• 1983, Florida
• 1984, U.S. District Court, Middle District of Florida
• 1985, U.S. Court of Appeals, Eleventh Circuit
• 2012, U.S. District Court, Southern District of Florida

• University of Florida (J.D., with honors, 1983)
• University of Colorado (B.S., with honors, 1979)

New York, New York

Clay Coward

Clay H. “Chip” Coward joined Wicker Smith in 2003, and is Of Counsel in the Orlando office. He handles matters involving the defense of medical malpractice, legal malpractice, accounting malpractice, personal injury, premises liability, and automobile negligence. Chip has tried cases and obtained defense verdicts in state and federal court throughout the Central Florida region in Orange, Lake, Seminole, Polk, and Volusia Counties. He is an AV® Preeminent™ rated attorney by Martindale-Hubbell.

During his more than thirty years of practice, Chip has gained an extensive amount of experience in the defense of complex medical and legal malpractice actions. He has represented hospitals, physicians, and allied health professionals in all types of cases including E.D., ICU and pediatric ICU, obstetrics, orthopedics, cardiology, pediatric cardiology, cardiac surgery, anesthesia, and radiology. Chip has also defended lawyers in a wide variety of legal malpractice actions involving subjects as diverse as personal injury, medical malpractice, commercial and insurance coverage litigation, commercial transactions, trusts and estates, real property, debt collection and dissolution of marriage. In addition to his work in the area of professional malpractice, Chip is well-versed in handling premises liability actions for commercial property owners and has represented drivers in automobile negligence cases.

Prior to joining Wicker Smith, Chip was the managing attorney for the St. Paul staff counsel offices in Orlando and Tampa. Having practiced law in Orlando since 1984, he was also a partner at two other Orlando law firms.

Chip graduated with honors from the University of Colorado in 1979, earning a Bachelor of Science in Journalism. He continued his studies at the University of Florida College of Law and earned his Juris Doctor, with honors, in 1983. He is admitted to practice in the state of Florida, the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, and the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals.

• The Florida Bar (Chairman, Florida Bar Media Law Conference, 1989)
• Orange County Bar Association (Chairman, Federal and State Trial Practice Committee, 1994-1995)
• Defense Research Institute
• Florida Defense Lawyers Association