Gilmer M. Heitman, P.E.

Principal Attorney
Heitman Law Firm, PL

Mr. Heitman earned his degree in civil engineering from Georgia Tech in 1992. Upon graduation, he served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Kenya from 1992 until 1994. Once he had returned from Kenya, he worked building heavy civil construction projects throughout the Southeastern United States. He earned his licenses as a Florida Professional Engineer and Florida Certified General Contractor in 1999. 

Mr. Heitman earned his law degree from the University of Alabama School of Law and his Master’s Degree in Business Administration from Samford University 2005.  He was admitted to the Florida bar in 2005. Mr. Heitman is admitted to practice before the Supreme Court of the United States.

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Mr. Heitman is certified by the Florida Bar in Construction Law. Florida bar Board certification is synonymous with the term ‘specialist’ and ‘expert’ because of its very high standards for professional excellence. The Florida bar's board certification program is one of the finest in the country, and helps the public identify lawyers if you have been evaluated by their peers for experience, competence and integrity.

Florida has spent nearly a half-million dollars - and could spend even more - with a large, well-known law firm that has connections to both the Republican Party of Florida as well as Gov. Rick Scott.

Since August the state has paid nearly $400,000 to the law firm of Alston and Bird to defend a new state law that requires public employees to contribute 3 percent of their pay to the state pension fund.

The firm was hired at the urging of the Scott administration which asked Attorney General Pam Bondi to approve paying the firm hourly rates at $495 an hour or nearly $300 more than what is normally allowed.

The Scott administration and Bondi have defended the hiring of the firm, saying it specializes in the kind of litigation that the state is now involved in.

But the firm's roster also includes a one-time business associate of Scott.

While not working directly on the lawsuit, a senior counsel with the firm's Washington D.C. office is Thomas Scully. Scully is also a general partner with the New York investment firm of Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe. That's the investment firm that this June purchased Scott's shares in Solantic, a chain of urgent care clinics the governor started back in 2001.

Scully, who once led the Federation of American Hospitals, was appointed to the board of directors of Solantic back in 2008.

Retired U.S. Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens spent much of his 35 years on the court disagreeing with the majority, but he's bullish about the institution.

At a talk Monday at Princeton University, his biggest applause line was for his shortest answer. The question: Are you optimistic about the future of the court and the Constitution?

His answer: "Yes."

The 91-year-old retired justice had a public conversation with Princeton Provost Christopher Eisgruber, who served as a clerk for him in the 1989-1990 court session.

His talk came a week after the publication of his book "Five Chiefs," about the three chief justices he served under and the two others he got to know earlier in his legal career as a clerk and a lawyer.

Stevens, famous for his bow ties, donned one in Princeton black and orange for the occasion. During a tenure that was the third-longest in court history, he also became famous for disagreeing with the court's majority. Stevens was appointed by Republican President Gerald Ford, and by the time he left last year, he was perhaps the most reliably liberal member of the court. About half his 1,400 opinions were dissents

For some Princeton students, that made him a hero. One woman wore a T-shirt that said, "I (heart) JPS."

Stevens has regrets about upholding a Texas capital punishment law and wishes the court would change positions on sovereign immunity and allow lawsuits against the government.

Yet he's happy with the way the court works.

He appeared a bit taken aback when one student asked him if the court should have a way to enforce its own rulings. "It's true that the court has to rely on the executive branch," he said. "But I don't think that's ever been a problem."

He also that by the time he joined the court in 1975, it was a congenial place — something he said wasn't the case when he was a clerk there himself in 1947.