Farmer and Fitzgerald, P.A.
Attorneys at Law - Tampa, Florida

Specializing in Civil Rights, Employment Discrimination and Environmental Protection

Matthew P. Farmer successfully and aggressively represents clients across a broad spectrum of specialties including civil rights, employment discrimination, environmental protection and criminal defense. Farmer also represents citizens falsely accused of crimes and victimized by the use of excessive force by law enforcement officers. Since founding Farmer & Fitzgerald, Farmer has earned a reputation as a trusted client advocate.

In federal court, Farmer achieved an appellate acquittal on behalf of a Vietnamese-American man charged with ten others in a complex federal RICO indictment. Farmer's client was the only defendant acquitted, and in so doing the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals clarified a complex area of federal criminal law. In state court, Farmer recently prevailed in a jury trial on behalf of a computer programmer accused of stealing intellectual property, a felony.

Farmer represents workers suffering on-the-job employment discrimination whether on the basis of race, sex, age, disabilities, or religion. For instance, his victorious clients who have prevailed at trial include a Sikh woman fired because her employer did not approve of her religious apparel, and a woman college professor who was fired on the verge of obtaining tenure from a heavily male-dominated academic department.

Finally, Farmer has represented citizen groups opposed to the use of aerial Malathion spraying to combat the Medfly, and groups opposed to the use of garbage incinerators that contribute to the level of mercury in the environment. He also represented a local Sierra Club in its efforts to protect Florida's Green Swamp.

Farmer is a 1983 cum laude graduate of Princeton University, where he was a multiple All-Ivy League selection, team captain, and school record holder in track and cross country. He is a 1988 honors graduate of the University of Florida College of Law, where he served as a Public Service Law Fellow at the Center for Governmental Responsibility, and where he obtained book awards for achieving the highest grade in four courses.