Shutts & Bowen pushes deeper into Gulf Coast

SARASOTA — Shutts & Bowen, a Miami-based law firm with 250 attorneys across six statewide offices, is expanding to the Sarasota-Bradenton market.

The firm has combined with Sarasota-based Livingston, Patterson, Strickland & Siegel PA, co-founded by prominent local attorney and commercial litigator John Patterson, according to a release. Patterson is a former president of the Sarasota Bar Association and current president of the Florida Bar Foundation. His practice focuses on business, real estate and banking law. He's married to Sarasota County Commissioner Nora Patterson.

In addition to Patterson, Shutts & Bowen's new Sarasota office includes Livingston Patterson partner Michael Siegel and associate John Ervin. Siegel's practice includes business, real estate, health care and employment law, the release states, while Ervin focuses on tax law, business law, estate planning and charitable organizations. Livingston Patterson partner John Strickland will continue his current matrimonial law practice in a separate law firm, John M. Strickland, PA, according to the release.

“We are truly delighted to have the opportunity to be a part of a firm like Shutts & Bowen that, while providing us with the strength of nearly 250 Florida lawyers in almost every area of business law, also shares our deeply held core values of providing high quality, personalized, legal services to our clients,” Patterson says in the statement.

Shutts & Bowen, founded in Miami in 1910, first moved into the Gulf Coast in 2006. Other offices are in Fort Lauderdale, Miami, Orlando, Tallahassee, Tampa and West Palm Beach.