MIAMI – May 26, 2010 – Ira Leesfield – founder and managing partner – has been accepted as member to the Maritime Law Association (MLA). The MLA is an organization dedicated to advancing reforms in U.S. Maritime Law and its administration, promoting uniformity in its enactment and interpretation, furnishing a forum for discussion, and working in concert with other associations to bring about greater harmony in the shipping laws, regulations, and practices of different nations.
Ira Leesfield will join an elite membership roster of lawyers involved in maritime matters, judges active in matters involving admiralty issues, admiralty law professors, and non-lawyers who hold responsible positions and have rendered distinguished service in the maritime field. The MLA is an affiliate organization of the American Bar Association and is represented in the ABA House of Delegates. The MLA’s views are also frequently sought by Congress and government agencies as they pertain to maritime and admiralty law.
As managing partner, Leesfield specializes in cases involving serious personal injury, wrongful death, aviation, resort torts, cruise ship and maritime litigation, motor vehicle accidents, product and premises liability, negligent security, medical malpractice and nursing home litigation. Outside the courtroom, Mr. Leesfield has been involved in a number of professional and community organizations, including the American Bar Foundation, Anti-Defamation League, Miami Project for the Homeless, Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, and the Leesfield Family Foundation, which he founded to support groups that work to enrich and enhance the lives of the underprivileged throughout South Florida and the world.
Leesfield is a past president of the Academy of Florida Trial Lawyers and has been serving as Senior Florida Governor for the American Association of Justice (formerly named the Association of Trial Lawyers of America) for more than 20 years. He also served in the administrations of President Bill Clinton and Florida Governor Lawton Chiles. In 2008, the Melvin Belli Society, a charitable organization comprised of attorneys from around the world, named him president.