From left: LaVon Bracy Davis, Michele Rayner and Ashley Gantt. The three FL House Reps. announced a new law firm on Juneteenth. Credit: https://www.bdgrlaw.com/

Three Democratic female members from the Florida House — LaVon Bracy Davis from Orange County, Michele Rayner from St. Petersburg, and Ashley Gantt from Miami — announced on Juneteenth that they are forming a law firm rooted in “justice, advocacy and service.”

The firm — to be called BDGR P.A., will offer services across a wide range of practice areas, including civil rights, criminal defense, family law, estate planning, and government affairs.

Each of the lawmakers is an attorney who has been working for years in the legal field. Rayner gained notice in 2018 when she represented the family of Markeis McGlockton, an unarmed Black man who was gunned down in Clearwater in a dispute over a handicapped-accessible parking spot by a man who invoked Florida’s controversial “stand your ground.”

She was elected to the Florida House in 2020, and has already declared her candidacy for the Florida Senate District 19 seat next year.

Gantt is a former public-school teacher who taught in Miami-Dade County and later became a Broward County public defender before opening her own law firm. She was elected to the Florida House in 2022.

Bracy-Davis is from west Orange County. She served as an attorney with the Florida Department of Children and Families and was first elected to the Florida House in 2022. She is now a candidate in the Florida Senate District 15 seat that has been vacant since the late Geraldine Thompson died earlier this year. That primary election will take place next Tuesday.

In a joint statement, the three legislators say that “nothing happens by chance.”

“Our journeys have combined for us to be more powerful together than separately. We look forward to representing the people of Florida, not only in the legislature but also in the courtroom — from the Panhandle to the Keys.”

Florida Phoenix is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Florida Phoenix maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Michael Moline for questions: info@floridaphoenix.com.

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