South Florida attorney Jesse Panuccio's action-packed resume reads a bit like a bucket list titled, "Things to do before you're 40," but he insists a lot of it happened by chance.

Having already served as general counsel to Florida Gov. Rick Scott, run a state agency and held the third-ranking position in the U.S. Department of Justice, Panuccio is now a partner at Boies Schiller Flexner.

"It always looks like a plan in hindsight," Panuccio said. "You kind of prepare yourself for that luck. It's always a mix of the wheel coming up on your number, but also being willing to say 'Yes' and take a chance."

While some say the Trump administration is "so controversial," Panuccio counters that every administration is controversial with half of the country, and government is always high stakes, fraught with emotion and strongly held views.

"We're a politically divided country, and we always have been, going back to the founding of our country," Panuccio said. "My view has always been, you need to go into these jobs being able to look yourself in the mirror every night, and say you feel you acted ethically, appropriately and legally, and if people disagree with you, that's OK."

Panuccio and his sister grew up in a small New Jersey suburb, where their father's side of the family was Italian and their mother's side Jewish, and "The short version is we ate very well."

As soon as the law allowed it, teenage Panuccio worked the front desk of a local dry cleaner, owned by a resolute woman with arthritic hands who demonstrated all he needed to know about hard work.

After Harvard Law School, Panuccio clerked for Judge Michael W. McConnell at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit, whose love for the outdoors made that year in Utah a "Western adventure," complete with 10-mile hikes, ski trips and national park tours.

At boutique Washington, D.C., firm Cooper & Kirk — the same place U.S. Sens. Ted Cruz and Tom Cotton cut their teeth on litigation — Panuccio's first federal trial came six months into the job.

Welcome to Tallahassee

When President Barack Obama won the 2008 election, Panuccio watched his law school buddies do the kind of switcheroo that only happens in politics, as half left the Bush administration for private practice and the other half left the private sector for the Obama administration.

Then came a curious call from a law school friend-turned-campaign finance manager.

"She said, 'Hey, I'm working this campaign down in Florida with this businessman Rick Scott, and he may well take this whole thing. And if he does, you should maybe put your resume into the transition team,' " Panuccio said.

Sure enough, Scott won the race for governor as an outsider without a political entourage. Then-30-year-old Panuccio, meanwhile, had never been to Tallahassee but seemed like a great fit for Scott's deputy general counsel.

" I rented a house online," Panuccio said. "I kind of took a flier on this unknown thing and it turned out to be hugely important for my career."

It happened to be the most exciting legal job around, in Panuccio's view, since Scott got sued a lot during his first term.

Panuccio arrived a couple weeks before general counsel Charles Trippe Jr., who was served with a lawsuit hours into his first day. Scott had rejected federal money for a high-speed rail project — a move two senators challenged in state court.

So, Panuccio turned to the man he'd just met and said, "Don't worry, Charlie, I got this."

"I wrote the brief overnight and we filed it on time the next day," Panuccio said. "That was my introduction to the Tallahassee legal world."

South Florida attorney Jesse Panuccio, left, with former Florida Gov. Rick Scott, right, during a Jan. 23, 2015 press conference in Broward County. Courtesy photo.

By day, Panuccio and Trippe answered legal questions and worked on judicial nominations. By night, they were litigators, editing briefs.

Scott sought talented lawyers who'd stay on the bench long term and shared his judicial philosophy, according to Panuccio, who advised him on dozens of judicial appointments across Florida. But there was one make-or-break quality.

"If they didn't have a reputation for a good demeanor and working well in a courtroom or in their law firm, that could be disqualifying," Panuccio said.

Things escalated quickly from there. By 31, Panuccio was Scott's general counsel, and by 32 he was running the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity.

For that reason, Panuccio tells anyone worried that a job offer might be a step down, "Go in and don't worry about the title." What's more important, he says, is working hard.

"You start with some lowly title now," Panuccio said. "Two years from now, you could be in a place you never expected."

A familiar storm

Though Panuccio was "pretty burnt out" by 2016, his old boss Cooper managed to convince him to join Ted Cruz's presidential campaign.

Months later, when a wild card businessman who'd never been a politician won the election, Panuccio's phone rang again. Cooper was advising future Attorney General Jeff Sessions, staffing up for President-elect Donald Trump's administration.

"I saw a lot of parallels between my two experiences," Panuccio said. "Obviously, the DOJ experience was on a much grander scale and the issues were much larger, but I actually felt fairly equipped for it because I had been in that kind of maelstrom before, that kind of storm, in terms of a new administration setting itself up, getting sued, not having all the personnel in place and having acting officials trying to make decisions quickly."

Jesse Panuccio, Principal Deputy Associate Attorney General of the United States. Courtesy photo.

Panuccio became Associate Attorney General Rachel Brand's principal deputy, and took the reins when she left for Walmart in 2018.

"Jesse is the kind of lawyer you want by your side when you're tackling what seems like an impossibly complex legal problem — especially where it has a policy or political aspect," Brand said. "He's not only an excellent lawyer, but has sound judgment on the extra-legal aspects of a problem and is a calm source of counsel in a crisis."

Panuccio oversaw litigation and grant-making and helped implement multiple reforms, including ending third-party payments in settlements and establishing guidelines for dismissal of False Claims Act cases and consent decrees with state and local government.

Cooper said he recommended Panuccio because his combination of talent and hard work produces "one heck of a powerful result."

Not only is he "a fun guy to have a beer with," Cooper says Panuccio is a workhorse who "genuinely wants to test his own beliefs, instincts and impressions by carefully and considerately listening to the input and views of others."

Above the Law founder David Lat can't remember how he met Panuccio, because he seems to somehow know everyone in D.C. and Florida.

Panuccio is usually "asking the question that you hadn't gotten to yet but you were about to get to,"  according to Lat, who described a confidence that doesn't come off as arrogant. He sees Panuccio as a master crisis manager for "clients with big headaches that are multifaceted."

"I would describe him as a rising star, but in some ways he's already risen," Lat said. "I think part of the reason he's been given so much responsibility is because he's willing to take so much responsibility."

Because Panuccio demands so much from himself, Lat says he's not the laid-back, "Oh, don't worry about that" type.

"He does want to worry about that because he wants to make sure it doesn't become a problem," Lat said.

For Panuccio, lawyering for government officials was a thrill.

"The issues are often on the front page. They matter to a lot of people," Panuccio said. "The best lawyers in government are able to think about the political piece, which isn't to say they make legal decisions based on that, but they understand that the actors they're working for are motivated by or constrained by the need to answer to an electorate. You have to be able to account for that in the advice you give and the strategies you lay out."

At Boies Schiller, Panuccio will handle high stakes litigation and appeals in Fort Lauderdale and Washington, D.C.

Jesse Panuccio

Born: November 1980, Belleville, New Jersey

Education: Harvard Law School, J.D., 2006; Duke University, B.A., 2003

Experience: Partner, Boies Schiller Flexner, 2019-present; Acting U.S. Associate Attorney General and Principal Deputy Associate Attorney General of the United States, 2017-2019; Partner, Foley & Lardner, 2016-2017; Executive Director, Florida Department of Economic Opportunity, 2013-2016; General Counsel and Deputy General Counsel to Florida Gov. Rick Scott, 2011-2012; Associate, Cooper & Kirk PLLC, 2007-2011; Law Clerk to Judge Michael W. McConnell, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit, 2006-2007.

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