Rachel Walker
Education
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J.D., University of Miami School of Law (2014), magna cum laude, Order of the Coif
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B.S., University of Florida (2010), cum laude
Admissions
- Florida
Court Admissions
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U.S. District Court, Southern District of Florida
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U.S. District Court, Middle District of Florida
- U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit
Of Counsel
Rachel Walker is Of Counsel to SMGQ Law, where she focuses her practice primarily on complex commercial litigation, with a significant emphasis on business, intellectual property, and insurance-related disputes.
Ms. Walker has experience litigating in a wide variety of business-related subject matters, including shareholder derivative actions and business divorce, copyright and trademark infringement, fraud, FDUTPA, civil theft, breach of contract, non-competition disputes, collection disputes, tortious interference, and trade secret claims. She also has assisted clients with defamation and intellectual property matters both in and out of court and has successfully helped clients remove false information and infringing content from online websites, social media and search engines.
Ms. Walker has served as defense counsel for several class-action lawsuits involving the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (“TCPA”) and related state statutes, and she has advised clients on instituting best practices to avoid TCPA litigation.
She has also defended insurance companies and healthcare organizations in a variety of disputes, including life insurance, health insurance, as well as issues related to managed care litigation, provider and consumer claims, HMO, PPO, Medicaid and Medicare claims, emergency services litigation, as well as in and out of network claims.
Ms. Walker has represented clients in State Court, Federal Court, and in Arbitration proceedings (including JAMS Arbitration), including through trial or final hearing. She has also helped clients reach successful out-of-court resolutions.
Ms. Walker’s experience also includes appellate work, and she has helped secure multiple, favorable appellate court rulings, including Rappaport v. Scherr; 322 S. 3d 138 (Fla. 3d DCA), wherein the appellate court reversed a judgment in favor of a minority shareholder in a derivative action because the minority shareholder had not made pre-suit demand on the board of directors, confirming that Florida was a “universal demand” jurisdiction at the time the derivative suit was filed.
Prior to joining SMGQ Law, Ms. Walker worked at an AM Law-recognized, national law firm, where she litigated several complex and high-profile cases, including: a bankruptcy adversary proceeding involving the estate of a well-known musical artist; a trademark and trade dress infringement matter involving a popular Miami restaurant; a multi-district litigation related to a high-profile music festival; as trial team counsel for a multi-million-dollar TCPA class action; a complex shareholder derivative action involving the sale of multiple animal hospitals; a multi-day defamation arbitration, resulting in a favorable judgment, among others.
Professional and Community Involvement
- Leadership Miami, class of 2016
- The Copyright Society of the U.S.A., Florida Chapter Co-Chair, 2020 and 2021
Awards
- Super Lawyers Honoree, Rising Star 2022-2023