Litigation Attorney, Auto and Trucking Defense

Litigation Attorney, Auto and Trucking Defense | Tampa, FL | $125,000 to $200,000 | Auto (Trucking and Transportation)

Eighteen wheels, a driver's hours of service log, a broker who swears it only arranged the load, and a plaintiff's firm that hired a reconstructionist before the tow truck arrived.

Trucking cases move fast and the stakes are high. The defense lawyers who do well in them are organized, quick and unafraid of technical evidence.

I'm Ryan Jaiswal at Distinct Recruitment, and I'm hiring an auto and trucking defense attorney in Tampa for an insurance defense firm.

On your desk:

• Commercial vehicle and trucking claims, alongside standard auto defense files

• Rapid response work: scene inspections, preservation letters, ECM and ELD data

• FMCSA regulations, driver qualification files, hours of service and maintenance records

• Depositions of drivers, safety directors, reconstructionists and medical experts

• Hearings, mediations and trial

On your resume:

• Florida Bar membership

• 2+ years of litigation experience

• Auto defense experience. Trucking experience is a plus, but not a must if you understand the evidence and want to learn the regulations

On the offer:

• $125,000 to $200,000, a range that's wide on purpose so experienced trucking lawyers are paid properly

• Hybrid in Tampa

• 1,950 billable hours

On the bigger picture:

Experience scales here. More senior attorneys take the catastrophic exposure files, run the rapid response, try cases first chair and build relationships with transportation clients who come back again and again. That's the work that makes a lawyer hard to replace, and in my view it's one of the clearest routes to partnership in insurance defense.

Exposure is the point. You won't be a name on the pleadings while someone else does the interesting work. You'll be at the scene, in the deposition room and on your feet in court.

On why it matters:

Trucking defense is a practice where reputations travel. Carriers and transportation companies remember the lawyer who got to the scene first and called the case right. Build that reputation early and it follows you for the rest of your career.

Trucking lawyers tend to like quick answers, so here they are.