Lorenzo Williams

Lorenzo Williams, senior partner at Gary, Williams, Parenti, Watson & Gary, was born in 1952 in Miami and raised in Goulds, Florida and Waynesboro, Georgia, the second of seven children of working class parents. He graduated with honors from Shaw University in 1974, earned his law degree from Willamette University School of Law in 1977, and was admitted to the Florida Bar in 1978. After beginning his career as staff counsel for the Urban League of Dade County, he joined fellow Shaw alumnus Willie Gary in Stuart in July 1978 and became a senior partner two years later. Over more than four decades of civil litigation practice covering personal injury, wrongful death, medical malpractice, and product liability, he has litigated more than 100 cases with verdicts or settlements exceeding 1 million dollars, including the 500 million dollar Loewen Group verdict, the 240 million dollar Disney verdict, and the 23.6 billion dollar verdict against R.J.

Reynolds Tobacco in 2014. He also obtained a 15 million dollar arbitration award against Hewlett Packard and a 10 million dollar settlement from Lockheed Martin while representing a federal bankruptcy trustee. He served as the first African American president of the St. Lucie County Bar Association, was the first African American on the board of the Florida Justice Association, and was admitted to practice before the Supreme Court of the United States in 2017.