John Clarke, ESQ. - florida attorney

Law is my passion. I enjoy using my legal knowledge to help people plan for their future and to get justice when they have been injured by someone else’s negligence. The two areas on the law that I focus my practice on are estate planning and personal injury law.

Early in life, I recognized the importance of planning for the future. One of the law school courses that I most enjoyed was wills and trusts, which encompassed estate planning. I learned how powerful wills and trusts can be to create a legacy that endures and secure a one’s family’s financial well-being. I made estate planning a primary area of focus when I started practicing law. That focus has only deepened during the last 8 years of practice.

My approach to estate planning is holistic. In order to craft an effective estate plan for a client , I have learned to get to know the client first - their goals, dreams, relationships, tax and financial circumstances. The estate planning process starts with a client’s intentions to pass on a legacy, but then there are numerous other factors that influence what an effective plan may ultimately look like. Some of these factors are the client’s income tax situation, estate tax liability, avoidance of probate, and whether the client needs to qualify for medicaid long-term care. Also, wealthy clients often have a lot of exposure to lawsuits and creditors, so privacy and asset protection strategies are often crucial parts of their estate plans.

Accordingly, our estate planning work flow is client-focused. The first step is to gather information. We ask our clients to provide a range of information on their finances, goals, and life circumstances in the intake process. We also routinely consult with a client’s other advisors and fiduciaries, including accountants and financial planners, as part of this step. Next we explore a range of estate planning options with the client and compare them from multiple points of view (asset protection, avoidance of probate, lessening of tax burden). Then, the client selects the best estate plan from the options that we have provided. Read more in our estate planning article.

Some of the probate avoidance techniques that we employ include living trusts, enhanced life estate deeds, and operating agreements for limited liability companies and partnerships with inheritance provisions. The potential advantages of avoiding probate for the client include avoidance of legal fees and costs, avoidance of a public court proceeding in which estate creditors can file claims, and a more rapid distribution of estate assets to the decedent’s intended heirs. Other estate planning documents that we draft include last wills, living wills, durable powers of attorney, pre-need designations of guardian, and health care surrogate forms. We also draft and record deeds, contracts, and affidavits as necessary to re-title a client’s real property.

When a client has significant wealth that is exposed to creditors, asset protection becomes an issue. Luckily, Florida law provides for several vehicles that can protect wealth from seizure from creditors. The most obvious one is the homestead exemption, which covers a client’s homestead property. We therefore advise our clients to ensure that they have properly declared their homestead, and, where possible, hold investment properties in separate entities. Florida law provides several types of entities that offer protection from direct seizure of member interests by creditors, including multi-member limited liability companies and limited liability limited partnerships. Instead, a creditor’s remedy is limited to obtaining a charging order against future distributions to the debtor-member. Read more in our asset protection and business planning articles.

The second focus of my practice is personal injury law. While working as a registered nurse years ago, I saw first-hand the devastating effects that some of my patients suffered as a result of injuries caused by someone else’s negligence. This experience helped spark my interest in going to law school and to focus on helping victims of negligence get compensated for their injuries. Personal injury law encompasses several types of cases, including defective products, slip and falls, car accidents, and motor cycle accidents. I have acquired extensive experience in this field.

When I am not working, I am relaxing at my Hollywood home with my dog Taylor. I also enjoy travel, exploring the outdoors, and playing the piano. I am active in several community organizations, including the Broward Coalition on Aging.

Education

I graduated Magna Cum Laude from University of Miami in 1995, earning a Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy. One of the most interesting courses that I took in college was Philosophy of Law. This course prompted me to consider a career in law. At that point in my life, however, I had been in school for 16 years and urgently wanted to see the world.

So I decided instead to do a six week course on teaching english to foreign language speakers that summer. At the end of the course, I earned a certificate from Cambridge University, which was an accepted credential at language schools around the world. A week later, I was on a flight to Jakarata, Indonesia, where I decided to look for work while exploring that exotic archipelago. I spent seven months teaching in Jakarta then taught an additional three months in Surabaya, East Java. Then I traveled around India, Malaysia, and Singapore for two months, before heading back to the United States.

After returning home, I sold real estate for several years. Subsequently, I became a registered nurse in 2007. I worked in this field for five years in several South Florida hospitals, including Mount Sinai Medical Center of Miami Beach. In 2011, I decided to follow my long-held dream of becoming a lawyer, and applied to law school. In 2012, I enrolled in the University of Florida College of Law, and then graduated Cum Laude in May 2015. In August 2015, I passed the Florida Bar exam. I started my solo law practice shortly thereafter. I am a member in good standing of the Florida Bar, and the Broward County Bar Association.