Carlton Fields Names Lori Baggett as Tampa Office Managing Shareholder
Tampa, Fla. – Carlton Fields is pleased to announce that Shareholder Lori Baggett was named Tampa office managing shareholder. She succeeds Tampa Shareholder Luis “Lu” Prats, who served in the role for the past two years in addition to an earlier term that ended in 2006.
“We are grateful to Lu for his years of excellent leadership of the Tampa office,” Carlton Fields President and CEO Gary L. Sasso said. “As Lori takes the reins, we look forward to continued growth and success. Lori is a dynamic and collaborative leader who is committed to the core values of the firm, including first-rate client service, service to our community and the profession, and an appreciation of diversity and inclusion.”
Prats will continue his full-time practice at Carlton Fields as a leading construction attorney.
“I have enjoyed leading the firm’s largest office through an exciting period of strategic growth,” Prats said. “I am confident that under Lori’s leadership, the office and the firm will continue to achieve great things.”
Added Baggett: “I am honored to lead our Tampa office, which is defined by a deep bench of skilled lawyers and professional staff who are devoted to serving our clients and our community. Carlton Fields has been my home since I started my career as a lawyer, and I look forward to building on the firm’s success.”
Baggett has held several leadership positions within the firm and in the community. She served as chair of the American Bar Association’s Forum on Construction Law Labor and Employment Division, co-chaired the group’s annual meeting in 2017, and is currently serving a three-year term on the Forum’s Governing Committee. She is also a past chair of The Florida Bar’s Thirteenth Judicial Circuit Grievance Committee and a member of the Tampa Bay History Center Board of Trustees.
Baggett is particularly devoted to championing diversity in the legal profession. She co-chairs Carlton Fields’ Women’s Alliance and is a past fellow of the Leadership Council on Legal Diversity, a premier national organization that provides opportunities for women and minority in-house counsel to connect with women and minority law firm partners and senior associates. In 2019, she established the Baggett Family Scholarship at Stetson University College of Law. The scholarship supports the academic achievement and potential of African American students and seeks to increase their representation in the legal community.
Women and minorities lead or co-lead six of Carlton Fields’ 11 offices. The firm’s board of directors is 50% diverse and 40% women. Additionally, Carlton Fields is one of only three law firms in the country to rank in the top 10 of all five diversity categories in the 2020 Vault Best Law Firms for Diversity Rankings. The firm ranks 2nd in the nation as the overall “Best Law Firm for Diversity.”
In her practice, Baggett represents companies in many aspects of labor and employment law, with a particular expertise in workplace safety and health (OSHA) issues. She is one of a handful of Florida lawyers with OSHA 30 certification. She represents clients dealing with fatal and catastrophic accidents and helps them resolve OSHA citations and whistleblower complaints. She also advises and counsels employers on workplace legal compliance issues, conducts internal compliance investigations, and defends employment-related claims. Her clients represent numerous industries, including construction, propane and natural gas equipment and systems, and retail.
Baggett earned her J.D., cum laude, from Stetson University College of Law and her B.A., summa cum laude, from the University of South Alabama.
