Wayne Hogan

Wayne Hogan, a Jacksonville native, has been with the firm since 1977. He graduated from Florida State University, where he received both his bachelor’s and J.D. degrees. He specializes in all areas of personal injury law. In addition to participating in many professional associations, he and his wife, Pat, are also actively involved in the community.

Hogan has continuously fought injustices that inflict death and injury and focuses on bringing to account those who profit from defective, dangerous products. Best known is Hogan’s joining with other leading trial lawyers in product liability and racketeering claims against the cigarette industry: The State of Florida had provided medical care to Floridians afflicted with tobacco diseases, and the lawsuit achieved an historic $17 billion settlement for Florida’s taxpayers and to protect Florida’s children from the scourge of tobacco. The settlement not only protects the children of today, it will go on preventing addiction and disease for decades to come. It also led to the national tobacco settlement and set the stage for significant changes in tobacco control laws, beginning with removing all billboard advertising and the retirement of Joe Camel and the Marlboro Man.

Wayne Hogan has extensive experience in the field of punitive damages having obtained punitive damage verdicts in trials of 26 cases against manufacturers of defective products and having represented the plaintiffs in Florida’s first asbestos disease punitive damages trial and successfully handled the precedent-setting appeal reported as Johns-Manville Sales Corp. v. Janssens, 463 So.2d 262 (Fla. 1st DCA 1984). This case upheld the right of plaintiffs to receive punitive damages in such toxic tort litigation and also sustained the right of plaintiffs to obtain multiple exemplary damages awards in order to punish wrongdoers. In another of the firm’s cases, the Florida Supreme Court held that a successor by merger is liable for punitive damages for the recklessness of its predecessor in Celotex Corp. v. Pickett, 490 So.2d 35 (Fla. 1986). The firm represents thousands of victims of asbestos exposure statewide.

Since 1992 Wayne has supported and partnered with the FSU College of Law to grow The Donald J. Weidner Summer for Undergraduates Program. This program brings to campus undergraduate students from Florida and throughout the country for a month-long law school immersion. The largest and oldest of its kind, the primary goal of the program is to acquaint students with the study of law and to help prepare them for their undergraduate and future law school studies. The program has twice been recognized by the American Bar Association’s Alexander Award for Excellence in Pipeline Diversity for showing innovative leadership in diversifying the legal profession.