Mike Walker

Mike is the son of a factory worker and the first of his extended family (aunts, uncles, cousins) to go to college, let alone law school.  Coming from a family farmers and factory workers., Mike grew up unfamiliar with the legal profession.  Lawyers were for wealthy people.  He watched as the people he knew were told that their problems were not “big’ enough to justify an expensive lawyer or were too big to even contemplate the cost.  Justice didn’t seem available to his people.   While Mike had childhood thoughts of being a lawyer, it was a push from his business law professor at Purdue that really started him on his professional journey.   

Mike never had any ambitions of being a “corporate” lawyer.  He was compelled by people problems.  He wanted to help people.  In law school, he learned about torts – the foundation of which is fairness and reasonableness – two concepts Mike had always tried to live by.  It was a natural fit.  Mike also learned about trials in law school.  After graduating from Purdue University with a degree in Management/Marketing, he chose Stetson University for Law School not appreciating that it, Stetson, had a national reputation for its advocacy programs.  Stetson is regularly rated as one of the top “trial” schools in the US News magazine.  So, Mike found his way into the trial programs.  He figured out he was to be a trial lawyer who worked on torts.

Still today, people who meet Mike in his practice, or during his free time, tell him that he doesn’t seem like a lawyer.  To him, this is a compliment. 

Lawyers around the state of Florida regularly ask Mike to assist in the litigation and trial of their client’s cases.   Though his home county is Pinellas, he routinely travels to Miami, Fort Lauderdale, West Palm Beach, Ft Myers, Sarasota, Jacksonville and Orlando and areas in between when serving his clients requires.  Mike also holds active licenses in several states - Illinois, Indiana, Minnesota and Florida - and has been admitted by others – Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Mississippi, New York, Texas, Kentucky, and Ohio - for a particular case.  

As meaningful as these accomplishments may be, it is more important to Mike that clients and others who encounter the Walker Law Group are treated well.  Practicing trial law means conflict – dealing with insurance adjusters, insurance lawyers, opposing experts, judges sometimes and even clients sometimes.  Mike believes part of his duty to his law firm is to lead by example, to aspire to live by the tenants of the Golden Rule and to instill in his legal team that same goal.  Helping people who have had a life crisis, small or large, requires a level of empathy and sensitivity.   Mike and is team try to always remember the goal is to provide relief to our clients.  That relief comes from their use of legal skills and experience to benefit a client, but it can also come from recognizing and acting consistent with the humanity of our client’s situation. 

Finally, though entering his 35th year of practicing law, Mike remains open minded to new legal trends, technologies and communication strategies.  Staying current with the legal trends is important, but as a trial lawyer, he always looks for better ways to communicate and to persuade.  Technological advances in his professional lifetime have changed the way cases are tried.  Just recently, for example, as a product of the Covid pandemic, trials have started to incorporate “remote testimony”.  While this sounds conceptually simple – put a laptop camera in front of a witness and let them testify by live video – there are a slew of potential complications that are often learned “the hard way” – through experience.  One issue, for instance, is that while remote video testimony can expand the possibilities of persons who can testify without the time, expense, and inconvenience of travel, it may not be as persuasive as live testimony and the logistics of dealing with exhibits further complicates what may seem simple.      

Mike lives in south St. Petersburg with his wife, Alva and their 3 dogs.  The enjoy fitness, collecting mid-century furniture and getting out into the Florida sunshine.