About Us
The Florida Legal Foundation is a Florida-based non-profit law firm that exists to participate in matters of interest to the people of the State of Florida.
The guiding principles of the Florida Legal Foundation are the advancement of limited government, separation of powers, rule of law, individual rights, free enterprise, and personal responsibility.
We are Florida focused. We litigate in the state and federal trial and appellate courts in the State of Florida to defend the right of all persons to maximize their personal freedom consistent with the obligation of each to respect the rights of the other in a free society. We exist to stand athwart unlawful encroachments on the freedom of the citizens of this state, whatever their source.
We are headquartered in Florida and devote our resources solely to the defense and protection of the rights and interests of the citizens of the State of Florida.
Areas Of Interest
We challenge local government infringement of the right to own, use, and dispose of one's own private property, including enhanced use of Florida's Bert Harris Act.
Private Property
We challenge state and local aggrandizement of the regulatory state, including state pre-emption of local rules and regulations.
Economic Liberty
We support the independence of charter schools, the establishment of micro-schools, homeschooling, and the re-establishment of opportunity scholarships (school vouchers) in Florida.
Educational Choice
We support a fair and reasonable system of recovery for those who suffer personal injury, oppose excessive verdicts, and promote personal responsibility.
Civil Justice
We support equality under the law: Persons should be judged as individuals, not based upon immutable characteristics.
Individual Liberty
We support freedom of commercial speech and free expression in all venues, especially in the academy.
Freedom of Expression
We support current and accurate voter roles, proof of citizenship and residency requirements for voter registration, and voter verification identification at the polls.
Election Integrity
Recent Cases
Meet Our Team
Frank A. Shepherd
Founder & President
Paul Bailey
Attorney at Law
Frank A. Shepherd is the President of the Florida Legal Foundation. Mr. Shepherd is a former appellate court judge with more than 50 years of experience in the legal profession. There is nary an area of legal practice in the State of Florida in which he has not been involved, whether it be commercial, product liability, insurance coverage, class actions, private property rights, land use, municipal law, or state and federal constitutional issues. He has litigated at all levels of the courts of this state from the Florida state trial and appellate courts to the federal district courts and United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. For more than 13 years from 2003 to 2017, Mr. Shepherd served on the Florida’s Third District Court of Appeal, rising to the level of Chief Judge during the course of his service. Judge Shepherd wrote more than 500 signed opinions in all areas of the law, civil and criminal, including areas in which the Florida Legal Foundation exists to participate. Before that, he served as the Senior Attorney in charge of the Florida Office of Pacific Legal Foundation, the oldest public interest law firm of its type in the United States. Mr. Shepherd is also a life-long Floridian. After graduating from the University of Florida, obtaining a graduate degree from the University of Massachusetts, and a law degree from the University of Michigan Law School, Mr. Shepherd engaged in the private practice of law in Miami, Florida for more than 19 years at the same law firm. His “bosses” during those nearly two decades were practicing lawyers who served in World War II in Patton’s Army or the Army Air Corps dropping bombs over Germany – members of what has more recently been called “The Greatest Generation.” The values inculcated in Mr. Shepherd during those years – hard-work, integrity, and fearlessness in advocating for a client’s interest, even if that interest was unpopular—form much of the core and inspiration that has guided him through his personal and professional life.
Paul Bailey grew up in Fort Walton Beach, Florida. After high school, Paul attended Pensacola Christian College where he graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Pre-Law. He received his juris doctor degree in 2013 from Regent University School of Law. Following graduation, Paul clerked for two years for Chief Judge Frank Shepherd at the Third District Court of Appeal in Miami, Florida. After his clerkship in Miami, Paul returned to North Florida and joined the Welton Law Firm in Crestview, Florida as an associate attorney. In 2019, he became an owner/shareholder in the firm. At the Welton Law Firm, Paul engages in the “general practice” of law, including trial and appellate practice in both the civil and criminal areas, probate, guardianship, estate planning, business law, real property law and domestic relations injunctions. Paul has over ten years of legal experience and is licensed to practice law in the State of Florida and the United States District Court for the Northern District of Florida. In addition to his legal practice, Paul is heavily engaged in higher education for the State of Florida. He has been an adjunct professor at Pensacola Christian College since 2020, teaching classes in criminal law and moot court. Additionally, on January 6, 2025, Governor Ron DeSantis appointed Paul to the Board of Trustees for the University of West Florida. Paul holds a certification as a firearms instructor from the National Rifle Association and teaches the safe use of firearms. He has a strong interest in Second Amendment advocacy. He is married and has three children.
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