Michael E. Dean is a native Floridian raised in Marion County. A graduate of Forest High School, he earned his Bachelor of Public Administration from the University of Mississippi (Ole Miss) in 1993. Michael received his Juris Doctor from Stetson University College of Law in 1997 and returned to Ocala to practice law with his family’s firm. With over two decades of experience, Michael has been a dedicated advocate for clients, focusing on personal injury and wrongful death cases, medical malpractice, products liability, as well as probate and trust litigation. He is committed to ensuring that those seriously injured receive the just compensation they deserve. Michael is admitted to practice in all Florida courts and the United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida.

Area of Practice: Mass Tort Diandra “Fu” Debrosse is a fearless plaintiffs’ attorney who fights unapologetically for individuals and public entities injured by wrongful conduct, whether by defective medical devices, drugs, or cosmetics, environmental contamination, corporate misconduct, or civil rights abuse. Nationally recognized as a powerhouse in mass torts, class actions, products liability, discrimination, and sexual assault claims, Fu has recovered nearly $1 billion in damages for her clients. Blending her exceptional talents in multidistrict and mass tort litigation with state-of-the-art tools, Fu uses sophisticated modeling to identify technology-based and other forms of discrimination, including environmental injustice, defective devices, and unfair insurance practices. As the managing partner of DiCello Levitt’s Birmingham office, co-chair of the firm’s Mass Torts division, and co-chair of its Civil and Human Rights Litigation Practice Group, she holds prominent leadership positions in numerous multidistrict litigations. She is Co-Lead Counsel in the massive products liability multidistrict litigation against two of the world’s largest infant formula manufacturers, Abbott Laboratories and Mead Johnson, and in the MDL against L’Oréal and other makers of disease-causing hair relaxer products marketed primarily to Black and Latina women. Fu also holds leadership positions in several other significant MDLs, including the litigation against Chevron and Syngenta for their marketing and sale of the disease-causing herbicide paraquat, as well as the social media MDL in which the plaintiffs are seeking damages against Meta Platforms, TikTok, YouTube, and others for creating defective products that encourage addictive behavior, resulting in various emotional and physical harms, including death. Fu also leads many systematic civil rights and sexual assault cases; represents the City of Baltimore in legal actions addressing the catastrophic of the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse; and represents dozens of Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, Maryland, and North Dakota counties and a number of cities and counties in Maryland, Delaware, and other jurisdictions in two separate prescription opiate MDLs. Fu was recognized by Forbes as one of the top 200 attorneys in the United States in 2024, and The National Law Journal named her to its 2023 list of Elite Women of the Plaintiffs Bar. In 2022, 2023, and 2024, Lawdragon recognized Fu as one of the 500 Leading Consumer Lawyers. Chambers USA 2022 ranked the firm’s Litigation: Mainly Plaintiffs team among the top five in Alabama, and the Birmingham Business Journal honored Fu with a Best of the Bar Award and Who’s Who in Law recognitions in 2021, 2022, and 2023. Fu is a founding member of Shades of Mass, an organization dedicated to encouraging the appointment of Black and brown attorneys in national mass tort actions. She is a board member of Public Justice and the Southern Trial Lawyers Association. Fu previously served as a hearing officer for the Alabama State Bar, held leadership roles in the American Association for Justice and the Alabama Access to Justice Commission, and acted as Alabama State Bar vice president and commissioner. Fu is fluent in French and Haitian Creole and functional in Spanish. Her steadfast pursuit of justice is motivated in large part by her experience as a mother of two extraordinary young girls.

Area of Practice: Civil Litigation, Corporate Law, Labor Law, Aviation Law & Construction Law Carmel J. Decker is a Partner with Harwood Lloyd, practicing in its Insurance Defense Litigation and Commercial Litigation Departments. Ms. Decker concentrates her practice in employment law, civil rights violations, construction law, corporate and contract law and insurance law. Ms. Decker’s employment law practice includes complex litigation in state and federal courts involving wrongful termination, sexual harassment/hostile work environment, discrimination, retaliation, breach of contract, corporate and business law, common-law claims, ERISA, CEPA, the New Jersey Law against Discrimination, the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, hiring practices, restrictive covenants, employee handbooks and workplace torts. Ms. Decker represents companies, public entities and public employees in matters involving civil rights violations, negligence and police conduct. Ms. Decker also handles matters involving directors’ and officers’ liability, particularly employment and civil rights disputes. Ms. Decker lectures on employment matters including sexual harassment/hostile work environment discrimination, hiring practices and litigation of employment issues. Ms. Decker drafts employee handbooks, counsels clients on risk management and regulatory compliance and provides preventive counseling to employers on employment issues. Ms. Decker also appears in matters before the New Jersey Division on Civil Rights and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Ms. Decker’s construction law practice includes complex multi-party litigation involving claims of construction defect, professional liability of architects and engineers and construction site accidents. As part of her construction defect practice, Ms. Decker handles matters involving claims of deficiencies in construction and design, latent construction defects, building code violations, breach of contract and insurance. Ms. Decker’s construction law practice encompasses matters arising on public, private, commercial and residential projects. Ms. Decker received her B.S., cum laude, in Business Administration from Montclair State College in 1978 and her J.D. from Seton Hall University School of Law in 1981. Ms. Decker is admitted to practice before the courts of the State of New Jersey (1982), the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey (1982) and the courts of the State of New York (1989). Ms. Decker is a member of the Federal Bar Association, the Bergen County Bar Association and the Professional Liability Underwriting Society.

John P. Dee is an Attorney at Roach, Lennon and Brown whose practice areas include estates and trusts, tax, franchise law, elder law and health care. He has achieved an AV® Preeminent™ Rating from Martindale-Hubbell®.