Janelle A. Weber

Janelle A. Weber is an attorney in Shutts & Bowen’s Tampa office and a member of the Business Litigation Practice Group.  Ms. Weber practices commercial, real property, and insurance litigation.  She defends insurance companies in putative class actions brought by plaintiffs seeking statewide certification.  She represents financial institutions in foreclosures of commercial properties.  Ms. Weber also represents retailers, developers, and manufacturers in a multitude of commercial matters.

Additionally, Ms. Weber advises clients on intellectual property issues, litigates copyright and trademark cases, and arbitrates domain name disputes.  She has represented newspapers and television stations in the areas of defamation and invasion of privacy, reporter subpoenas, public records, and advertising. 

Ms. Weber offers clients the unique perspective of having served as a law clerk for judges on the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit and the United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida.  As a law clerk, she was responsible for cases involving a range of state and federal issues.

Presentations

• Invasion of Privacy, Florida Press Club, Fall 2007
• Access to Public Records, University of South Florida, October 2007
• Access to 911 Tapes in the 50 States:  Balancing Privacy against the Public Interest in Disclosure, Association for Educators in Journalism and Mass Communications, August 2007
• False Light in Florida, University of Florida, April 2007

Publications

• Florida's Sunshine Reaches Governmental Email, The Docket, Sarasota County Bar Association, January 2007
• Don't Drink, Don't Smoke, Don't Download:  Parents' Liability for their Children's Unauthorized File Sharing, 57 Florida Law Review 1163 (2006)
• The Spending Clause:  Funding a Filth-Free Internet or Filtering Out the First Amendment?, 56 Florida Law Review 471 (2004)

Background

At the University of Florida, Ms. Weber earned book awards in seven classes, including copyright and intellectual property/unfair competition, and was elected Notes and Comments Editor of the Florida Law Review.  Upon graduation, she was inducted into the Order of the Coif.

Before joining Shutts & Bowen, Ms. Weber clerked for the Honorable Ed Carnes of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit and the Honorable Steven Merryday of the Middle District of Florida.  Ms. Weber reported for the Associated Press, The News of Mexico City, and other media organizations prior to entering law school.  Possessing a strong interest in international affairs, Ms. Weber has lived, worked, and studied in Mexico and France.

Education

• University of Florida, magna cum laude, J.D. 2005
• Columbia University, M.S. Journalism, 2000
• Georgetown University, B.S. Foreign Service, magna cum laude, 1999

Bar Admissions

• The Florida Bar
• New York Bar

Court Admissions

• U.S. Court of Appeals, Eleventh Circuit
• U.S. District Court, Northern, Middle and Southern Districts of Florida

Affiliations

• Hillsborough County Bar Association
• American Bar Association, Communications Law Forum
• Tampa Museum of Art