Boyd & Jenerette Welcomes Partner Suzanne F. Villa

November 16, 2021 by on News

Boyd & Jenerette is pleased to welcome Partner Suzanne Villa to the firm's Jacksonville office.

Suzanne F. Villa
Partner
Direct: 904.656.6996
Email: svilla@boydjen.com

Suzanne Villa specializes in auto liability, premises liability, general litigation and insurance defense.

The defense of motor vehicle claims is the bulk of Ms. Villa’s practice. Prior to joining Boyd and Jenerette, she was a Senior Trial Attorney for a large insurance company, defending motor vehicle claims in-house. As an in house attorney, Ms. Villa tried several personal injury cases and handled a heavy caseload. Ms. Villa was then promoted to Lead Counsel in 2012. Once promoted to Lead Counsel and throughout her tenure, Ms. Villa was responsible for the management of three in house offices in Jacksonville, Orlando and Ft. Myers. Ms. Villa supervised attorneys and staff in these offices and was responsible for training and mentoring newer attorneys on the handling of personal injury cases. In addition, Ms. Villa was responsible for the onboarding and offboarding of new employees, handling HR issues and assigning cases to attorneys throughout Florida.

In her role as Lead Counsel, Ms. Villa established defense “teams” throughout the state of Florida for 1st party property cases and Special Investigative Unit (SIU) cases. Ms. Villa established the first 1st party property team for house counsel in the state of Florida. Her responsibilities in this capacity included developing litigation protocols for house counsel, attending monthly home office property meetings, working as a liaison with the claims department, onboarding new attorneys to handle property and supervising the work product of the team.

As Lead Counsel of the Special Investigative Unit (SIU) team, Ms. Villa established training sessions between house counsel and the claims department. Training sessions were designed to brainstorm new ideas and to discuss SIU project cases, so that the cases were handled consistently throughout Florida. Her responsibilities included management of the SIU team of attorneys, liaising and meeting with claims regularly on SIU projects and assigning SIU cases to the various attorneys.

Ms. Villa got her start working as an Assistant State Attorney in Jacksonville. She tried over fifty cases while at the State Attorney’s Office. She was promoted to Division Chief of the Special Assault Unit in 2001, where she handled the most complex violent crimes against women and children. During her time at the State Attorney’s Office, Ms. Villa was also on the homicide rotation. During her tenure, she tried 1st and 2nd degree murder cases.

Ms. Villa has a passion for the art of negotiation. She is a certified Circuit Civil Mediator and, in the past, taught Alternative Dispute Resolution as an adjunct faculty professor at the Florida Coastal School of Law from 2009 to 2017.

In her spare time, Ms. Villa enjoys traveling to different countries, tennis and the beach. She has been a military spouse for over 25 years and has three boys ages, 23, 20 and 17.

Comprehensive Services

Many cases overlap several areas of law. As a full service law firm, we are able to recognize how one legal discipline impacts another. We work as a team on complex issues that require knowledge of a variety of state and federal laws. This multi-disciplinary approach allows clients to receive the large-firm advantage of access to multiple attorneys in a wide scope of practice areas as well as the hands-on customer service offered by a boutique law firm. In addition to civil litigation, employment law, workers’ compensation defense, commercial law, construction law and appeals, our firm also handles professional liability claims.

Our bilingual staff is available to assist with immigration matters, including consular and removal defenses.