I'm not terribly interested in the sex scandal angle that seems to be the focus of all the talk concerning Gaetz. What I am concerned about is his lack of experience. It's hard to find any real reporting on his experience, but this article from PolitiFact (a biased source, for sure), does seem to have the most complete run down. And what I see doesn't indicate to me that Gaetz is some kind of legal whiz kid. Here's the rundown:
https://www.politifact.com/article/2024/nov/15/is-matt-gaetz-accomplished-attorney-digging/
https://www.politifact.com/article/2024/nov/15/is-matt-gaetz-accomplished-attorney-digging/
That's an incredibly slim resume for someone seeking to be Attorney General. If Gaetz had executive experience, maybe that would compensate for the lack of legal achievement, but his career as a legislator doesn't do that. I don't think the odds are very good that Gaetz is going to have the experience necessary to run out the problem folks while keeping the department on track to do the job it is required to do, especially considering the fact that one of the chief ways Democrats will try to stop Trump will be through litigation. Do you really want Matt Gaetz in charge of that litigation?Quote:
He earned a law degree from the College of William & Mary in 2007 and was admitted into the Florida Bar in 2008. He worked for the law firm AnchorsGordon (previously known as Keefe, Anchors & Gordon) in Fort Walton Beach, Florida, which is part of the congressional district Gaetz represented.
To gauge the scope of Gaetz's legal career, we looked through court records for the Florida Bar; Fort Walton Beach's Okaloosa County and neighboring Walton County; MyFloridaCounty.com; and the legal websites Justia and CourtListener.
Messages left at Gaetz's former House office, Johnson's office, AnchorsGordon, and the Trump campaign and transition press office were not returned.
We found that Gaetz argued at least seven cases in his home county on a variety of matters; that he was 2-0 in appellate cases; that he's been delinquent on his bar dues but is current now; and that he received a critical letter from the bar but was not formally disciplined. He also had more than a dozen traffic-related charges, about half as a teenager and half after he became a lawyer.
Gaetz was the attorney of record in at least seven cases at the trial court level
From 2009 to 2016, Gaetz argued at least seven cases at the trial level in Okaloosa County. (For part of that time, Gaetz was serving in the Florida House, but working as a lawyer is not unusual for a legislator; Florida has a part-time Legislature, so it's common for legislators to keep day jobs.)
The seven cases in court records ranged widely in substance. In 2008, Gaetz represented two separate clients for speeding tickets. In 2009, he represented a local restaurant, the Crab Trap, in a workers' compensation case. That same year, he began representing a local aircraft maintenance company that was pursuing a negligence case.
Starting in 2009, he represented Okaloosa County in a civil case against the city of Valparaiso. In 2010, Gaetz represented a client over a money dispute of less than $15,000. And in 2016, he represented a client involved in a custody case.
We were unable to access a full list of cases in neighboring Walton County, but he also had at least one more case as the attorney of record in that jurisdiction.
Gaetz may also have worked on other cases for more senior lawyers at the firm without being noted as an attorney of record. Not everything a lawyer does ends up in court, so Gaetz was likely working on other clients' legal business outside of court cases during his time with the firm.
"Some junior lawyers do nothing but legal research, so Rep. Gaetz's record at the firm is not unusual," said Dave Aronberg, the state attorney for Palm Beach County, Florida, and a former Democratic state senator. "I knew Matt in the state legislature, but I never heard anything about his legal career."
Gaetz took two cases to appeal and won both times
In one case, plaintiffs James and Melanie Nipper appealed a trial court ruling barring them from operating a skydiving business on their 290-acre farm in Walton County. With Gaetz as the lead attorney, the appeals court announced that it was overruling the trial court in January 2017, around the time Gaetz was starting in the U.S. House.
In the other appeals case, Gaetz represented Suzanne Harris, who had sued Walton County for hiring an attorney without the public notification required under Florida's "sunshine" transparency law. Harris had won at the trial level and the appeals court upheld the decision. The case sprang from the county's actions during a controversial land purchase.
