NELSON CASTELLANO

PRESIDENT & MANAGING SHAREHOLDER, TRENAM LAW, TAMPA

For more than two decades, Castellano has served in leadership at Trenam, a business law firm that has more than 100 attorneys in Tampa, St. Petersburg and Sarasota. He's also the board chair of ZooTampa and Junior Achievement of Tampa Bay and has been active as a board member or executive committee member of the business incubator Tampa Bay Wave and the Florida Venture Forum.

EDUCATION: Florida State University (BS), University of Florida (JD)

NEXT BIG FOCUS: Growing our Sarasota office, which recently celebrated its two-year anniversary. We are getting ready to announce a merger with a well-respected local firm in Sarasota and are very excited about our opportunities in Sarasota.

giving back: Given my chair positions, it would be both ZooTampa and the JA of Tampa Bay for their meaningful impact on kids. With ZooTampa, the focuses are on animal conservation and education, especially, for Florida panthers and manatees. With JA, the focus is on financial literacy and education and workforce readiness.

NOTABLE TREND: AI is top of mind for lawyers. We are trying to evaluate the current solutions, not only for how to be more efficient in our delivery of legal services, but also to ensure we maintain the quality our clients expect while thoughtfully addressing the long-term impact on associate training and development.

SOMETHING SURPRISING
“I grew up collecting Marvel Comics and am a big fan of Marvel Comics and the Marvel Cinematic Universe.”