Wagner, McLaughlin & Whittemore

For years, downtown Tampa knew when a Wagner, Vaughan & McLaughlin client had won a substantial verdict. We signaled the occasion with the loud blow of a train whistle, mounted atop our three-story office building. While the whistle was removed during a renovation, our enthusiasm for client victories remains just as strong as ever.

When Bill Wagner and Roger Vaughan opened the firm in 1967, the modest storefront at 412 Pierce Street gave little hint of its rich heritage. Both partners had practiced with a law firm in Miami headed by the legendary Perry Nichols, the pioneer of personal injury law and the first attorney to win a $100,000 verdict in Florida. The legal legacy and brotherhood of the Perry Nichols firm has helped to produce virtually all of the state's most widely-known personal injury trial attorneys, including presidents of the American Bar Association, Association of Trial Lawyers of America and the Florida Bar, as well as federal and state judges and the first attorneys in the state to win a million dollar verdict.

In search of additional space, the partners soon bought a nearby boarding house and a two-story building that had seen earlier service as a bicycle manufacturing plant, gas station and plumbing parts store. The boarding house site now serves as the firm's parking lot, and the building -- renovated in 1976 -- remains as the downtown office. Growth of the firm led to the opening of a second office on Bayshore Boulevard in 1992 with both offices equal in the number and strength of attorneys and staff.

Wagner, Vaughan & McLaughlin has had many legal landmarks over the years. Among them was a $4 million wrongful death verdict in 1976, the largest ever awarded in Tampa at the time. In another case, we represented an injured seaman against a Greek ship owner and succeeded in establishing that a foreign owner could be sued in local court. And in still another, we were able to overcome a statutory limitation on judgments against state agencies through a Special Claims Bill passed by the Florida State Legislature.

Wagner, Vaughan & McLaughlin's commitment to legal principles goes far beyond the courtroom. Just as an example, we have helped to underwrite campaigns to fight limitations on awards for injured persons' pain and suffering and helped to bring to Tampa one of just three remaining copies of the Magna Carta from England for public display at the Tampa Museum of Art.