Scott Hawkins
Scott Hawkins, chairman of Jones Foster, is a Florida Bar Board Certified Business Litigation attorney and past president of The Florida Bar (2011-2012). Mr. Hawkins represents public and private companies in a variety of industries, including technology, medical, environmental, real estate, land use, insurance, and military. He focuses his practice in commercial litigation with an emphasis on intellectual property, trade secret disputes, trademark infringement, covenants not to compete, securities, real estate litigation, and claims arising under ERISA Plans. He also regularly serves as an attorneys’ fees counsel and expert witness and has been appointed by the courts as a receiver, trustee, statutory investigator (corporate derivative disputes), mediator, and special master given his experience, ethics, and judgment.
Mr. Hawkins graduated from the University of Florida in 1980 with a B.S.B.A. degree in Economics, with honors, and earned his J.D. degree from the University of Florida College of Law in 1983. He also earned an MBA from the University of Edinburgh in Scotland where he was a Rotary Foundation International Scholar. On April 12, 2015, the U.S. Supreme Court cited Mr. Hawkins’ University of Florida Law Review article entitled, Perspective on Judicial Merit Retention in Florida, in its opinion of Williams-Yulee v. Florida Bar.
A proud University of Florida graduate, Mr. Hawkins is a past president of UF’s College of Law Alumni Council and the National Alumni Association as well as a former chair of the University of Florida Foundation. He serves on the UF Law Center Association’s Board of Trustees, for which he is a past chair, and on the Leadership Council for UF’s College of Medicine.
Mr. Hawkins is actively involved in the Economic Council of Palm Beach County, serving as a member of its Board of Directors since 2017 and as chair of several committees, including the Council’s Political Action Committee. He has been a trustee of Palm Beach Atlantic University for the past 30 years, serving as chair of the Board of Trustees from 2013-2015. Additionally, he has held significant leadership roles in bar organizations, including as president of the Palm Beach County Bar Association (2000-2001) and its Young Lawyers Section as well as a member of the Florida Bar Board of Governors (2004-2012).
Mr. Hawkins has received numerous awards and distinctions, including the University of Florida Levin College of Law’s Distinguished Service Award in 2019, the Palm Beach County Bar Association’s Judge Edward Rogers Diversity Award in 2016 and its Sidney A. Stubbs Professionalism Award in 2014. Mr. Hawkins was recognized in 2023 by Florida Trend magazine as an inaugural Legal Elite Notable – Managing Partner, one of only 90 managing partners selected from leading law firms across Florida, and was named by the magazine as a Legal Elite in commercial litigation. He is consistently selected by his peers for inclusion in The Best Lawyers in America in numerous categories including Bet-the-Company litigation and has received the distinction of “Lawyer of the Year” for the West Palm Beach metro area in the areas of Intellectual Property Litigation; Real Estate Litigation; Environmental Litigation; Land Use & Zoning; and Intellectual Property. Additionally, he has been recognized on Palm Beach Illustrated’s “Top Lawyers” list as well as Florida Super Lawyers where he has placed on the Top 100: Miami and Top: 100 Florida lists.