Stephen T. Maher

Experience

During more than 30 years in administrative law, litigation and appellate review, Mr. Maher gained national experience as both a litigator and a legal educator. At Shutts & Bowen, he helps clients pursue their goals in court and before government agencies. He also serves as counsel in judicial reviews of litigation and administrative action by local, state and federal government.

Having handled cases that set important precedents in Florida, especially in administrative law, Mr. Maher tackles issues in diverse areas. His work includes agency proceedings, including those before the Division of Administrative Hearings, as well as appearances before state and local boards and commissions, licensing, professional discipline, permitting, petitions to initiate rulemaking, rulemaking hearings, rule challenges, rule waivers and variances, general regulatory matters, and judicial review of agency actions.

A skilled litigator, Mr. Maher also counsels clients and represents them at trial, on appeal and in international and domestic arbitrations. He has considerable appellate experience and has appeared in courts at the state and federal levels. This includes handling cases in every Florida District Court of Appeal, the Supreme Court of Florida, the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, and filing for certiorari in the United States Supreme Court.

Background

Before joining the firm, Mr. Maher was a full-time faculty member at the University of Miami Law School. There he taught a variety of subjects, directed the school's Clinical Program and coached the school's moot court teams. Before that, he practiced law with a national law firm.

Experience in Legal Training

Mr. Maher used his experience in higher education to train lawyers throughout the country on discovery and trial practice. Through work as a consultant with the Practicing Law Institute, he trained lawyers in-house at large law firms, using courses and materials he designed. He trained others on trial evidence, tactics and skills at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit Conference, the New York Legal Aid Society, the University of Pennsylvania Law School Center on Professionalism, and George Washington University, using interactive training materials developed at Stanford Law School.

Legal Writing

Mr. Maher has written a variety of law review articles centered in four areas, Clinical Legal Education, lawyers and lawyering, Florida Administrative Law and other topics in Florida law.  These articles include:

• Beyond Notice and Comment: An Examination of the Rulemaking Process in Florida, Virginia Bar Association News Journal, July, 2002 at 12, 14-17;
• How the Glitch Stole Christmas: The 1997 Amendments to the Florida Administrative Procedure Act, 25 FLA. ST. U. L. REV. 235-72 (1998);
• The Death of Rules:  How Politics is Suffocating Florida,  8 ST. THOMAS L. REV. 313-347 (1996);
• Lawfutures, or, Will You Still Need Me, Will You Still Feed Me, When I'm Sixty-Four, 1 U. RICH. J.L. & TECH.6 (April, 1995) (essay in the first issue of the first law journal to be published entirely on the Internet);
• Five Easy Pieces on Changing the Florida Administrative Procedure Act:  An Introduction to the Symposium, 22 FLA. ST. U. L. REV. 243-245 (1994)(and organized the Symposium on the Florida Administrative Procedure Act in that issue);
• Getting Into The Act, 22 FLA. ST. U. L. REV. 277-306 (1994);
• The Florida Cabinet:  Is it Time for Remodeling?  18 NOVA L. REV. 1123-1132 (1994);
• Emergency Decisionmaking During the State of Florida's Response to Hurricane Andrew, 17 NOVA L. REV. 1009-1027 (1993);
• The 1991 and 1992 Amendments to the Florida Administrative Procedure Act, 20 FLA. ST.U.L. REV. 367-439 (1992);
• Clinical Legal Education in the Age of Unreason, 40 BUFF. L. REV. 809-834 (1992);
• No Easy Walk to Freedom, 1 DIST. COL. L. REV. 243 267 (1992);
• Patricia Ann Dore and The Florida Administrative Procedure Act, 19 FLA. ST. U. L. REV. 951 956 (1992);
• The Seventh Administrative Law Conference Chairman's Introduction To the Symposium Issue, 18 FLA. ST. U. L. REV. 607 616 (1991)(and organized symposium);
• We're No Angels:  Rulemaking and Judicial Review in Florida, 18 FLA. ST. U. L. REV. 767 853 (1991);
• Clinical Legal Education — Past, Present and Future, THE FLORIDA BAR JOURNAL, July/August 1991, at 28 (and organized Journal theme issue on clinical legal education and served as guest editor);
• The Praise of Folly:  A Defense of Practice Supervision in Clinical Legal Education, 69 U. NEB. L. REV. 537 663 (1990);
• A Strategy For Increasing the Mental and Emotional Fitness of Bar Applicants, 23 IND. L. REV. 821 861 (1990)(co-authored with Dr. Lori Blum). 

Speaking Engagements

Mr. Maher is frequently asked to lecture on administrative law and other legal issues as well. He has appeared before groups including various bar associations, the International Legislative Drafting Institute at Tulane Law School, the National Association of Secretaries of State, and Price Waterhouse Legal Tech (in Miami, New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Atlanta and Washington).

Significant Appellate Decisions

Mr. Maher has participated in a number of cases that have established important legal precedents.  These include:

Simmons v. State, Agency for Health Care Administration, 950 So.2d 431 (Fla. 1st DCA 2007)(The First District issued a writ of mandamus, as requested by client, and held that a state agency has a duty to enter an order granting or denying an administrative petition filed under the Florida Administrative Procedure Act, and may not merely send a letter refusing to entertain the petition).

5220 Biscayne Blvd., LLC v. Stebbins, 937 So.2d 1189 (Fla. 3d DCA 2006) (prohibition raising issue of first impression concerning the meaning of 30-day time limit in Section 113.3215(3), Florida Statutes).

Blinco v. Green Tree Servicing LLC, 400 F.3d 1308 (11th Cir. 2005)(United States Court of Appeals held that arbitration clause was binding on a non-signatory of the arbitration agreement under the particular facts of the case, and ordered arbitration, as requested by client).

Blinco v. Green Tree Servicing LLC, 366 F.3d 1249 (11th Cir. 2004)( United States Court of Appeals held, as a matter of first impression, that since appeal was not frivolous, appellant seeking arbitration that had been denied below was entitled to a stay of the district court proceedings below, as requested by client, pending resolution of the appeal from that denial).

Barfield v. Department of Health, 805 So.2d 1108 (Fla. 1st DCA 2001)(First District clarified the substantive jurisdiction limitation on board action within the Department of Health.  The case was voted the second most important Florida administrative law case in the last ten years at a recent Pat Dore Administrative Law Conference).

Plante v. Department of Business and Professional Regulation, 716 So.2d 790 (Fla. 4th DCA 1998)(Fourth District reversed imposition of professional discipline by a state agency that had refused to consider its own precedents before imposing discipline, as requested by client, and remanded for reconsideration to state agency to consider agencies own precedents before imposing discipline).

Arias v. State, Department of Business and Professional Regulation, 710 So.2d 655 (Fla. 3d DCA 1998)(Third District held that the state agency’s failure to adopt penalty guidelines as required by Legislature required reversal of a professional discipline penalty imposed in the absence of such guidelines, and Court allowed no remand for the imposition of any penalty, as requested by client).

Son v. Department of Professional Regulation, 608 So.2d 75 (Fla. 3d DCA 1992)(Third District allowed licensee to avoid professional discipline by rebutting presumption of guilt raised by plea of nolo contendre in criminal case, as requested by client).

McArthur v. Firestone, 817 F.2d 1548 (11th Cir. 1987) (rejecting mootness of challenge to unconstitutionality of election disclosure requirements as applied).

State v. Powell, 497 So.2d 1188 (Fla. 1986) (deciding constitutionality of Section 732.9185, Florida Statutes).

Guerra v. Department of Labor and Employment Security, 427 So.2d 1098 (Fla. 3d DCA 1983)(Third District required rulemaking by a state agency to correct procedurally deficient agency practice rules, as client requested).

Lamm v. Chapman, 413 So.2d 749 (Fla. 1982) (finding that Sections 409.2561(1)-(3) do not infringe on the constitutional right to be free from imprisonment for debt).

Curtis v. Taylor, 625 F.2d 645 on rehearing, 648 F.2d 946 (5th Cir. 1980) (determining adequacy of remedies under Florida Administrative Procedure Act and ruling on exhaustion and abstention issues).

Garrido v. State, Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services, 386 So.2d 811 (Fla. 1st DCA 1980)(First District required state agency to hold fact finding proceedings on petition to initiate rulemaking where agency disputed material facts in petition, as client requested).

Williams v. Florida Department of Commerce, 374 1158 (Fla. 3d DCA 1979)(Third District found that refusal to issue subpoenas in state administrative proceedings was reversible error, as client requested).

State, Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services v. Florida Project Directors, 368 So.2d 954 (Fla. 1st DCA 1979)(First District affirmed proposed rule challenge’s invalidation of state agency rule incorporating forms by reference only, as client requested).

Balino v. Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services, 362 So.2d 21 (Fla. 1st DCA 1978)(First District provided an early interpretation of Florida Administrative Procedure Act participation requirements in state agency rulemaking proceedings).

Balino v. Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services, 348 So.2d 349 (Fla. 1st DCA 1977)(First District imposed the burden of proof in state administrative proceedings under new Florida Administrative Procedure Act that was requested by clients).

Other Professional Activities

Mr. Maher's international experience has included trips to South Africa after the end of apartheid as part of a delegation from the International Legislative Drafting Institute. There he lectured on administrative law and the Internet and consulted on proposed changes to South African law as that country worked to create its first administrative procedure act.

In Florida, Mr. Maher has been active in the organized bar. He served as Chair of the Administrative Law Section of The Florida Bar and as Chair of the Council of Sections of The Florida Bar. He also served as a director and member of the Executive Committee of The Florida Bar Foundation, where he is a Life Member.