This firm is committed to support and defend the Constitution of the United States of America and the Constitution of the State of Florida, to maintain the respect due to American Courts of Justice and its judicial officers, to attain the highest level of skill for its members, to improve the law, to exemplify the legal profession's ideals of public service to its citizens, and to safeguard the American Legal System so that all may realize justice, democracy, freedom from government oppression, and the protection of individual rights.
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ALEXANDER PENALTA, Esquire is an American Trial Lawyer born
in Matanzas City, Cuba and of Galecian Spanish descent. He was raised
in the American heartland in Tulsa, Oklahoma, attended law school in
Kansas and has resided in Florida over 29 years.
Mr. Penalta is a partner and shareholder at the Law Firm of Penalta &
Stiger, P.A. and is licensed to practice in Florida and Washington, D.C.
He is a Supreme Court Certified Arbitrator fluent in English and Spanish.
Mr. Penalta concentrates his practice on representing and defending the
Business Community, the Military and Intelligence Community,
Entrepreneurs, Small and Medium Business Owners and Fortune 500
Companies and Families in Civil and select Criminal matters including
but not limited to Aviation, Business Litigation, Employment Claims,
Motorsports, Watersports, Sea, Air and Land Operations and legal
proceedings at the Local, County, State, Federal and International Level.
As a former Appeals Referee for the Florida Department of Labor &
Employment Security, Division of Unemployment Compensation, Bureau
of Appeals, he is experienced in representing and defending businesses
and former management throughout Florida in a variety of legal issues.
Alexander is presently an Adjunct Associate Professor at Embry-Riddle
Aeronautical University of Daytona Beach, Florida, Fort Lauderdale Area
Resident Center, Division of Business Administration. He teaches
"Seminar in Aviation Labor Relations," "Aviation Law," and "Federal
Regulations, Ethics and the Legal System," to pilots, maintenance
personnel, and aviation management. He is a licensed FAA Private Pilot.
From 1995 to 1998, Mr Penalta served as an Adjunct Professor at Florida
Atlantic University at Boca Raton, College of Education, Dept. of
Educational Leadership and taught "Education and the Law" to education
graduates regarding legal issues facing public and private sector
employees and employers. Mr. Penalta has jointly authored "OSHA
Regulations' Potential Impact on the Dive Industry." with Robert F. Millott,
Ed.D., Milledge Murphey, Ph.D., Mary Beth Horodoski, Ed.D. in the
National Journal of Underwater Education (1995).
Mr. Penalta was the legal advisor to the University of Florida,
College of Health and Human Performance, Academic Diving
Program; National YMCA Scuba Program-Florida Field; U.S. Underwater
Federation and the National Association for Cave Diving. He
has spoken before the Broward County Bar Assoc., Labor and
Employment Section on "Tactics and Procedures before the Florida Dept.
of Labor and Employment Security, Div. of Unemployment Compensation
Bureau of Appeals." Alexander Penalta has been a guest on several
radio and television interviews including RADIO FIESTA, WLVS-AM1380,
Morning Show with Dante Medina & Helman Ruiz, "Sexual Harassment &
The Jury System (Spanish)". His current and past membership activities
include the Association For Intelligence Officers (AFIO); Women in
Defense (WID) Individual Rights Committee of the Labor and
Employment Law Section of the Florida Bar; The ABA, Labor and
Employment Section, Young Lawyer's Division; The Broward County Bar
Assoc., Labor and Employment Section, Young Lawyer's Division; Palm
Beach County Bar Assoc.; Boca Raton Chamber of Commerce; South
Palm Beach County Bar Assoc.; Hispanic Bar Assoc. of Palm Beach
County; Cuban-American Bar Assoc; National Assoc. of Administrative
Law Judges; ATLA ; The Academy of Florida Trial Lawyers; The Florida
Bar Speakers Committee.
He has served as a Legislative Aid for Republican State Representative
Nancy Brown, in the Kansas House of Representatives, Office of the 27th
District at the Kansas State Legislature in Topeka, Kansas.
Alexander Penalta is a former U.S. Naval Reserve Officer, LTjg, Judge
Advocate Generals Corps, (JAG), Honorably Discharged in June 1992
and a recipient of the National Defense Medal, M-16 Rifle Marksman,
Operation Desert Shield/Desert Storm for military service during the
Persian Gulf War.
Mr. Penalta is experienced in sailing Sloops and Catamarans. He holds
multiple American Sailing Association (ASA) Sailing Certifications and is
a United States Coast Guard (USCG) Licensed Captain and a USCG
Licensed Master with Sailing Endorsements.
Alexander was trained by two time World Champion Frank Hawley at the
Gainesville Raceway and is licensed by the National Hot Rod Association
(NHRA) to race Super Comp Dragsters and ET Bracket Class Race Cars.
He is a member of the NSX Club of America, Scuderia Ferrari and Exotics
Club of South Florida, the BMW Car Club of North America, and S2k
(S2000 Honda Motorsports) International. He has participated in Pace
Car activities at the Inaugural Street Race in St. Petersburg, Florida for the
Indy Racing League on behalf of S2k International and Honda of North
America. Alexander has served as a Teen Survival Safety Instructor for
BMW CCA in Palm Beach, Florida and is proponent of educating teenage
drivers on motor vehicle safety throughout the state in public and private
schools. Mr. Penalta has attended Bertil Roos Racing School at Moroso,
Indy Experience at Disney Raceway, Richard Petty Driving Experience at
Disney Raceway and Daytona Super Speedway, Mario Andretti Racing
School at Homestead Speedway, and Penguin Road Racing School at
Homestead Speedway becoming a licensed Motorcycle Road Racer on
high performance Ducati Racing Motorcycles.
Mr. Penalta is a graduate of Boca Raton High School (1983), and the
University of Florida (B.A. 1987), and of Washburn University of Topeka,
School of Law (J.D. 1991). Washburn School of Law is best known for
the trial lawyers it has historically produced, as well as for being credited
with creating one of the first Law Clinics in the United States which later
served as a model for other law schools throughout the country. Among
its most notable graduates are the honorable former Senate Majority
Leader and past president-elect Bob Dole, and the esteemed CBS News
reporter Bill Kurtis of the popular "A&E's -- Investigative Reports." Among
the most famous cases tried by Washburn Law graduates are the class
action Dalkon-Shields case, the $10.3 billion dollar case of Pennzoil Co.
v. Texaco Inc., and the landmark United States Supreme Court case of
Brown v. Topeka Board of Education.
NOTABLE JURY TRIALS
CIVIL: Seventeenth Judicial Circuit in and for Broward County, Florida.
The plaintiff, a 29 year old commercial airline 727 pilot survived a three
impact crash of a Beech 55 Baron light twin-engine aircraft, while riding
as a passenger in the back seat. The airplane crashed due to negligence
and pilot-induced oscillation in the landing phase. Plaintiff suffered
multiple herniated disks at the hands of the defendant. The jury returned
a verdict in the amount of Three Million ($3,950,000.00) Nine-Hundred
Fifty Thousand Dollars. Alexander Penalta, Lead Trial Attorney for the
Plaintiffs.
CRIMINAL: Eleventh Judicial Circuit in and for Dade County, Florida.
Decorated for service in Beirut, Lebanon, the defendant, a 29 year old
former U.S. Marine Sniper and survivor of the Marine barracks bombing in
1983 was attacked by two patrons in July 1994 while working as security
at Solid Gold in North Miami Beach in Florida. Charged with Attempted
2nd Degree Murder, the jury returned an acquittal after a four day jury trial
in Miami, Florida in which use of deadly force at one's place of
employment was successfully asserted. Gary Ostrow and Alexander
Penalta, Attorneys for the Defendant.
ACADEMIC INSTRUCTIONAL EXPERIENCE
St. Thomas University, The Archdiocesan Catholic University of Florida,
Department of Management. Graduate Curriculum for the Masters in
Science Management Program: MAN 710 Legal of Business
Administration; MAN 712 Labor Relations and The Law. Adjunct
Professor Miami, Florida
Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University of Daytona Beach, Florida, Fort
Lauderdale Area Resident Center, Division of Aeronautical Science.
Undergraduate Curriculum: AS 405 Aviation Law; BA 390 Business Law;
BA 632 Seminar in Aviation Labor Relations; BA 322 Aviation Insurance
and Risk Management: Graduate Curriculum: BA 655 Aviation Law &
Insurance; Lockheed Martin, Sikorsky Aircraft, and Pratt & Whitney -
United Technologies Rocket Propulsion Engineers: MSTM 620 The Legal
& Regulatory Environment of Business, Adjunct Associate Professor
Fort Lauderdale, Florida
Lynn University, College of Business. Graduate Curriculum for the
Masters in Business Administration Program: MBA 510 Legal Aspects
of Business Administration, Undergraduate Curriculum Business Law I
(312) and Business Law II (313). Adjunct Professor, Boca Raton, Florida
Florida Atlantic University at Boca Raton, College of Education,
Department of Educational Leadership. Graduate Curriculum: EDA 6232
Education and the Law, Adjunct Professor, Davie Campus & North Palm
Beach Campus - Davie, Florida
University of Florida, College of Health and Human Performance,
Department of Exercise and Sport Sciences, Academic Diving
Program. Undergraduate Curriculum: Open Water, Advanced Open
Water, Assistant Instructor and Instructor, Assistant Director and Adjunct
Instructor, Gainesville, Florida
COLLEEN M. STIGER, Esquire is a shareholder in the Law Offices of
Penalta & Stiger, P.A. in Boca Raton, Florida. Ms. Stiger limits her practice
to representing selected individuals who have been seriously injured and
risk management. Since becoming a resident of Florida, she has been
actively involved in a number of charitable organizations.
She was honored as Soroptimist International Boca Raton/Deerfield's
"Women of Distinction" for her professional and charitable
accomplishments. She was also honored as "Boca's Best" by the Cystic
Fibrosis Foundation for being one of the most outstanding single
professionals in the Boca Raton Community for her outstanding charitable
and civic contributions to the South Florida community. She was featured in
the Sun Sentinel as an "Attorney Honored for Helping Others". Ms. Stiger
and the law firm were spot lighted on NBC in Tonya Rogers' Power Woman
Series. Ms. Stiger's family has been involved in racing and motorsports
throughout Ireland, Europe and the United States. She concentrates on the
legal aspects of transportation, automobile and motorcycle safety, the
advancement of motorsports, and concentrates on automobile insurance
property and injury claims. Ms. Stiger is an active member of the NSX Club
of America, the BMW Car Club of North America, and S2k (Honda
Motorsports) International.
Ms. Stiger has Co-Chaired two Arthritis Creaky Bones Costume Balls and
Co-Chaired two Arthritis Magic of Caring Fashion Shows. She was on
the Boca Bacchanal Committee from 2002 to 2003. She served on the
Advisory Council of Broward Meals on Wheels from 1993 to 1999, the
Executive Board of Directors of Broward Meals on Wheels from 1999 to
2001, Recording Secretary 1999 to 2001, Board of Directors from 2001
to present and has been the Legal Committee Chairperson from 1999
to present. She is on the Cystic Fibrosis Leading Men committee for
2003.
From 1997 to 1999, Ms. Stiger served as the President of the Boca
Raton Alumnae Chapter of Delta Gamma Fraternity. She was a member
of the Theater Guild at the Royal Palm Festival Dinner Theater Center.
She has served on the Friends of Debbie-Rand Board of Directors for
the Boca Raton Community Hospital from 1999 to present,
Corresponding Secretary 2000 to 2001, Membership Chairperson
2001-2002, Chairperson from 2001 to 2002, Treasurer 2002, Dinner
with Friends Co-Chairperson 2001-2003, Debbie-Memorial Service
League Ways and Means from 2001 to 2002. She has also received her
100 hour pin for service at the Boca Raton Community Hospital.
Ms. Stiger is currently a member of the Florida Bar and formerly a member
of the Pennsylvania Bar. She receivedCertificates of Appreciation for
recognition of dedicated anddistinguished service from the South Palm
Beach County Bar Association from 1997 to 1999. Ms. Stiger is a member
of the Florida Bar Association and has been on the Florida Bar President's
Speaker's Bureau since 1997 and has served as Chairperson of the
Immigration Section of the South Palm Beach County Bar Association.
She served on the Little Palm Family Theatre Annual Gala, "Give My
Regards to Broadway " Committee in 2003. She is an active member of
the Kiwanis Club of Boca Raton Sunrise since 2003. She has also
participated in walk-a-thons for the Arthritis Foundation, Broward County
Meals on Wheels, Diabetes Foundation, March of Dimes and MS.
She is an active member of GFWC Royale Woman's Club since 2002.
She co-chaired the Honor Your Doctor Luncheon Drawing and served
as the Master of Ceremonies. Ms. Stiger was an active member of the
Boca Raton Chapter of Zonta International since 1996 and has served
on the Board of Directors from 1998 to 2001as Recording Secretary,
Director and Nomination Committee in 2002, and Second Vice Present
from 2002 to present.
Ms. Stiger is a graduate of Vermont Law School (Juris Doctor 1991) and
holds a Masters in Environmental Law (LLM, 1992). She attended
undergraduate at Washington & Jefferson College with a concentration
in English & Business Administration (B.A. 1988).
L-R: Alexander Penalta and the Honorable Leroy H. Moe 17th Judicial Circuit Broward County Florida Circuit Court - Swearing In Ceremony
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