Laurie Briggs is a partner at Searcy Law where she is a fearless advocate for her clients who have been harmed or have died in serious personal injury cases. Known for her tenacity, she has been at the firm her entire legal career, since 1994.
After nearly two decades of fighting tobacco companies on behalf of families, she now focuses her practice on automobile accidents, sexual assault matters, medical malpractice claims, premises liability slip and fall, wrongful death, and personal injury cases. She has been involved in mass tort litigation against a variety of Fortune 500 companies over the entirety of her legal career. In one of her most memorable cases, she was a member of the trial team that gained a settlement of more than $20 million against Honda on behalf of a paralyzed young girl.
Ms. Briggs has a B.S. from the State University of New York at Albany and an M.S. from SUNY Plattsburgh. She earned her law degree from Nova Southeastern University Shepard Broad College of Law and was admitted to The Florida Bar in 1993. She is admitted to practice in the District Courts across Florida, and, in 2012, was admitted to practice before the United States Supreme Court.
For more than a dozen years, Ms. Briggs has been a member of the Board of Directors of the Florida Justice Association. She has received multiple awards from the organization, including having been honored in 2018 with the B.J. Masterson Award for professionalism. In 2014, she was the first woman to ever receive its W. McKinley Smiley, Jr. Award for mentoring young lawyers. She received the Ruth Bader Ginsburg Award in 2022. Each year since the award’s inception in 2014, she has received the Cornerstone Award in recognition of her dedicated efforts in support of FJA’s membership development.
Ms. Briggs represents Florida in the national plaintiff’s attorney organization, the American Association for Justice, as a member of the Board of Governors. In 2014, she was a national finalist for the Trial Lawyers Care Award for dedication to charity work in her community. She was awarded the Roxanne Barton Conlin Award for her service to the AAJ in 2024. This year, she will receive the Richard D. Hailey Distinguished Service Award, which recognizes individuals who have been of special assistance to the president of the association.
In the past, she served on the Florida Bar Association’s Student Education and Admission to the Bar Committee and currently serves as co-chair of the Social Justice Committee of the Palm Beach County Justice Association. She is also a member of the American Bar Association, the Palm Beach County Bar Association, and the American Civil Liberties Union. She is a member of the Palm Beach County Women’s Chamber of Commerce.
Her commitment to the community extends beyond her legal career and professional organizations. A long-time advocate for women and families, Ms. Briggs served on the board of Friends of Foster Children of Palm Beach County, Inc. for 20 years, serves as president of her Homeowners’ Association, and as president of the firm’s charity, SDSBS Giving B.A.C.K.
Born and raised in New York, she shares life with her partner, Jessica, and they spend as much time as they can traveling.
Practice Areas
Publications & Presentations
Awards
