Experience
Larry is a trial lawyer who has handled many types of cases in state and federal courts, including partner disputes, securities litigation, receiverships, breach-of-contract, non-competes, construction law, white-collar fraud, product liability, and intellectual property matters. Larry joined Johnson Pope in 2023. He is rated AV-Preeminent by Martindale-Hubbell and has been named to Best Lawyers in America for commercial litigation. Before going to law school, Larry worked as a daily newspaper reporter. Larry’s last name is pronounced “DOCK-er-tee.”
Selected Client Successes
- Won full award and attorney’s fees after final hearing on client’s AAA arbitration claim in eight-figure LLC dispute
- Won summary judgment for client on its shareholder declaratory judgment complaint; defeated $6 million counterclaim
- Won motion to dismiss state court complaint against client-LLC
- Successfully settled dispute between LLC partners after bringing interlocutory appeal of improperly entered injunction
- Won award of attorney’s fees for client’s interpleader action involving multiple private parties and the IRS
- Local counsel in client’s successful 28 U.S.C. § 1782 application to depose resident special committee chair for Bermuda shareholder appraisal litigation
- Won dismissals of opposing parties’ petitions for certiorari, with awards of appellate attorney’s fees
- Part of the team that won U.S. Supreme Court case on the constitutionality of inter partes patent review as expanded by the 2012 America Invents Act
- Won Florida Second District Court of Appeal case on arbitrability of construction defects
- Won dismissals of federal Securities and Exchange Act § 14 proxy class-action lawsuits blocking NASDAQ-listed client’s $326 million merger
- Represented receiver in $80 million Ponzi scheme enforcement action brought by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission involving 700 U.S. investors defrauded in foreign-exchange trading conspiracy
- Served on trial teams that obtained two product liability defense verdicts for Fortune 150 client after three-week civil jury trials in Florida state courts
- Won dismissal of federal securities fraud and § 14 class-action lawsuits challenging NYSE-listed client’s new corporate bylaw designed to reduce litigation expenses
- Successfully resolved client’s contract dispute with one of the world’s largest outdoor advertising companies
- Served on trial team defending CFO of Fortune 150 health insurer in 11-week federal criminal jury trial that resulted in sentence well below guidelines
- Successfully briefed and argued direct criminal appeal of murder conviction and life sentence on pro bono appointment by the Florida Supreme Court that resulted in unanimous opinion granting new trial and making new law on Florida’s hearsay exception for third-party confessions
Distinctions & Memberships
- 2024 Best Lawyers in America – Commercial Litigation
- AV-Preeminent rating by Martindale-Hubbell
- Law Clerk for the Honorable Charles R. Wilson, Judge of the U.S. Eleventh Circuit, 2009-2010
- William Reece Smith, Jr. Litigation American Inn of Court
- President, 2020-2021
- Program chair, 2019-2020
- Treasurer, 2017-2019
- Mentoring coordinator, 2016-2018
- Founding member, 2014-2015
- Federal Bar Association Tampa Bay Chapter, executive board member, 2016-2018
- History, Education, and Public Outreach Subcommittee of the Bench Bar Fund Committee of the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida, 2018-2019
- Eleventh Circuit Historical Society, 2010-present
- Recognized by the Florida Supreme Court and the Thirteenth Judicial Circuit Pro Bono Committee for pro bono service, 2014-2019, 2021-2022
- National Association of Federal Equity Receivers, 2021-2023
- Admitted to
- Florida Bar, 2009
- U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida, 2010
- U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, 2015
- U.S. Eleventh Circuit, 2011
- U.S. Seventh Circuit, 2017
- Supreme Court of the United States, 2017
- Princeton Club of Tampa Bay College Admissions Interviewing Committee
- Chair, 1998-2003
- Member, 1995-present
- Davis Islands Holiday Toy Drive, 2011-2019
Education
- University of Florida Levin College of Law, J.D. with high honors
- Florida Law Review, editor in chief
- Order of the Coif
- Princeton University, A.B.
When he is not working hard for his clients
Larry rows an open-water shell, swims, and spends time with his family.
- Oil States Energy Svcs., LLC v. Greene’s Energy Group, LLC, 138 S. Ct. 1365 (2018)
- Hayslip v. U.S. Home Corp., 276 So. 3d 109 (Fla. 2d DCA 2019)
- Bearden v. State, 161 So. 3d 1257 (Fla. 2015)
- Dep’t of Revenue v. Bell, 290 So. 3d 1060 (Fla. 2d DCA 2020)
- CAN Community Health, Inc. v. Theobald, 2023 WL 7105602 (Sarasota Circuit Court July 18, 2023)
- Pfizer, Inc. v. Mylan Inc., 2016 WL 3021911 (M.D. Fla.)
- Fennell v. Sec’y, Florida D.O.C., 582 F. App’x 828 (11th Cir. 2014)
- Aguilar v. Gaston-Camara, 861 F.3d 626 (7th Cir. 2017)
- Biver v. Nicholas Financial, Inc., 2014 WL 2441891 (M.D. Fla.)
- Norman v. Bay Winds Lodging Sarasota, LLC, 257 So. 3d 974 (Fla. 2d DCA 2018)
- Rothenberg v. Imperial Holdings/Emergent Capital, 2015 WL 6161332 (S.D. Fla.)
- S.T.O.F. Holdings, Ltd. v. Scan.-U.S.A. Homeowners Ass’n, Inc., 2016 WL 370957 (Polk Cir. Ct.)
- Florida Service of Process outside Florida – 2023 Amendments to Florida Chapter 48, published in State-to-State, the newsletter published by The Florida Bar Out-of-State Division, May 27, 2023
- Nine Tips for Wrecking Your Business Partnership, January 18, 2023
- New Florida summary judgment rule takes effect today, May 1, 2021
- Does a Cartel Aim Expressly? Trusting Calder Personal Jurisdiction When Antitrust Goes Global, 60 Fla. L. Rev. 915 (2008) (winning entry of ABA Section of Antitrust Law’s annual student writing competition).
- Panelist, Pro Bono Week Presentation on Ways to Serve, Western Michigan University Cooley Law School, October 25, 2023
- Lecturer, Advanced LLCs: Disputes in Operating Agreement Provisions and in Practice, National Business Institute webinar, June 21, 2023
- Panel member, Exit Strategy: If You Wait Until You’re Ready, You’re Already Too Late!, Small Business Leadership Conference, Orlando, June 20, 2023
- Classroom speaker, Nine Tips for Wrecking Your Business Partnership, class at Jim Moran Institute for Global Entrepreneurship, FSU College of Business, Tampa, April 18, 2023.
- Panel member, Trial by Media and Ethical Considerations for Press Statements, Presentation at Ferguson-White American Inn of Court, Tampa, April 13, 2023
- Panel Producer & Moderator, What Happens After You Give Your Client’s iPhone to a Forensic Investigator? Legal Frontiers in the Discovery of Electronic Devices, Annual Meeting of the Federal Bar Association, September 24, 2021, Miami, Florida (PowerPoint attached here)
- Interviewer, Conversation with Justice John Paul Stevens and Judge Jose Gonzalez, University of Florida Phillips Center; aired on America & the Courts, C-SPAN, November 29, 2008
Practice Areas
