Joel D. Eaton, Podhurst Orseck. Photo: J. Albert DIaz/ALM.

Miami Podhurst Orseck appellate attorney Joel Eaton might be 76, but that doesn't stop him from flying to meetings and oral arguments in his four-seat, single propeller plane—his preferred mode of transportation since serving in the Vietnam War.

Eaton earned his wings in 1968, after graduating with a bachelor's degree from Yale University through a U.S. Navy scholarship. As a fighter pilot, he flew 91 combat missions over Vietnam, and another 59 over Laos after a year's break. They were the scariest years of his life.

"Every now and then, they would shoot one of us down," Eaton said. "You had to be alert. A lot of it was out of your control. Landing on an aircraft carrier at night was pretty scary, too."

But now, Eaton said, it's rather liberating to fly himself from point A to B.

"The government spent all that money teaching me to be a crackerjack airplane pilot, so I figured I might as well use it," Eaton said. "I fly at least two or three times a month just to keep current."

Lt. Junior Grade Eaton preparing for launch on the USS America in 1968. Courtesy photo.

One of the planes from Eaton's squadron became a static display at a North Carolina aviation museum, where he and his former unit members staged a reunion several years ago. There, they resolved to add to an important name to the side of that plane: Lt. Commander Scott Greiling, who died on one of their tours.

"He was a very affable guy. Always had a smile for everyone," Eaton said. "He was a capable aviator and he was very well-liked. It was a sad day when we lost him, but the war and the missions went on, never slowed down. That was life in the combat zone."

Eaton's career choices are reminiscent of his father's. Joseph Eaton flew in World War II before becoming a state senator, a Miami-Dade circuit judge and, ultimately, a federal judge in the Southern District of Florida.

And he was the Bill of Rights' greatest fan, the way Eaton tells it.

"My dad thought the first 10 amendments to the U.S. Constitution were the best documents that have ever been written," Eaton said. "They protect minority rights from majority rule, and we discussed them over many dinners at the dinner table, so I was fairly influenced by that."

While a senator for Miami-Dade County, Eaton's father introduced a bill to desegregate Florida schools. But Eaton's high school remained segregated, as that bill garnered just two votes.

"He was a little ahead of his time," Eaton said.

A Podhurst Orseck attorney through and through, Eaton joined the firm as a Harvard University law school graduate in 1975 after working as a pilot instructor. The firm came highly recommended by his father, since it handled plenty of aviation accident cases.

'You sure do write very long briefs'

Eaton began as a trial lawyer but changed lanes when Podhurst's co-founder, Robert Orseck, tragically drowned on vacation in Israel, leaving behind dozens of open appellate files.

He's since handled more than a thousand appeals, and appeared regularly before the Florida Supreme Court, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth and Eleventh Circuits, and the U.S. Supreme Court.

As a young lawyer, Eaton "figured that the judges didn't know a thing about the subject I was writing about," and used his briefs to collect as many authorities as possible to persuade them—until one morning in the Florida Supreme Court's coffee room he discovered he'd become a notorious brief writer.

"I can distinctly remember Justice Ray Ehrlich coming up to me and smiling, and saying, 'Joel, you sure do write very long briefs,' " Eaton said. " I got the message. I have learned over the years that shorter briefs are probably more effective."

Eaton gets his satisfaction from contributing to the law as it develops, often by making waves with Florida tort cases.

In one lawsuit, he represented a teenage passenger who sued Ford Motor Co. after his friend crashed into a tree and the car's fuel pump failed, igniting a fire. The plaintiff lost three limbs—something Eaton argued wouldn't have happened if the fuel pump hadn't been defective.

The Florida Supreme Court agreed, finding injured consumers could recover damages over product defects, regardless of how they came about. But the Florida legislature has since overruled that decision.

The state court also agreed with Eaton in Auburn Machine Works Co. v. Jones, finding manufacturers should be held liable for obviously dangerous products. Before that case, companies could defend their products with the "open and obvious hazard doctrine," which shifted blame to the plaintiff.

Whatever the outcome, Eaton takes on the cases that feel right.

One client, a rape victim, sued the Florida Star newspaper after it accidentally published her name, in a case that went to the U.S. Supreme Court, which, in Eaton's book, "is not a friendly place for tort victims." The justices found the First Amendment outweighed the victim's privacy rights.

'Nobody even questions it'

When former Third District Court of Appeal Judge Philip Hubbard was on the bench, Eaton was one of the two best appellate lawyers he ever saw. While Eaton's competition, Sam Daniels, wrote shorter briefs, Eaton's writing and oral arguments always had a compelling narrative flow.

"Younger lawyers would learn a great deal from listening to his oral arguments," Hubbard said.

Eaton has written for numerous legal journals, co-founded the American Academy of Appellate Lawyers, served two terms as a member of the Florida Supreme Court Committee on Standard Jury Instructions for civil cases, and chaired the Florida Bar's Appellate Court Rules Committee.

Aaron Podhurst, a founding partner of the firm, described Eaton as "sort of quiet" and famously honest.

"If he says something in oral argument, nobody even questions it. That's how good his credibility is," Podhurst said. "If he says it's in the record, it's in the record."

Joel D. Eaton, Podhurst Orseck. Photo: J. Albert DIaz/ALM.

Eaton made a point of encouraging his sons to get their private pilot certificates while in high school.

"It teaches them life lessons," Eaton said. "It says, 'You can do really hard things if you work at it.' "

If Eaton isn't in the sky or the courtroom, he's probably cutting, shaping and joining in his woodworking shop—where most of the furniture in his house was built.

And for now, at least, he's enjoying himself too much to retire.

" The law is extremely complicated, and the judges and justices are probably overwhelmed from time to time by the complexity of it. They're human, they have biases, they make mistakes," Eaton said. "It's my function to bring some clarify to the process of appellate review to persuade and hopefully, to help the judges reach a correct result. I don't always succeed, but I keep trying."

 

Joel D. Eaton

Born: October 1943, Miami

Spouse: Mary Eaton

Children: Douglas, Darryl and David Eaton

Education: J.D., Harvard University; B.A., Yale University

Experience: Podhurst Orseck, 1975–present

 

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