Roberto Villasante, Attorney at Law

Roberto Villasante, an attorney in the State of Florida for more than twenty years, has focused the majority of his practice in the trial of complex civil disputes including aviation, telecommunications, international business matters, civil fraud and products liability.

Mr. Villasante is adjunct professor at Florida International University 's College of Advanced Professional Studies ' Legal Studies Institute. A frequent speaker and lecturer  at state and national conferences for lawyers and other professionals, he has chaired Mealey's Lexis Publications conferences and spoken on topics that include, Emerging Drugs and Devices, Medical Monitoring, Class Action and Vaccine Litigation.

A 1983 graduate of the University of Florida, Holland Law Center, Mr. Villasante is presently a member of the Florida Bar, Supreme Court of The United States, United States Court of Federal Claims, United States Federal Courts of Appeal Eleventh Circuit, United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida and has appeared pro hac vice in courts throughout the nation including in Louisiana, North Carolina, Texas and California. In 1993 Mr. Villasante represented a Florida based corporate executive before the High Court in London, England ( pro hac vice ), against a Norwegian Bank that financed a Mexican shipyard, in a jurisdictional dispute published at Lloyd's List reporting on the ruling's precedent setting value.

A member of the Association of Trial Lawyers of America (ATLA), Mr. Villasante has served as co-chair of ATLA's Vaccine Litigation Group. An experienced litigator Mr. Villasante has obtained a number of multimillion dollar verdicts before judges and juries and has represented such clients as BRAVA, LLC, an international medical device manufacturer, against overseas entities, winning substantial monetary relief for his corporate clients.

In 1996 Mr. Villasante was a co-recipient of the prestigious Florida Bar Tobias Simon Pro Bono Service Award and served the Bar as Grievance Committee Chairman from 2000-2001 after his initial service on the grievance committee from 1999-2000 (section11-B).

Born in Havana , Cuba , Mr. Villasante arrived in the United States via the airlift of 14,000 unaccompanied children known as Operation Pedro Pan. He is fluent in Spanish, active in human rights causes on behalf of political prisoners and in the community. Married in 1979 to Architect Lury Ribas , they have three children Alexandra, Annalury and Roberto E. Villasante.

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Claire Bryant Ford, of Counsel

Claire Bryant Ford was born and raised in New York . She received an A.B. in Political Science, graduating near the top of her class from Manhattanville College . She then obtained her J.D. from Fordham Law School at New York 's Lincoln Centre. While at Fordham, she held a fellowship in Appellate Advocacy, chaired the Law Forum and was also a member of the legal staff of New York Mayor John V. Lindsay. After graduation from law school, she joined a New York City personal injury defense firm. In 1969, she became the first female attorney directly commissioned into the Navy's Judge Advocate General's Corps.

Claire first came to Florida as a Naval Lieutenant and was Assistant Judge Advocate to the Chief of Naval Air Basic Training at N.A.S. Pensacola. Thereafter she took time out from the practice of law to raise her family, moving first to Key West and then to Miami where she currently resides.

As her four children grew older, Claire became active in the legal profession again. She spent several years involved in personal injury and medical malpractice litigation in Miami at Spence, Payne, Massington , Grossman & Needle, P.A . Later she established her own firm and has had an of counsel relationship with the Law Office of Roberto Villasante since 1993.

Claire is admitted to practice before the United States Supreme Court, and is a member of both The New York Bar and The Florida Bar. She is also a member of The American Bar Association of Trail Lawyers of America, The Florida Bar Association and the Dade County Bar Associations.