Construction Attorney Michael Kelley

08/26/2026

Episode 2 of The Unsettled Question is live! (link below)

08/24/2026

The legal profession does not merely employ its people. It forms them — or, as theologians might say, it catechizes us. Law school is the first catechism. Law firm practice is the second — hours as the measure of a lawyer's worth, victory as identity, the client reduced to a matter number, your own unique voice trained out of you one redline at a time. No one tells you this in advance. We are taught it the way all habits are formed: by repetition — until, very slowly and then often all at once, what a lawyer does every day becomes what she loves, and what she loves becomes who she is. (I am using the word "love" loosely here.)

I think something different and far better is possible. As peacemakers (not peacekeepers) lawyers have the opportunity to become not just "good," not just "useful," but indispensable to our clients and the greater community. AI has made legal prose cheap and legal judgment precious. There remains business enough for those who are true counselors, not just peddlers of those parts easily performed by machines.

I have been writing about what it takes to recover a lawyer's true authority, as peacemaker and counselor. The essays began with "Where Chaos Meets Holy Ground" and finished this weekend. This movement starts and ends with people who are serious about recovering their agency — their unique voice — and providing something of true value to our clients, our world, and each other.

The series is complete. The link is in the first comment.

08/11/2026

Fun project our firm helped with as general counsel for the Florida Chamber of Commerce. The Times Square billboard announces the very special and hard-earned award to Mayor Mamdani: Florida's Economic Developer of the Year. Be sure to congratulate him! www.lawsonhuckgonzalez.com

https://www.foxbusiness.com/economy/florida-names-nyc-mayor-zohran-mamdani-economic-developer-year-times-square-campaign

We are the firm that solves complex business disputes, handles a wide range of civil litigation, helps businesses of all sizes navigate complicated regulatory environments, and practices regularly before the Florida Supreme Court and all six District Courts of Appeal. We have a proven track record o...

07/16/2026

Please join us on July 30th in the Orlando office of Lawson Huck Gonzalez, PLLC to support Ashley Perez-Biliskov For State Representative and Josie Tomkow for State Senate. If you are able to attend, please e-mail your RSVP to [email protected].

06/15/2026

History remembers...

1 Kings 15:13-14
"[Asa] also deposed his [great-grand]mother Maacah from being queen mother, because she had made a horrid (obscene, vulgar) image for Asherah. Asa cut down her horrid image, and burned it by the Brook Kidron. But the high places were not removed. Nevertheless, Asa’s heart was entirely devoted to the Lord all his days."

1 Kings 22:41-43
"Now Jehoshaphat the son of Asa became king over Judah in the fourth year of Ahab king of Israel ... He walked in all the ways of Asa his father, without turning from them, doing right in the sight of the Lord. However, the high places were not removed; the people still sacrificed and burned incense on the high places."

2 Kings 14:3-4
"[Amaziah] did right in the sight of the Lord, though not like David his father (ancestor). He acted in accordance with everything that his father Joash had done. However, the high places were not removed; the people were still sacrificing and burning incense on the high places."

Essays on faith, conflict, and the practice of law. Turris fortis mihi Deus — Prov. 18:10.

05/18/2026

For years Iʼve wrestled with the statement God makes at the end of the Book of Job: “My wrath is kindled against you and against your two friends, for you have not spoken of Me what is right, as My servant Job has.”(Job 42:7)

God was angry with the friends because they were supposed to know Him, were supposed to tell the right stories about who He is—His character, His expectations, His love for us—but like the Pharisees of Jesusʼs day, these supposed experts about God did more to turn people away than to introduce them to the One who created them: to know and be known by Him, to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever.

This is what it really means to take Godʼs name in vain. When you pretend to know Him; when you arrogantly act as if you do know Him; and when you lead others astray by not speaking rightly of Him. I have been guilty of this too many times to count. I want to learn to tell the right stories about our wonderful Heavenly Father.

05/12/2026

A colleague asked how my prayer life fits into the part of my day where everything is happening fast. The work Lawson Huck Gonzalez, PLLC is experiencing is good and abundant – we've never been busier with meaningful, high-stakes cases like we are today. The workload is immense, the deadlines are real, and there is no clean break between one matter and the next. So when, exactly, do I pray? And how does prayer make the day faithful instead of just busy?

I tried to answer honestly in "Practice Pointers for the Christian Lawyer."

My previous essays argued that legal work is holy ground and that the Christian lawyer/peacemaker must learn to fight with weapons God supplies. This one is about the working day itself – the early morning (before the urgencies arrive), the continuous prayer underneath the tyrannies of the urgent, the manna (daily bread) we are not meant to hoard, the saying-no-to-good-things that lets us say yes to the One who owns it all.

Turris fortis mihi Deus—the Lord is my strong tower. (Prov. 18:10)

05/10/2026

The second essay in my TURRIS FORTIS series is now published: "The Weapons of Peace: How the Christian Lawyer Practices on Holy Ground."

The piece picks up where "Where Chaos Meets Holy Ground" left off. If the rooms in which lawyers do their work are holy ground (which I argued in the first essay), then the next question is unavoidable: what kind of lawyer must we become there?

The essay names two errors lawyers consistently fall into – passivity and domination – and argues for a third way that is neither the soft middle nor a clever compromise. The Christian lawyer is called to a harder, narrower path: disciplined strength submitted to Christ. The skilled warrior who is capable of force but not in love with it. The advocate who can confront without contempt and protect without grasping.

Most of all, the piece is about the difference between grasping and receiving; between forcing my will through legal tools and offering legal tools as servants of God's truth. That distinction shows up in every demand letter, every deposition, every motion, every settlement. It shows up at 9:00 on a Tuesday morning, when I am tempted to be more confident in my own preparation than in the One who gave me the work in the first place.

Written for fellow Christian lawyers, and for anyone whose work involves tools that can be used to build up or to tear down.

Link in the comments.

Turris fortis mihi Deus — Prov. 18:10

05/06/2026

Grateful to The Collaborative and Case Thorp for sharing my recent article: "Where Chaos Meets Holy Ground" (https://wecolabor.com/where-chaos-meets-holy-ground/)

Where Chaos Meets Holy Ground – Prayer, Peacemaking (Not Peacekeeping), and the Christian Lawyer