Robert Loehr

Bobby Loehr received his bachelor’s degree in psychology from the University of Florida in 1981. He attended the University of Florida on a National Merit Scholarship, being selected from a pool of candidates who scored in the 99.5 percentile on both the PSAT and SAT exams.

He attended Georgetown University Law Center in Washington, D.C., where he was named to the Dean’s list. He then practiced psychology for several years, returning to the University of Florida and receiving his Juris Doctorate degree in 1986.

He is licensed to practice law before all Florida state courts, and the United States District Courts for the Northern and Middle Districts of Florida, and the United States Court of Appeal for the Eleventh Circuit.

Mr. Loehr is a member of the Florida Justice Association for Academy of Florida Trial Lawyers, the American Bar Association, the Florida Bar Association and the Escambia/Santa Rosa County Bar Association. Mr. Loehr limits his practice to personal injury/wrongful death litigation, including products liability and commercial tort litigation.

Loehr has extensive experience trying cases in the state and federal courts of Florida. He has obtained numerous multi-million dollar verdicts for his clients, including a verdict in excess of 40 million dollars in a commercial fraud case and a verdict of over 30 million dollars in a medical malpractice case.

In 1994, at the request of Governor Lawton Chiles, Loehr authored amendments to the Medicaid Recovery Act which paved the way for Florida’s landmark lawsuit and multi-billion dollar settlement against the cigarette industry. The novel amendments withstood constitutional scrutiny at both the State and Federal Supreme Courts and contributed to significant changes in the way cigarettes are marketed and sold, especially to youth.

After representing hundreds of Floridians who lost their homes in Hurricanes Ivan and Dennis, Loehr returned to litigating against the cigarette industry, heading the firm’s tobacco litigation department. Along with shareholder Matt Schultz, Loehr has obtained judgments in excess of 40 million dollars representing individual smokers against the industry arising out of the Engle class action.

Loehr argued the first such case to reach the appellate courts and obtained an affirmance from the First District Court of Appeal in the Hildegard Martin case, which has since been approved by the Florida Supreme court as the legal model for litigating the thousands of Engle cases filed around the state.

Loehr and Matt Schultz also head up Levin Papantonio’s international efforts in tobacco litigation. As licensed foreign consultants, they were instrumental in leading the firm to join a consortium of law firms representing the Province of Alberta, Canada, in litigation regarding its expenditures of public funds to treat the illnesses caused by smoking.