This is the story of how Jeffrey C. Regan founded Regan Atwood.  Jeff is the Managing Partner of Regan Atwood in Jacksonville, Florida, with offices in Orlando.

Grew Up in a Military Family

I had the good fortune of growing up in a military family. It was something that exposed me to many different cultures in different parts of the world.

My father was raised in the Great Depression and he was earned an appointment to the United States Naval Academy. From there, he took on a military career and as I said, it was fortunate for me because I got to meet so many different people and learned to be comfortable in a lot of different situations.

College at Emory University and Boston University

After I got out of high school, I went to college at Emory University in Atlanta. Having moved so much my whole life, I sort of had the wanderlust after about two years, so I transferred out to Boston University where I graduated.

Master’s in Criminology from Florida State

My thinking at the time was that I would go into law enforcement, or maybe into the criminology or criminal justice field. I earned a master’s degree in criminology from Florida State and actually worked in the real world for a couple of years as a parole officer.

That was certainly something that allowed me to see a different side of some people. Some of them were pretty bad people for that matter, but learning, again, how to deal with a type of person I hadn’t dealt with before.

Moved to Jacksonville After Law School

When law school was over, I came to Jacksonville, Florida. I’d gotten married in law school and my wife was from Jacksonville so we come back to her home to live.

Worked at Largest Law Firm in Jacksonville

I went to work at the time with the largest firm in Jacksonville. I spent the next 11 years at the same law firm thinking I’d be there for my entire career.

However, two of my partners that I was particularly close with, made the decision to leave and start a small firm. I got a phone call from one of those ex-partners one day inviting me out to lunch.

Joined Another Law Firm

We went to lunch and what happened next was, the question, “Would you like to join us? We’d really like you to come over.” And having given it some thought for five or six months, I made the decision, “I’m going to try it.”

The Practice Grew

It started off with a boom. I worked at it, I moved forward, and I developed more and more clients over the years. I really felt that a lot of my clients had been my real estate partners and business partners, because they came to me when their client was in trouble and getting into a lawsuit.

Florida Bar Board Certified in Construction Law

At that time, Florida was one of the few states in the country moving forward with certifying its lawyers. Florida could certify lawyers were specialists and experts in certain areas of the law through something called the Board Certification Process.

I sat for the inaugural Construction Law Board Certification Exam, I passed the exam and the peer review and was immediately certified in Construction Law.

Florida Bar Board Certified in Business Litigation

Looking back at the requirements, I discovered that, gosh, you had to try eight cases in the previous five years just to be able to sit for the Board Certification Exam in Business Litigation.

Well, I had done that, and so I sat for the Business Litigation exam, passed it immediately on the first sitting, and got certified in Business Litigation as well. So I am one of a few attorneys, comparatively speaking, throughout the state of Florida that has double board certifications and I’ve carried those proudly.

Complex Real Estate, Title, Torts Litigation and More

A big part of my practice is, of course, construction litigation and has been for a long time. But I have done very complex real estate litigation, complex title litigation. I’ve actually done a fair amount of securities fraud work and outside of the securities, I’ve done all kinds of business tort litigation, fraud cases, interference with business cases, interference with contract cases, just a whole multitude, some condemnation cases, inverse condemnation cases when the government is taking real property from you.

Broad Background, Multiple Solutions for Clients

I’ve had a broad background and have tried any number of cases in different areas, and it brings with me a way of looking at problems that’s not just from one angle, but from multiple angles, from multiple different disciplines in order to get to a true solution for my client.

Founded Regan Atwood

In 2006, I became Managing Partner and Founding Shareholder of Regan Atwood, P.A. I brought in partner F. Eugene Atwood in 2013. Gene is Florida Bar board certified in construction law and licensed to practice law in Georgia. Gene handles construction litigation, business litigation, real estate litigation, and arbitration of disputes.

Charles R. Walker, Jr., joined me and Gene as a partner in 2015. Florida Bar board certified in construction law, Chad handles construction litigation, business litigation, and real estate litigation. Chad works in the Regan Atwood Orlando office.

I brought in associate attorney Judson C. Bradley in 2015. Judson is involved in our construction litigation, business litigation, and real estate litigation cases.

Chad A. Dean joined our firm in 2019 to work on cases including real estate and title litigation, homeowner and association litigation, commercial litigation, and real estate transactions.