Maher Law Firm Turns 50 Years Old

This year we’re celebrating a huge milestone—our firm turning 50 years old. To commemorate this huge achievement, we want to highlight, and thank, our founder Michael C. Maher.

Mike’s career is worthy of a 500-page autobiography. He’s taken on Big Tobacco (and won), rubbed elbows with governors and senators and won huge trial verdicts. But more importantly, for 50 years, Mike’s mission has always stayed the same: do the right thing for the right reason.

That phrase is not only Mike’s motto for work; it’s an overarching theme that he has always lived his life by. One minute into a conversation with Mike and you realize how genuine of a person he is and how the practice of law was such a natural fit for him—he loves to help those in need.

"It’s interesting how sometimes a career picks you,” Mike said. "Since I was a kid, I’ve always found myself defending the little guy, the guy who was being picked on by the huge football player. I’d talk them out of it, not get into a fist fight with them. I had an ability to get along with people, so they’d listen to me.”

And that’s very much carried over to his professional career as the founder of the Maher Law Firm. In 1969, just three years out of law school, Mike started our firm and hasn’t looked back, becoming president of The Association of Trial Lawyers of America and The Florida Justice Association. He’s won awards such as Best Lawyers in American and Florida Trial Lawyer of the Year. And he was appointed leader of the trial team that negotiated an $11.3 billion settlement in a lawsuit brought by the State of Florida v. Big Tobacco.

"We’re a firm of the people. We do a better job because our commitment is different, and we handle things differently. We care deeply and realistically about our clients and take every case very seriously. We have the best group of attorneys working at the firm. We invest strongly and do the right thing for the right reason, always.”

An appreciable example of this is the degree to which he remembers specific details of his 50-plus years of cases. The first criminal case he tried when he was 23 years old. The exact seat a Ft. Lauderdale wrongful death client was sitting in during a car accident 45 years ago. The enthusiasm in his voice when he talks about the rapport he had with eyewitnesses to a case in the early 1970s. Mike Maher is truly one of a kind.

Fifty years later, Mike hasn’t slowed down. "We’re committed to the plaintiff. We fight every day to protect our clients and their rights. We do everything we can to get them fair access to courts and a fair trial.”