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Pro Bono Attorney Spotlight: Ed O’Sheehan

Ed O’Sheehan is a partner in the Fort Lauderdale office of Shutts & Bowen LLP, where he is a member of the Business Litigation Practice Group and Chair of the firm’s Pro Bono Committee. He has handled 18 pro bono matters for Broward Lawyers Care and the Mission United Veterans Pro Bono Project at Legal Aid since 1999, including consumer, probate, housing and public benefits issues. In recent years he has represented seniors to assist them with financial issues, and he also handled a probate case to help a minor child receive his inheritance after his father’s death in another state. O’Sheehan has provided training and mentorship to Legal Aid staff on issues including trusts, estates and guardianships, and has recruited his colleagues at Shutts & Bowen to volunteer and co-counsel with him. He even recruited Joseph M. Goldstein, managing partner of the Fort Lauderdale office of Shutts & Bowen, to handle a pro bono case to assist a senior with a financial issue. He also mentored Amy Wessel (also in the Shutts & Bowen Fort Lauderdale office) as she represented a client facing a construction lien foreclosure in an appeal.

Ed has over 19 years of litigation experience in consumer finance litigation, creditors’ rights and bankruptcy, condominium and homeowner association litigation, probate and guardianship litigation, insurance matters, and tax appeals. Ed also provides representation for clients in matters involving the The Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction.

A former U.S. Marine, Ed is a Lieutenant Colonel and now serves as the Staff Judge Advocate for the Florida Army National Guard. He recently was named by the Office of the Public Guardian as Pro Bono Attorney of the Year for volunteering over 150 hours to represent the best interests of the wards in guardianship, abuse, neglect, financial exploitation, and foreclosure cases. He served 15 months in Afghanistan as part of a deployment with the 53rd Infantry Brigade of the Florida Army National Guard and handled courts-martial and other military legal cases. He also volunteers in his local community as an Assistant Scoutmaster in Sea Scout Ship 621 in Hollywood.

O’Sheehan earned a J.D. from the University of Miami School of Law, where he served as the Articles and Comments Editor of the Inter-American Law Review and was a member of the Moot Court Board. He also is a current member of the LAS and CCLA Joint Board of Directors.