Keith W. Rizzardi Attorney At Law

Keith focuses his practice in administrative, governmental and regulatory law, environmental law, and lawyer regulation. An accomplished litigator, he has argued cases before the Florida Supreme Court and in Federal district and circuit courts from Florida to D.C. to Hawaii.

• Background

  Keith joined GrayRobinson in 2019 and continues to serve as a Professor of Law at St. Thomas University. His areas of practice, teaching and scholarship include administrative law, civil procedure, environmental law, and professional responsibility, and his experience has qualified him as an expert witness in lawyer regulation disputes involving discovery and malpractice. Prior to teaching, he provided years of government service as a trial attorney for the U.S. Department of Justice Environmental and Natural Resources Division and as a managing attorney for the South Florida Water Management District. He has also worked with the Florida League of Cities and represented local governments, working on open government laws and regulatory compliance. His research exposed abuses of the Florida public records law and led to major reforms.

  An active member of the Florida Bar, and a Board Certified Specialist in State and Federal Administrative practice, Keith has been recognized as a leader by state and federal organizations.  He twice chaired The Florida Bar Government Lawyer Section, and served on the bar’s ethics and professionalism committees. The U.S. Secretary of Commerce appointed him to the Marine Fisheries Advisory Committee, and as chair, he helped shape federal policy on aquaculture, climate change, and endangered species. He also trained and earned awards as an Ombudsman for the U.S. Department of Defense, helping military service members and their civilian companies to resolve employment related disputes.

  Keith authored a civil procedure casebook, is working on a new administrative law case book, and has authored nearly two dozen law review and journal articles and book chapters. He has shared his education and experience all over the globe: including domestic conferences at Columbia Law School, the University of Florida, Yale Law School, and Brookhaven National Laboratory, and international speaking engagements at the UNESCO Water Institute in the Netherlands and the China University of Political Science and Law in Beijing.

• Education
  • University of Virginia, B.A. (1991)
  • University of Florida, J.D. (1994)
  • Florida Atlantic University, M.P.A. (1998)
• Admissions
  • The Florida Bar
  • D.C. Bar
  • U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11^th Circuit
  • U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida
  • U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit
  • U.S. Court of Federal Claims
• Professional Associations and Memberships
  • Florida Bar Board Certified in State and Federal Administrative Practice
  • The Florida Bar Government Lawyer Section, Chair (2003-2004, 2009-2010)
  • Ethics and Professionalism Committee
  • Association of American Law School
• Awards and Recognitions
  • Ombudsman of the Year (2010) Employer Support of the Guard and Reserves, Florida
  • Seven Seals Award (2007) Employer Support of the Guard and Reserves, Maryland
• Civic
  • U.S. Department of Defense, Employer Support of the Guard and Reserves, Ombudsman
• Presentations and Seminars
  • Monmouth University, NJ. Climate Change, Coasts, and Communities Symposium. Invited speaker. "Money Mandates and Water Management," and "Water Quality Pollution and the Duty to Look" (May 2019)
  • American Bar Association, Ethics and the Water Lawyer, ABA Water Law Conference, Orlando (Apr. 2018)
  • Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill and Ecosystem Science Conference (GOMOSES), "Examining the 1990 Oil Pollution Act to Improve the Governmental and Scientific Response to Future Events" New Orleans, LA (Feb. 2018).
  • Columbia University, Sabin Center for Climate Change Law, New York, NY "Sea level lies" (Jan., Mar. 2017)
  • University of Florida College of Law, Gainesville, FL. Public Interest Environmental Conference (multiple times, 1998-2016)
  • Florida League of Cities University, 2016 Summit. Public Records: Ensuring Compliance and Avoiding Sunburn,  multiple locations, FL (Sept. 2016 – Jan. 2017).
  • Yale University Law School, New Haven, CT, "Direct Legal Services for Sustainable Aquaculture Farmers," Animal and Environmental Law Conference (November 2016)
  • Brookhaven National Laboratories, Upton, NY, "Sea Level Lies: Applied Science and Ethics" (November 2016)
  • Washington and Lee University School of Law, Lexington, VA  Journal of Energy, Climate and the Environment Symposium "Ethics, Corporate Social Responsibility, and the Water Professional" (February, 2015)
  • TEDx Jupiter,. "Greener choices" (Nov. 2013) 
• Articles and Publications
  • David Crump, Kevin Leske, Keith Rizzardi et. al., Cases and Materials in Civil Procedure (7^th Edition, Carolina Academic Press, 2018)
  • Expectations in the Mirror: Lawyer Professionalism and the Errors of Mandatory Aspirations, 44 Florida State Law Review 691 (2017)
  • Rising Tides, Receding Ethics: Why the Real Estate Professions Should Take the High Road, 6(2) Wash. and Lee. J.E.C. and E. 402 (2015).
  • Sunburned: How Misuse of the Public Records Laws Creates an Overburdened, More Expensive, and Less Transparent Government, 44(2) Stetson L. Rev. 425 (2015)
  • Appealing Administrative Action: The Threshold Considerations, 88 Fla. B.J. 39 (2014).
  • Redefining Professionalism: Florida’s Code Mandating the Aspirational Raises Challenging Questions, Florida Bar Journal 87(9):39 (Nov. 2013)
  • The Duty to Advise the Lorax: Environmental Advocacy and the Risk of Reform, 37 Wm. and Mary Envtl. L. and Pol’y Rev. 25 (2012).
  • Professionalism: I Know It When I See It? Florida Bar Journal 79(7):38 (July 2005)
  • "Controlling Jurisdiction" and the Duty to Disclose Adverse Authority: Florida’s District Courts of Appeal Reign Supreme on Matters of First Impression, 85 Fla. B.J. 46 (2011).