Babut, William C.

Like his father before him, Mark Avera has a history of many years of service to the people of Florida. His knowledge and understanding of the legal needs of his clients come not only from the practice of law, but from his grass roots early career as a law enforcement officer, something few other attorneys can claim.

Before becoming a law partner at Avera & Smith in 1989 (then Avera & Avera), Mark served as a sheriff 's deputy for Alachua County. He became the department's youngest deputy ever to be promoted to the rank of Sergeant. His primary assignments were uniform patrol division, SWAT, and the supervision of the department 's Street Crimes Unit.

Mark completed his bachelor's degree at the University of Florida while working midnight shifts for the Alachua County Sheriff 's Department and went on to graduate from UF with a degree in Law. Today, Mark serves as Managing Partner for Avera & Smith alongside his brother, Lance Avera, who specializes in workers compensation law, and partner Rod Smith, who specializes in personal injury law.

Mark Avera is Board Certified in Civil Trial Law by the Florida Bar. Certification is the Florida Bar 's highest level of evaluation in competence and experience within a specific area of law, and indicates superior professionalism and ethics in practice. Only slightly more than 1,000 of the more than 90,000 lawyers currently licensed in the State of Florida are actually Board Certified in Civil Trial Law. This means that lawyers with this certification generally have significantly increased chance of winning when cases go to trial.

During his career, Mark has obtained some the largest verdicts in the State of Florida in medical malpractice and wrongful death. In past years, he has been active in litigating and trying to verdict several landmark cases involving motor vehicle crashes with semi-tractor trailer trucks. He is one of the few lawyers in Florida to have tried to verdict multiple police pursuit cases that resulted in serious injury or death of an innocent party, and many of his verdicts have exceeded the amount of insurance available to the defendants resulting in claims against a defendant 's insurance company for acting in bad faith.

In two of the most significant cases won by Avera & Smith in recent years, Mark was instrumental, together with Rod Smith and Dawn Vallejos-Nichols, in winning two separate 2010 verdicts, one for $5M, and one for $ 17.5M, against tobacco giant, R. J. Reynolds. These cases received national attention and set an important precedent for all attorneys who battle the seemingly limitless dollars and resources that tobacco companies use in their efforts to deny victims who have suffered illness and death from the choice RJ Reynolds and other tobacco companies made to lie about cigarette smoking causing lung cancer and the addictive qualities of nicotine; something they refused to acknowledge until 1999.

Beyond his professional achievements, Mark not only believes in community service but walks the talk about giving back.

He serves on the Boards of Directors for Children 's Home Society, Santa Fe College Foundation and the Gainesville Community Foundation.

An accomplished pilot of many years, Mark holds flight certifications in both single-engine aircraft and multi-engine aircraft, and is rated in four different models of the Cessna Citation jet as well as the Eclipse Jet. He holds both instrument and commercial ratings. Turning his passion for flying to good purpose, Mark frequently volunteers his skill as a pilot for medical assistance flights, helping patients in urgent need all over the country.