Philip M. Gerson
standing
Philip Gerson has practised in Florida since 1970 — by some margin the longest career of anyone we list — and is currently a member in good standing, eligible to practise.
His record also carries a 30-day suspension from 2018. It's set out in full below, with what the order actually said and how it compared to the others issued alongside it. A bare "suspension" tells you almost nothing, and lets you imagine the worst.
The bar record
The 2018 suspension
The Bar's profile shows the word "Suspension" and a reference number, and nothing else. The detail is in The Florida Bar's own published disciplinary notice of 1 July 2018:
What that means in context
The Florida Supreme Court disciplined 21 lawyers in the orders published alongside his — four licences revoked, twelve suspensions, five public reprimands. Here is roughly where a 30-day suspension for conflicts sat in that group:
Reading this fairly
- It was 30 days, among the shortest suspensions in that group, which ranged up to revocation.
- The finding was a conflicts violation — a rule about representing clients whose interests collide. It did not involve client money, dishonesty, or a criminal matter, unlike several others in the same batch.
- It was eight years ago, in a career then already in its 48th year.
- He is in good standing now. The Bar lists him as eligible to practise, and shows nothing since.
And the thing we can't tell you: what the conflict actually was. The Bar's notice states the rule violated, not the facts behind it. The underlying Supreme Court order is available from the Bar via the reference number, and we haven't read it. We're not going to characterise conduct we haven't seen the record of.
This window is narrow. The Florida Bar publishes a 10-year discipline history. Gerson was admitted in 1970. What you see above covers the most recent decade of a 55-year career — less than a fifth of it. The Bar states that members of the public can obtain information about disciplinary history older than 10 years by contacting it directly. We haven't done that, so we don't know what, if anything, lies further back. Florida's register is materially less complete than the Illinois or Texas ones we've used.
Why this is on the page
The firm's own biography of Gerson doesn't mention the suspension. That isn't a criticism — no firm advertises its own discipline, and no one should expect them to. It's simply the reason an independent check exists. Everything a firm tells you about itself is selected by the firm. The register isn't.
Background
Gerson is a founding partner of Gerson & Schwartz and a cum laude graduate of the University of Miami School of Law, where the firm reports he sat on the Law Review editorial board, won Moot Court, and taught legal research and writing as a student instructor.Reported
The firm lists his admissions as all Florida courts, the United States Supreme Court, the US Court of Claims, the Fifth and Eleventh Circuit Courts of Appeals, and the Southern and Middle Districts of Florida.Reported It also reports an AV Preeminent peer review rating from Martindale-Hubbell and listings in Super Lawyers and the South Florida Legal Guide.Reported
His partner Edward S. Schwartz is also verified here — admitted 1982, no discipline in the published window. Other lawyers named at the firm include Nicholas I. Gerson and David L. Markel; we haven't checked them.
Practice
Gerson & Schwartz handles injury work in Miami-Dade, and its client reviews describe a notable volume of cruise ship and maritime claims alongside road traffic and premises cases.Reported
Rideshare is not a stated speciality. We selected this firm for Miami after our first pass on that market returned mainly lead-generation listings and a referral broker trading under a law firm name. It is a real, long-established practice — but if the driver-status question matters to your claim, ask how often they handle it.
Reviews
4.8 average across 277 Google reviews.Verified We confirm the record exists and is consistent with the firm's location and practice. We don't audit individual reviews and nobody outside Google can.
What we haven't checked
No attorney pays to be listed here, and this profile is not an endorsement or a recommendation. We report the public record so you can weigh it yourself. If anything here is inaccurate or out of date, tell us and we'll correct it. How we work