RONALD WEAVER

OF COUNSEL, STEARNS WEAVER MILLER WEISSLER ALHADEFF & SITTERSON, TAMPA

The 40-year-old statewide firm has been involved in the acquisition and development of more than $10 billion worth of Florida property in 32 counties and 62 cities and has a national reputation in litigation, real estate, land use and community issue litigation. Weaver is a highly regarded expert on land-use and property rights. He has written and lectured extensively on those subjects, the history of growth management and sea-level rise. During the Great Recession, he helped found a group called Real Estate Lives that helps displaced real estate industry workers find employment or new careers. He serves on numerous health care, education, community and industry organizations in the Tampa Bay region.

EDUCATION	University of North Carolina (BA), Harvard (JD)
SOMETHING SURPRISING	My wife was the only reason I made it through law school. She left a comfortable North Carolina teaching job and her family and friends for Boston, where we knew not one soul. She walked to her $95 a week bank teller job at Harvard Trust as our only law school income except our summer jobs, both of us working at the local parks department.
FLORIDA ISSUE	Affordable housing compression. Many major cities have the fourth- or fifth-most expensive housing in the country but are 15th or 18th or 19th place in adequate wages.