The History of Florida Law Firm Lanigan and Lanigan
Winter Park Florida attorney Eric Lanigan shares the final part of the Lanigan and Lanigan law firm story. The firm was practicing business and civil law, real estate 
litigation, securities fraud and investment losses when the firm decided to take on Florida bankruptcy.
Then, Florida’s economy changed and bankruptcy and foreclosure began to increase and become key practice areas for Eric Lanigan. Housing market problems began with adjustable rate mortgages–ARMs–interest rates that made monthly mortgages became unaffordable to homeowners. Mortgage workouts, also known as mortgage refinances, were offered to homeowners who wanted to hold onto their properties by refinancing and having some of the debt negotiated down. Mortgage workouts could sometimes be done as an alternative to having to file bankruptcy or defend a foreclosure.
Roddy Lanigan Joins Eric Lanigan in Law Firm in 2007
Eric Lanigan’s son, Roddy Lanigan passed the Florida Bar in 2007 and became a partner with Eric in Lanigan and Lanigan. The real estate market in Florida had begun a downturn that by 2008 was effecting families, individuals and businesses.
There was a gradual increase in bankruptcies filed through the Lanigan and Lanigan law firm. Originally, there were several bankruptcies per month, then several bankruptcies per week, then many bankruptcies came through the door. By 2008 the number of bankruptcies really exploded and the law firm by 2010 had begun to to focus on bankruptcy, foreclosure and mortgage workouts.
Bankruptcy, Foreclosure and Mortgage Workouts
That was the predominant area of my practice until that whole bankruptcy thing really exploded in 2007, 2008 and that has, I think for the benefit of our economy, that has slowed down to a great deal. The Florida real estate market hasn’t recovered quite to where it was before 2007 but it is certainly much closer to that. Since then I’ve been refocusing on a lot of the practice areas that I worked before: Securities litigation, real estate litigation.
Real Estate Litigation, Securities Litigation
In fact the first case that I ever tried by myself in a jury trial and I was probably 29, 28, 29, 30 years old, was a case where I actually defended a real estate firm who was sued by someone who bought a home. Sure enough they were in the home for a couple of months, and they decided well, hey, let’s take this wall down. And they discover that the wall was completely termite infested. So they sued the person who sold them the home, they sued the bug company, they sued the realtor, they basically sued everybody.
And in that case I represented the realtor and that was the first jury trial I ever had and it dealt with defective issues in a home. Undisclosed issues or problems that you couldn’t see until you actually pulled a wall down.
So I think that like most lawyers in my age group, you have a history like that, there are some things that you directed yourself towards. Other things just seemed to happen to you but it all works for the good.
Roddy Lanigan Aggressive Litigator
I’ve been practicing with my son now for seven or eight years, and I think that time flies when you’re having fun. And it’s been a real joy to watch him grow and 
progress. He has an inherently aggressive nature which suits him well for litigation type activities.
Like me he’s bumped into a few walls which is a good experience and all of which makes you a much better lawyer. And it’s been a great deal of fun for me and an energizing thing for me to be in the practice with a next generation to watch him develop and learn and actually become in many ways a better lawyer than myself as he learns and progresses.
And suddenly one day you wake up and you realize you’re learning things from him, you’re not so sure how much he’s learning from you anymore. And that’s a fun thing for a dad and it’s something I’ve really enjoyed.
And so that’s sort of the brief history of Eric Lanigan and the practice of law. I hope it helps to put things in context so when you watch some of these other videos and read these blogs and you wonder who is this guy? And where did he come from and how did he come to be standing in front of me doing this video you have a better understanding of all of those questions.
I appreciate your time, thank you for reading this and again, I’m Eric Lanigan of Lanigan and Lanigan attorneys in Winter Park, Florida.
