Dwight Slater

Dwight Slater is Senior Counsel in Tyson & Mendes’ Jacksonville office. Mr. Slater is certified as an Appellate Practice Specialist by the Florida Bar. He has represented hundreds of clients before Florida circuit courts acting in their appellate capacity, all the Florida District Courts of Appeal, the Florida Supreme Court, and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. Mr. Slater’s experience spans both the public and the private sector—having earned affirmances and reversals of numerous final judgments and administrative orders while serving as Appellate Counsel for the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration and the Florida Department of Children and Families, and as Chief Appellate Counsel for the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation, and as an attorney in private practice. In a recent case, Mr. Slater persuaded the Third District Court of Appeal to reverse a final order revoking the license of a large assisted living facility—securing an award of attorney’s fees and costs in excess of $100,000 in the process.

Mr. Slater also has significant experience at the trial level. He tried numerous jury and non-jury trials in county and circuit court as an Assistant Public Defender in Orlando, Florida—he handled charges as high as first-degree life felonies. He recently secured summary judgment for his clients in a defamation action and dismissal for his client in a legal malpractice action. He has also conducted numerous formal administrative hearings before the Florida Division of Administrative Hearings; he secured a Medicaid overpayment recoupment in excess of $500,000 for the state, and successfully defended a large assisted living facility in an action that sought to impose tens of thousands of dollars in fines.

Mr. Slater is very engaged in professional activities. The Florida Supreme Court appointed him to serve on its Bar Admissions Committee and its Select Committee on Claims of Ineffective Assistance of Counsel in Termination of Parental Rights Cases. Additionally, the Bar appointed him to two terms on its Appellate Court Rules Committee, where he served as Vice Chair of the Family and Criminal Practice Subcommittees, and as Chair of the General Practice Subcommittee. Further, he is a member of the Appellate Practice, Administrative Law, and Government Lawyers Sections of the Florida Bar, and a Private Master with the First District Appellate American Inns of Court.

Mr. Slater received his B.A. in 2002 from Stanford University, where he earned the Dean’s Academic Excellence Award, studied abroad at La Universidad de las Américas in Puebla México, and performed with La Mousinglade Wind Quintet and the Stanford Symphony Orchestra. He earned his J.D. in 2006 from the Emory University School of Law, where he was awarded the Ben F. Johnson Scholarship, served as Vice President of the Black Law Students Association, and performed with the Emory Symphony Orchestra.

In his free time, Mr. Slater enjoys serving as an Admissions Volunteer with the Stanford Outreach Volunteer Alumni Link, and performing with the Big Bend Community Orchestra (Principal Bassoon), the Tallahassee Winds (Principal Bassoon), and the Category Five Woodwind Quintet.