F. Gregory Barnhart

GREGORY BARNHART, a senior partner at Searcy Denney Scarola, Barnhart & Shipley, P.A., is recognized as one of America’s leading trial lawyers.  He is Board Certified in Civil Trial Law by The Florida Bar and regularly handles cases throughout the United States.

In addition to being named in The Best Lawyers in America for the past 25 years, Mr. Barnhart has been recognized as one of the Legal Elite in Florida Trend magazine, named a Top Lawyer in South Florida magazine, and listed in Top 100: Florida Super Lawyers. He was named Best Lawyers Lawyer of the Year for 2010, 2015, 2017, 2019, and 2020 in personal injury litigation and in 2017, 2018, and 2019 for medical malpractice litigation. 

Mr. Barnhart is an honors graduate of Vassar College and The Cornell Law School.  The Cornell Law Forum says of him, “Barnhart certainly is sharp – he is consistently recognized as one of the best trial lawyers in the country, and regularly takes on Big Tobacco, the pharmaceutical industry, and other corporate defendants in cases that have an impact on a national scale.”  Mr. Barnhart has over 96 million dollar and multi‑million dollar verdicts and settlements for his clients in cases involving personal injury, product liability, auto and truck collisions, medical malpractice, aviation and railroad disasters, and large commercial and will contest cases.

Different Florida Governors have appointed Mr. Barnhart to sit on the 15^th Circuit Judicial Nominating Commission as well as on the Fourth District Court of Appeal Judicial Nominating Commission, where he served as chair of the Commission. He is a past president of the Florida Justice Association as well as a past president of the Federal Bar Association.

A frequent lecturer in Florida and other states, Mr. Barnhart has enjoyed teaching lawyers and law students about the intricacies of trial work. Recently, he taught a trial techniques course at the Cornell Law School. He has been honored with the Distinguished Lecturer award and the Al J. Cone Lifetime Achievement award by the Florida Justice Association.

Mr. Barnhart also has been inducted into the prestigious International Academy of Trial Lawyers, which is limited to the top 500 trial lawyers and barristers, as well as the American College of Trial Lawyers, which is limited to the top 1,000 trial lawyers and barristers.