corporation against allegations of federal criminal copyright and trademark infringement in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California. He is representing a Venezuelan citizen in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. He represented a senior corporate executive of a health care company in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama.

Before entering private practice, Mr. Fernandez served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Florida, where he investigated, tried, and argued appeals in numerous complex federal cases, including health care fraud, the Federal False Claims Act (qui tam), defense contractor fraud, tax fraud, securities fraud, satellite signal piracy, and intellectual property cases. He was one of the founding members of the U.S. Attorney’s Health Care Fraud Task Force for the Middle District of Florida. Following law school, he served as a law clerk for the Hon. J. Dickson Phillips of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit.

A graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy, Mr. Fernandez was a naval aviator, flying the F-14 Tomcat from the aircraft carrier USS Independence. He flew combat missions in support of U.S. Army and Marine Corps expeditionary forces, and was awarded both the Navy and Armed Forces Expeditionary Medals. While deployed aboard the USS Independence, his squadron was awarded the Navy Unit Commendation. In 1986, he was named Best Pilot for Air Combat Maneuvering for Fighter Wing One, Naval Air Station Oceana. His daughter, Marina, was also a Naval Aviator, having herself earned numerous combat awards for service in the Middle East.