About The Editor
Bob Kelley is a trial attorney and the founding partner of the Kelley Uustal Trial Law Firm in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. He is a frequent lecturer on the art and law of jury selection. In the course of his thirty years in the courtroom, Mr. Kelley has tried hundreds of cases – some lasting as long as six months, with some voir dire proceedings in high-profile cases themselves lasting for months. He has been lead counsel in a wide variety of cases representing individuals, families and consumers in personal injury, product liability, medical malpractice, and wrongful death lawsuits. Mr. Kelley was recognized by LawyersUSA as one of the top ten lawyers in the country in 2009 as a result of the $300 million dollar verdict he obtained in a landmark tobacco trial against Philip Morris USA. In 2013, he was selected by the Daily Business Review as the most effective personal injury lawyer in South Florida. In 2014 he represented Briana Aguirre, the whistle-blower nurse at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas, who alerted the country to the shortcomings of the facility and its staff during the Ebola crisis.
Mr. Kelley received his Juris Doctorate degree, cum laude, from Nova University in 1981. While in law school he served as Editor-in-Chief of the Nova Law Review, and as an Editor of the law school newspaper. He obtained a Bachelor of Science Degree in Physics and Astronomy, with a minor in mathematics, from Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee in 1977.
Mr. Kelley has been a member of The Florida Bar since 1981. He is a past President of the Broward County Trial Lawyers Association, and is a member of the American Association for Justice, the Broward County Bar Association, and the Trial Bar of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida. Mr. Kelley served on the board of directors of the Academy of Florida Trial Lawyers from 1994 through 1998. He was an EAGLE Advocate, and served on the AFTL sovereign immunity task force and membership committee. Mr. Kelley has lectured at seminars and meetings on trial practice for the Academy of Florida Trial Lawyers, the Florida Justice Association, the Broward County Trial Lawyers Association, the Brevard County Bar Association, Nova Southeastern University, and AIEG, the Attorneys Information Exchange Group. He is an “AV” rated lawyer by Martindale-Hubble.
Mr. Kelley is admitted to practice in all Courts of the State of Florida, as well as the United States District Court, Southern District of Florida, the United States Court of Appeals, Eleventh Circuit, and the Supreme Court of the United States. He has published articles in the Florida Bar Journal, the Journal of the Academy of Florida Trial Lawyers, the Nova Law Review, and the International Information Bulletin on Variable Stars. He is also a licensed United States Coast Guard Captain.
Mr. Kelley currently serves as a member on the Florida Bar’s Grievance Committee 17D, and has served in the past as a member of the Florida Bar Rules of Evidence Committee (1981-83), as member of the Florida Bar Fee Arbitration Committee (1995 – ), and as a member of the Seventeenth Judicial Circuit Professionalism Committee (1998 – ).He has served as a member of the Allocations Committee of the United Way of Broward County, and the Broward County YMCA. He is Vice-Chairman of the City of Fort Lauderdale Housing Authority. He has appeared on CBS 60 Minutes, The Today Show, Anderson Cooper 360 and numerous local news programs.