Leslie Kroeger, Cohen Milstein, Palm Beach Gardens. Courtesy photo

Leslie Kroeger isn't bashful about her enthusiasm for her area of expertise.

The Palm Beach Gardens-based attorney serves as the co-chair of Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll's complex tort litigation practice group and was recently sworn in as president of the Florida Justice Association for 2019 through 2020. She's been a member of the consumer advocacy group for nearly two decades, and once she starts talking about her time with the association and its pursuit, it's easy to see why Kroeger's peers chose her to take the helm.

“The mission of the FJA is to strengthen and uphold the civil justice system,” the Cohen Milstein partner said. “We look to do everything we can to make sure that citizens of Florida are protected, that citizens have access to the courtroom if they need it, and that individuals are on equal footing, to the extent that it's possible, with large corporations or insurance companies.”

Kroeger doesn't take a moment to pause when cataloging the association's myriad undertakings, which include educating attorneys and law students on the procedures and state of Florida's civil justice system, and lobbying the Florida Legislature for victims' rights.

“I feel passionate about it,” she said. “I think it is an amazing mission that we have, [although] it's not always easy.”

Kroeger's path to assuming leadership of the more than 50-year-old organization has been far from straightforward. It has taken the New Orleans native everywhere from Tennessee and Alabama to all across Florida. Although she's close to reaching her 20th anniversary of residing and working in the West Palm Beach area, Kroeger's career hasn't always been marked with the certainty she enjoys in her current home and practice. However, the resolve to work in the legal profession, regardless of the specifics, has been a constant of Kroeger's life from an early age.

“I think high school really had made that decision for me,” she said. After becoming involved with a legal explorer program, Kroeger found herself fascinated with the world of litigation. “I didn't have any lawyers in my family, but, I really took to [the program] and it was really formative for me. They got us into the courtroom, explained all different types of law and trial law, and that set me on the path there.”

Kroeger pursued her undergraduate studies at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville before enrolling at Samford University's Cumberland School of Law in Birmingham, Alabama.

“I finished my four-year degree in three years because I knew at that point I wanted to go to law school,” she said.

As a law student, Kroeger interned with a criminal court judge in addition to working alongside a former district attorney now employed with the public defender's office outside of Birmingham. She said both experiences were pivotal in expanding her understanding of how courtrooms operate as well as how attorneys succeed within them.

“Not much of law school has anything to do with real life, and certainly not being in a courtroom unless you go through the trial advocacy program,” she said, adding her criminal court clerkship proved invaluable for explaining “courtroom procedures, picking a jury, fairness and unfairness, and just how a bias can creep in.”

No linear route

Once Kroeger earned her J.D., she opted to take her talents even further south.

“I came down to Florida literally ⁠— I think ⁠— the next day after graduation,” she said, adding she's stayed in the Sunshine State ever since. Following a stint as an assistant public defender in Brevard County, Kroeger decided she wanted to take her career in a different direction.

“When I was a public defender I loved what I did, but it seemed to me that the people and the office who were making those charging decisions really had a much bigger effect on the victims of the crime, if there was one, and those who were charged,” she said.

Kroeger headed south once more to clerk for then-Miami-Dade Circuit  Judge Juan Ramirez Jr., who would later become chief of Florida's Third District Court of Appeal. One year later, she joined the Miami-Dade State Attorney's Office as an assistant state attorney.

“I did that for three years, fulfilled my commitment with Ms. Fernandez-Rundle's office, and that was a wonderful experience,” she said.

But after grappling with financial considerations and her latent ambition for change, Kroeger soon changed gears and entered private practice as a defense attorney with Wicker Smith O'Hara McCoy & Ford 's Tampa office, where she specialized in medical malpractice and nursing home defense work.

“My partner there, John Hamilton, was a wonderful mentor and really taught me a lot about how to look at a case,” she said, adding Hamilton evaluated cases from a plaintiff's perspective as equally as he did the defense's. Just a few years later, Kroeger made the switch to plaintiffs work, the field she's remained in ever since. After making partner at attorney Ted Leopold's firm Leopold Law, she retained the title once the office merged with Cohen Milstein in February 2014.

Kroeger admitted she's considered how things might have been different had she taken a more linear route.

“I've wondered about the trajectory of going straight into plaintiffs work,” she said. “But I really think spending a couple of years doing defense gave me a true perspective on what that is like and how insurance companies assess, how adjusters work. … And I think it made me a better plaintiffs lawyer because I understand how to deconstruct a case, and to deconstruct you have to build a tighter case.”

Kroeger intends to put her skills to good use in her new role as FJA president. She stressed that increasing the organization's membership and diversity are among her top priorities, as is amplifying the group's message among litigators and Florida's general discourse.

“There seems to be a real propaganda machine that is attempting to work against people who've been victims, and we fight that every day,” she said, citing interest group campaigns to institute additional and blanket caps for damages as well as arbitration agreements in the place of jury trials.

“[Florida citizens] should be aware that just because someone says Florida is a judicial hellhole does not mean it is,” Kroeger added, calling the notion “insulting” to juries, attorneys and judges alike. “[Plaintiffs attorneys] have to go against the propaganda that if someone is in the courtroom they just must be looking for money, or the attorney that represents them must be a greedy trial lawyer. It's horrible but it's a reality, and we understand why it's done.”

Kroeger's advice: Try to change the mindset.

“If you're coming in and some of the jury already believe that, than there is an inherent bias in favor of the defendant, in favor of the corporation, in favor of the insurance company,” she said. “So we work really hard to educate and draw people's attention to: 'Hey, people sometimes get hurt, people sometimes are killed, and it's not their fault. And if it's someone else's fault … then you need to pay attention and take a look at that.'”

Kroeger said she's ardent in her commitment to continuing the FJA's legacy of consumer and victim advocacy, and wants to ensure she leaves behind a platform upon which others can build.

“We're looking at this system and how to make it cleaner and better for everyone who is using it, and everyone who wants or needs to use it,” she said. “The people who are coming behind me are going to keep doing that, and we are hopeful it's going to go on for as long as necessary to keep a check and balance.”

Leslie M. Kroeger

Born: July 1969, New Orleans

Spouse: Chad Kroeger

Children: Taylor and Jake

Education: Cumberland School of Law, J.D., 1993; University of Tennessee at Knoxville, B.S., 1990

Experience: Partner and current co-chair of the Complex Tort Litigation practice, Cohen Milstein, 2014 – Present; Partner, Leopold Law 2008-2014; Associate, William S. Frates, II, 2007–2008; Associate, Wallace B. McCall, 2001–2007; Associate, Wicker Smith, 1999–2001; Assistant State Attorney, Eleventh Judicial Circuit, Miami-Dade County, 1996–1999; Judicial Law Clerk for Honorable Juan Ramirez, Jr., Eleventh Judicial Circuit Court, Miami-Dade County, 1995-1996; Assistant Public Defender, Eighteenth Judicial Circuit, Brevard County, 1994.