TLO - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Partner
- Managing Partner in TLo 's Tampa
Carol is the managing partner in TLo's Tampa office. She practices at the trial and appellate levels, handling litigation concerning defamation and privacy, the Public Records Act, the Government in the Sunshine Law, court access and cameras in the courtroom. She leads advocacy efforts on media issues. Carol is a nationally-recognized media lawyer routinely sought after as a speaker on media issues at national and statewide conferences. She often leads statewide advocacy efforts on media issues, most recently involving access to Florida courts and Florida's anti-SLAPP law. Carol regularly renders pre-and post-publication advice on investigative news stories. She handles issues concerning newsgathering and technology. Carol has litigated many cases resulting in published opinions. In addition to media law, Carol is experienced in marketing law, web law and intellectual property matters. She manages trademark portfolios, policing programs and litigation for sophisticated corporations. Carol is Past Chair for the First Amendment Foundation's Board of Trustees, and remains on the foundations Brand and Executive Committee. She is a former board member of the Junior League of Tampa, former vice-chair of the Media Law Committee of The Florida Bar, and is a governing committee member of the ABA Forum on Communications Law. She co-chairs the Media Law Resource Center's Litigation Committee. She has litigated capital habeas cases with other lawyers in the firm. Carol also serves as the Program Coordinator for End 68 Hours of Hunger - Tampa, a charity dedicated to eradicating hunger among school children. She is an active member of Hyde Park Presbyterian Church.
Job Titles:
- Partner
- Chairman of the American Bar Association 's Tort Trial
- Managing Partner in TLo 's Fort Lauderdale
Dana is the managing partner in TLo's Fort Lauderdale office. She practices at the trial and appellate levels, handling a wide range of matters involving media and communications law, including defending libel and invasion of privacy claims pursuing access to judicial proceedings and public records, resisting reporter subpoenas, and conducting pre-publication review of television broadcasts and news articles.
Dana has served as chair of the American Bar Association's Tort Trial and Insurance Practice Section's (TIPS) Media, Privacy and Advertising Law Committee, the Florida Bar's Media and Communications Law Committee, and the Florida Bar's Media Law Conference and Reporter's Workshop. Dana is a member of the Media Law Resource Center's Insurance Committee, and previously served on the Board of Trustees of Florida's First Amendment Foundation.
Elizabeth is an associate in the Tampa office with a practice concentration in media and communications law, including defamation, First Amendment, and access to public records and open courts. She also focuses on business litigation and intellectual property matters, including the registration and litigation of trademarks.
Florida Super Lawyers is a statewide rating service of attorneys that is held by only 5% of the state's attorneys. The process includes balloting, blue ribbon panel review and independent research. The following partners at Thomas & LoCicero are designated as Florida Super Lawyers: Gregg D. Thomas, Carol Jean LoCicero, James B. Lake, Dana J. McElroy and James J. McGuire.
Florida Trend, the prestigious statewide business publication in the Sunshine State, presents a prestigious roster of attorneys chosen for recognition by their peers. The lawyers listed exemplify a standard of excellence in their profession and have garnered the respect and esteem of their colleagues throughout the state. One of our founding partners, Gregg D. Thomas, is a member of the prestigious Florida Legal Elite Hall of Fame. Other partners ranked by Florida Trend Legal Elite include James B. Lake, Dana J. McElroy and James J. McGuire.
Gregg is one of the country's leading media and First Amendment lawyers. He has argued and won numerous high-profile cases on behalf of newspapers, television stations, movie producers, and other media entities. Gregg also has handled multi-million dollar commercial disputes, and trademark infringement cases.
He has argued and won cases before the Florida and United States Supreme Courts, including Butterworth v. Smith, 494 U.S. 624 (1990), where he convinced the U.S. Supreme Court that laws prohibiting grand jury witnesses from disclosing their testimony violated the First Amendment. Gregg is also a Florida-certified mediator. He practices out of TLo's Tampa office.
Gregg repeatedly has been qualified as an expert witness on legal issues and attorneys' fees in defamation and public records cases.
Prior to entering private practice, Gregg was a judicial clerk to the Honorable Ben Krentzman and the Honorable George Carr, both United States District Judges for the Middle District of Florida. He is a former board member and president of the Tampa Museum of Art, and former president of the Tampa Bay Business Committee for the Arts. In 2007, he was inducted into the Florida Freedom of Information Summit Hall of Fame.
Gregg Thomas is a certified federal and state court mediator who combines wide-ranging litigation experience with realistic assessments of the strengths and weaknesses of parties' claims and defenses. Gregg recognizes that the parties - not the mediator - settle cases. But he also believes that as a mediator he can provide the parties with an impartial and realistic perspective on their case, and a chance to put litigation behind them. As Gregg has noted, "In almost every case, the parties stand to gain by compromising. If they continue to litigate, they are more likely to lose time, money, and peace of mind."
Gregg's approach to mediation derives from more than 30 years as a civil and commercial litigator, and from having clerked for two federal district court judges. Defamation law, invasion of privacy, and constitutional claims are the areas in which he is best known, but Gregg also has extensive real-world experience in many other fields, including business torts, contracts, deceptive and unfair trade practices, non-competition agreements, trade secrets, RICO, and Section 1983 actions.
Job Titles:
- of Counsel
- Expert
- Member of the Florida
Karen is a past chair of The Florida Bar's Media & Communications Law Committee, created a program to educate judges about media law issues and regularly appears on panels discussing such issues, including those sponsored by the Media Law Resource Center. In May 2019 she served as faculty on access issues for the College Of Advanced Judicial Studies for Florida state court judges. She also has spoken on media law issues to the National Association of Hispanic Journalists as well as a meeting of free-lance journalists sponsored by the Media Law Resource Center.
Karen is a former television reporter and editor in both major- and mid-sized markets who regularly advises media clients on libel, news gathering, reporter's privilege, access, public records, and privacy matters. On behalf of those clients Karen has litigated to a successful conclusion numerous libel and other news gathering claims, and opened the court proceedings and records in many high-profile cases, including the child abuse prosecution of Carmen and Jorge Barahona, the child custody battle between tennis champion Boris Becker and his estranged wife, the domestic violence prosecution of then-Miami Mayor Joe Carollo, the murder of Jimmy Ryce, the jury tampering trial of the jury foreman in the Willie Falcon/Sal Magluta (the "Cocaine Cowboys") prosecution, the judicial corruption prosecution known as Operation Court Broom, the trial of former Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega, and the William Kennedy Smith rape trial, among others. Karen also has argued before the Florida Supreme Court on public records matters. Her clients have included WPLG, Inc., BH Media Group, Inc., Graham Media Group (f/k/a Post-Newsweek), Fort Myers Broadcasting Company, Gulfshore Business, Gulfshore Life, CBS, NBC, Telemundo, the BBC, and an international financial news network.
Karen also serves as an expert witness on the reasonableness of attorneys' fees in libel and related matters for national and international news organizations, and on behalf of individual libel defendants.
Karen is a member of the Florida bar, as well as the Southern and Middle Districts of Florida. She mentors at-risk young women as a member of the Women of Tomorrow Mentoring and Scholarship Program, and also is a volunteer driver with the American Cancer Society's Road To Recovery program. A long-time figure skater, Karen is a past president of the Miami Figure Skating Club (a member of U.S. Figure Skating, the governing body for figure skating in the United States), and has judged U.S. Figure Skating's "Learn To Skate USA" competitions.
Linda is an associate in the Tampa office with a practice concentration in media and communications law, including defamation and invasion of privacy. She also focuses on business litigation and intellectual property matters. She graduated with honors from the University of Florida Levin College of Law in 2017.
Linda is a first-generation American. She speaks fluent Spanish and is conversant in French and Italian.
Mark's practice focuses on media law, intellectual property, and civil litigation. He practices out of the firm's Tampa office.
Prior to joining the firm, Mark was an attorney at the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, the nation's leading legal advocacy non-profit organization serving free press and First Amendment interests. In that role, he specialized in freedom of information, access, and intellectual property issues. Prior to that, he practiced commercial litigation in New York City where he represented foreign and domestic corporate clients in multi-million dollar disputes.
Mark also served as director of the Marion Brechner Citizen Access Project at the University of Florida's College of Journalism and Communications, where he taught classes in media and telecommunications law. He is a frequent speaker at journalism and media conferences and has been quoted in publications such as The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and Pro Publica. He has also appeared on NPR and On the Media.
Mark serves on the Department of Journalism Advisory Council at the University of Florida as well as on the ACLU of Florida's legal panel. During law school, he worked in the sports department of The Gainesville Sun
Nikolas Cruz v. State of Florida, 279 So. 3d 154 (Fla. 4th DCA 2019), rev. denied (Fla. 2020). Successfully protected the right of access on behalf of the South Florida Sun Sentinel to the jail visitation logs of Parkland shooter Nikolas Cruz. The trial and appellate court agreed with our arguments that the Public Records Act contains no exemption for these records and that they were not protected by the attorney or work-product privileges, even if they include the names of experts visiting Cruz in jail.