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Leesfield & Partners: The Miami Firm That Started as Two Lawyers in 1976 and Won a Record Verdict Against Honda

Ira Leesfield opened a two-lawyer office in Miami-Dade County in 1976. Five decades later, the Miami personal injury firm’s record includes a $19.8 million defective-product verdict against Honda — which the firm describes as the largest jury verdict in American history against that company — a $40.5 million verdict for a brutally beaten crime victim, and the first known application of the rescue doctrine in an inadequate-security case in the United States.

At a Glance

Origin and Background

Raised in Broward County, Ira Leesfield earned his undergraduate and law degrees at the University of Florida, then joined the U.S. Department of Justice through its selective Honors Program before returning to Miami and founding what became Leesfield & Partners in 1976. The firm grew from a two-lawyer office with one long-term assistant into a multi-office statewide practice, adding a Key West office in 1987 that the firm reports established it as a leading injury practice in the Florida Keys. Leesfield served President Clinton in two appointed posts between 1992 and 2000 — the President’s Council on Physical Fitness and Sports and a Presidential Advisory Commission — and is an adjunct professor of law at the University of Miami School of Law.

A Miami Personal Injury Firm’s Practice Concentration

The firm is explicitly 100 percent plaintiff-oriented and states it does not represent insurance companies — a structural commitment this directory verifies against its published positioning rather than assuming. Its docket spans catastrophic injury, wrongful death, premises and negligent security, aviation, product liability, and resort and tourism injury litigation across state and federal courts statewide. Partner Justin B. Shapiro, the firm reports, has acted as lead counsel in obtaining more than $300 million in verdicts and settlements across Florida. See this Miami Personal Injury directory for how this five-decade plaintiff firm compares to newer-model practices also serving Miami-Dade County.

Notable Work / Track Record

The firm’s reported results include the $19.8 million Honda defective-product verdict, described by the firm as the largest jury verdict in American history against Honda; a $40.5 million verdict for a crime victim; a $32 million class action award for insurance policyholders; one of the country’s largest single wrongful-death verdicts in an aviation case; and a multi-million dollar verdict for a rescuer shot while aiding an elderly mugging victim — the first known application of the rescue doctrine in an inadequate-security case in the United States, per the firm. These are firm-reported results; past results do not guarantee or predict a similar outcome in any future matter.

Client Voice

The firm’s published endorsements are distinctive: rather than anonymous consumer reviews, they are attributed testimonials from referring trial lawyers across the country, including Ronnie Berke of Chattanooga — past president of the Tennessee Association for Justice — who calls Leesfield & Partners the “go to” firm in Florida after 25 years of co-counseling six- and seven-figure results. Peer referral endorsements of that specificity function as professional validation, though they are not client reviews in the consumer-platform sense, a distinction Awesome Attorneys notes directly.

Beyond the Courtroom

Leesfield’s civic record is unusually documented: the Leesfield Family Foundation supports community causes; he received the Judge Learned Hand Award from the American Jewish Committee; he is past Chair of The Florida Bar CLE Committee and a life member of the Roscoe Pound Foundation; and he partnered with retired Florida Supreme Court Justice Fred Lewis to design a litigation-training curriculum for young trial lawyers.

Recognition for This Miami Personal Injury Firm

Leesfield’s board certification is through the National Board of Trial Advocacy — a genuine national certification body, which Awesome Attorneys identifies specifically rather than describing generically. His honors include the Florida Justice Association’s Al J. Cone Lifetime Achievement Award (2004), a Trial Lawyers for Public Justice “Lawyer of the Year” nomination following the Honda verdict, and the Wiedman Wysocki medal, awarded twice. The firm reports an AV rating from Martindale-Hubbell — a peer-review rating — every year for almost 40 years.

Florida Legal Backdrop

Florida’s 2023 tort reform law, HB 837, cut the statute of limitations for general negligence claims from four years to two (Fla. Stat. § 95.11) and adopted modified comparative negligence for most negligence actions (§ 768.81): a plaintiff found more than 50 percent at fault recovers nothing. Claims against state or local government entities face separate caps and procedures under § 768.28. None of this is legal advice; injured Floridians should consult a licensed attorney promptly given the shortened deadlines.

Awesome Attorneys Assessment

Leesfield & Partners’ clearest differentiator is verified institutional depth: a 50-year, plaintiff-only Miami personal injury firm with named, specific, precedent-level results — the Honda verdict, the rescue-doctrine case — and a founder whose DOJ Honors Program start, presidential appointments, and NBTA certification are all checkable. The honest trade-offs: the headline results span decades and the largest figures are firm-reported rather than independently re-verified by this profile, and the firm’s published endorsements come from referring lawyers rather than reviewing clients. For a seriously injured person in Miami who wants a firm with generational trial pedigree and statewide reach, that combination is a strong basis for a shortlist.

Methodology and Sourcing

This profile was researched from Leesfield & Partners’ own website (leesfield.com, including its firm overview, attorney biographies, results, and endorsements pages), the Leesfield Family Foundation’s published leadership biography, and Miami Today’s January 2026 profile of Ira Leesfield.

Publisher Disclosure and Independence Notice

Awesome Attorneys is an independent legal directory and editorial publication. This profile was not paid for, commissioned, or reviewed by Leesfield & Partners, P.A. or Ira Leesfield prior to publication. Awesome Attorneys may in the future offer sponsored placement products to attorneys and firms, including this one, but sponsorship has no bearing on the editorial content, inclusion, or findings of this profile.