Earl E. Googe, Jr.

For more than 30 years, clients have relied on Earl’s pragmatic approach and strategic counsel to help them navigate their most complex legal matters. As a trial lawyer in the firm’s healthcare and litigation groups, he focuses his practice on medical malpractice defense and has handled numerous actions involving wrongful death, institutional medical negligence, and profound brain, spinal cord and other central nervous system injuries.

In addition, Earl defends clients in business disputes involving manufacturers, pharmaceutical companies, medical supply companies and healthcare providers across the spectrum. He often represents healthcare institutions in a variety of adversarial forums outside of the courtroom, including in medical staff disciplinary proceedings and before regulatory agencies, licensing boards and peer review panels.

Earl has a deep understanding of the healthcare industry’s ever-evolving regulations, including issues related to licensing, technology and insurance regulation. He’s also experienced in navigating healthcare fraud and abuse matters with the strategic sensitivity these cases demand. As chair of the Advocacy Committee for the Florida Society for Risk Management and Patient Safety (FSHRMPS), Earl helps monitor and support regulatory and legislative actions related to healthcare at the state level.

Industry peers have long recognized Earl’s work and have called upon him to share his insights and speak before healthcare professionals on numerous occasions. He has been listed in Florida Super Lawyers several times over the years and has been ranked by The Best Lawyers in America ® since 2009, including his selection as Jacksonville’s 2013 “Lawyer of the Year” for medical malpractice defense. Chambers & Partners also recognized his work locally in medical malpractice defense litigation with a Band 1 ranking, the directory’s highest.

Earl graduated with honors from the University of Florida College of Law and obtained a Bachelor of Arts, cum laude , from Duke University. He lives in Jacksonville with his wife, Kelly.

Representative Matters

• Representation of a 400+ physician member multispecialty practice group in all medical malpractice cases against individual practitioners, including managing a situation that potentially exposed patients to Hepatitis C.

• Representation of physicians related to defense of claims related to retained foreign objects, significant complications after surgery, failure to take intervention sooner, post procedure infections, medication errors, misdiagnosis and missed diagnosis.

• Representation of hospitals in administrative claims brought by governmental agencies (CMS, AHCA, DCF, etc.), the legal claims brought by individuals and the public relations issues that surrounded the multiple incident events.

• Representation of physicians and nurses in administrative hearings related to licensing issues such as sexual misconduct, wrong site surgery, drug diversion, failure to follow federal laws, retained foreign objects and HIPAA violations.

• Institutional representation in defense of EMTALA claims in state and federal courts.

• Served as Hearing/Presiding Officer for Medical Staff Corrective Action Fair Hearings and as Advocate for Medical Staff Executive Committee in similar hearings.