Laura Beth Faragasso

(850) 877-1028
LB@OsteenOsteen.com

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES

Beginning as a runner with the firm during summer breaks in college, and working her way up to shareholder, Laura Beth spent 30 years as a litigator and appellate counsel with the Henry Buchanan firm in Tallahassee.  Her primary areas of focus were all manner of employment practices and discrimination claims, civil rights litigation, tort defense, medical malpractice and other health care law, and commercial litigation, including foreclosures and collections.  LB also specialized in work place investigations and HR consultation.  She served as an adjunct instructor in creditor’s rights at Florida State University College of Law, and an instructor of paralegal studies at Tallahassee Community College.  Her clients included a wide array of state and local government agencies and officers; correctional facilities; State universities and Florida’s State University System; the Florida Supreme Court’s Dispute Resolution Center; and private sector entities such as hospitals, lending institutions, business corporations and manufacturers.  Laura Beth has litigated in both the state and federal trial courts in Florida, and her appellate practice included cases before the Florida District Courts of Appeal and Florida Supreme Court, as well as the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals.  Laura Beth is a Supreme Court certified circuit civil mediator and has served as a member of the Mediator Qualifications and Discipline Review Board.

LB’s appellate practice has instilled in her an appreciation for, and the ability to analyze, the many sides and nuances of every controversy.  This recognition, in combination with a philosophy of “talk less / listen more” are integral to her mediation style.

EDUCATION

Florida State University College of Law, JD, 1987, with high honors

Mississippi University for Women, Bachelor of Arts, English, 1984, magna cum laude

CERTIFICATIONS AND AFFILIATIONS

• Florida Supreme Court Certified Civil Mediator

• Florida Supreme Court Certified Appellate Mediator

• Member, Florida Bar

• Admitted to U.S. District Court for the Northern, Middle, and Southern Districts of Florida

• Admitted to Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals

• Admitted to United States Supreme Court

• Member, 2nd Judicial Circuit Professionalism Panel

• Member, William H. Stafford Inn of Court

• Member, Mediator Qualifications and Discipline Review Board

• Martindale-Hubbell AV rated

• Member, Christ Presbyterian Church
  

PERSONAL

As a Tallahassee native, Laura Beth has a keen appreciation for the natural beauty of the Panhandle, rocking on the front porch at St. Teresa beach, and FSU football.  She is the proud mom of two daughters who know how to “make good trouble,” and she enjoys kayaking, reading, participating in a variety of hunger relief efforts, and most of all, walking the trails with her partner, Dawn, and their two dogs, Norman and Justice.