Goodman, Lee D.

Thomas F. Gonzalez is a partner in the firm's litigation group and represents companies and individuals in tort claims and business disputes.  He also handles matters before the Florida Division of Administrative Hearings in the field of health care.  In addition to his experience in a number of civil jury trials, he has handled administrative hearings representing physicians, nurses and other healthcare practitioners before their respective boards.  He has also briefed and argued cases before Florida's appellate courts. 

Mr. Gonzalez has been with Beggs & Lane since 1999.  Over the last decade he has developed a varied and diverse trial practice which includes plaintiffs and defense products liability work, and medical malpractice defense for physicians and hospital defendants.  He has handled a wide variety of personal injury cases, including premises liability, aircraft and automobile accidents.  He has also litigated complex commercial disputes involving copyright infringement, aviation insurance claims, air ambulance contract disputes, electric utility contracts and homeowners' insurance. 

Mr. Gonzalez has participated in cases and argued in federal and state courtrooms in Florida, Pennsylvania, New York, Georgia, Indiana and Alabama. He has been responsible for appeals before the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals, and Florida's First and Fourth District Courts of Appeals.
Mr. Gonzalez is a member of the Florida Bar, the Alabama Bar and the Washington, D. C. (Currently Inactive Status) Bar.  He is admitted to practice before all Florida and Alabama state and federal courts as well as the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit.

Mr. Gonzalez received his bachelor's degree in 1988 from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and was commissioned an officer in the United States Navy.  Mr. Gonzalez served in the Navy for eight years in a variety of positions, including a combat deployment as a helicopter pilot in support of the NATO mission in Bosnia, counternarcotics interdiction missions, and service in the Pentagon as the administrative aide to the Navy General Counsel.  He earned an FAA Commercial Pilot Rating, and Instrument Rating, Rotary (Helicopter) and Fixed Wing.  Mr. Gonzalez resigned as a Lieutenant in 1996 and immediately began his studies at the Catholic University of America, Columbus School of Law.  Following his graduation in May, 1999, magna cum laude, Mr. Gonzalez returned to his hometown of Pensacola, Florida, to begin his legal career with Beggs & Lane.

His work on behalf of insured homeowners following Hurricane Ivan in 2004 was profiled in the cover story of the Pensacola Business Journal in February, 2005.

Mr. Gonzalez was named by Florida Trend magazine in October 2009 as one of Florida's Legal Elite's Up and Comers, Lawyers on the Way Up.  Florida Trend compiles its list of Florida's top up and coming attorneys as recognized by their peers.  The listing recognizes Mr. Gonzalez as one of Florida's best up and coming attorneys who exhibit leadership in the law and in their local communities.