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SAVANNA GASLIN
Savanna Gaslin
Savanna Gaslin is an associate at Vickaryous Law Firm. Her practice focuses on civil litigation, personal injury matters, and wrongful death. Savanna graduated Cum laude with her bachelor’s in criminal justice from Florida Atlantic University. After completing her bachelor’s degree, Savanna moved to central Florida to attend Barry School of Law. Savanna was ranked 16th in her law school class placing her within the top 10 percent of her class. As a result of her ranking, she was admitted to the “Top 10 Percent Bonus Program” and awarded an academic scholarship. While in law school, Savanna participated in the first-year oral argument moot court competition where she was placed in the final 4 out of 232 applicants. After placing in the finals, Savanna was invited to join the Moot Court Honors Board where she got the opportunity to travel and compete in national competitions. In addition to Moot Court, Savanna served on Barry’s Law Review for one year. Outside of personal injury, Savanna worked as a law clerk at Koeller Nebeker Carlson Haluck LLP, doing construction defect and commercial litigation for two years.
Savanna is the President of the West Volusia Florida Association for Women Lawyers (WVFAWL) Chapter. After graduating law school, she was hired as an associate at Vickaryous Law Firm where she has had the opportunity to represent Plaintiffs in personal injury, automobile collision, and wrongful death matters. Savanna’s favorite thing about practicing personal injury law is the ability to help people from all walks of life who have been injured through no fault of their own. “People walk into the firm and drop their biggest life problem off into my lap. I get the privilege to solve that problem. There is no better feeling than to call a client to tell them their problem is resolved.”- Savanna Gaslin. Outside of work, Savanna enjoys exercising, hiking with her two dogs and spending time with her husband, Samuel Gaslin.
Attorney at Law
Savanna’s latest articles
Five Things A First Year Lawyer Should Know - Oct, 2022 By Savanna Gaslin.
There’s so much to learn when starting out as a lawyer. Right now, you are among thousands of law school graduates that have recently passed the bar exam and are transitioning into a position as an associate attorney. Many of you are wondering: Where do I get my first job as a lawyer? How can I prove myself? What am I worth? Where do I begin?
I remember the anxiety of beginning my career as a lawyer. I know that it’s not easy. There are some things I wish I would have known as a new lawyer. That’s why I’ve composed this list of five things I wish I knew when starting out in the practice of law.
1. Your support staff knows a lot, so don’t be too prideful to ask them for help
When starting out as a lawyer, it’s likely that your experienced paralegals know far more than you do. That’s a good thing and it’s okay to ask them for help even though they aren’t lawyers. Most paralegals and other support staff have the practical knowledge to guide you through common issues that arise through the litigation process. Be kind to your support staff and they will go above and beyond for you.
2. Check, double check, and triple check your work… then check it again
As a first-year lawyer, you aren’t expected to know everything about the practice of law, but you are expected to submit clean and professional work absent of grammatical and spelling errors. Review your work a few times, walk away and revisit it with fresh eyes for another read. Submitting sloppy work sends the message that you just don’t care. Remember, your work product reflects on you.
3. Attempt the assignment first before you ask for help
Most things within the practice of law can be figured out by doing your due diligence and researching the issue. Start with the statute and then review the relevant case law. That’s right, just like you were taught in law school. If you still don’t have your answer, the Florida bar offers a hotline that you can call which will connect you with other lawyers who can point you in the right direction. Your supervising lawyer is busy. The last thing they want to hear is, “I didn’t know how to do it.” Draft something and learn from the mistakes you may have made.
4. Expect markups on your work and don’t take it personally
Strive for perfect work product but don’t expect it (especially as a first-year lawyer). I remember spending endless hours on an assignment only to get it back from my supervising lawyer bleeding with red ink mark-ups. I will never forget that feeling of disappointment. I felt like I was doing a terrible job and letting everyone down. Don’t take it personally, your first year is a huge learning curve. Instead of getting upset or down on yourself, absorb that corrective criticism and feedback. It will make you a better lawyer.
5. You can do this just as well as anyone else
I remember the day I signed up my first client. A family friend called and said he’d been injured at a commercial premises. “You handle injury claims, don’t you?” he asked. I responded, “I sure do!” ignoring that deep pit in my stomach called inexperience. After overcoming the initial panic and getting sound advice from my mentor and managing partner, Jim Vickaryous, on how to handle the case, I knew I could successfully resolve it. Exactly one year after the date of the incident, the client was thrilled when I delivered a massive settlement check.
This early case taught me that I can do this just as well as anyone else can. In fact, it gave me the confidence that not only can I do this, but I’m actually good at it. When I was first hired, I recall the managing partner of our firm telling me to think big picture. He said, “The first thing is to think through what you want to accomplish, start with the end in mind.” That advice stuck with me, and I’ve done it over and over again. It’s a lesson I’ve kept in mind through each case I’ve encountered in my practice as an injury lawyer. I slow down and think through how I’m going to succeed for my client.
I hope you carry these five tips and find them useful throughout your first year of practicing law and always remember, you can do it!
Injury Law And What It Means To Me - Jun, 2022 By Savanna Gaslin.
I like helping people and I enjoy being an advocate. That combination naturally led me to become a personal injury lawyer. Practicing injury law has afforded me the opportunity to help victims of negligence get the top financial settlement and hold companies accountable for their careless acts. The period following a personal injury incident is stressful and confusing for victims who are dealing with mounting medical bills, lost wages, and insurance companies hell-bent on shrugging off liability and responsibility. I am proud to be the injury attorney who fights for the maximum compensation under Florida law. After passing the Florida Bar, I was certain that practicing injury law was the right area of law for me. There truly is no better feeling than having a client walk into your office to drop off their biggest life problem, an issue that changed their life as they knew it and give them peace of mind.
Injury law, also known as tort law, is “harm suffered by a person due to some act or omission done by another person.” Stated another way, injury law, allows a person to recover money (legally known as monetary damages) when they are hurt and suffer an injury that was caused by another person’s act or omission.
Personal injury cases are the most common lawsuits. In fact, according to the Department of Justice, there are somewhere between 300,000 and 500,000 personal injury cases brought every year. Interestingly, 52% of those cases are a direct result of car wrecks.
As I previously mentioned, motor vehicle collisions represent more than half of all injury cases. I purposefully use the words “motor vehicle” because Florida injury law does not just encompass cars, but also commercial trucks, public transit (i.e., buses and taxis), motorcycles, boats, electric bicycles, or scooters and off-road or all-terrain vehicles. However, personal injuries are not just incurred from motor vehicle collisions. Personal injury cases can arise from other acts of negligence.
Another common cause of action under the umbrella of injury law is “Premises Liability”. Premises liability cases can occur from dog bites or slip and fall incidents. Dangerous conditions on a property can give rise to liability on behalf of a landowner. For example, a property owner who maintains negligent or inadequate security, has poor lighting, fails to maintain their property in a reasonably safe condition or fails to warn of the dangerous condition may be held liable if someone is injured. This could happen in a restaurant, supermarket, or any commercial establishment. Basically, any business that’s open to the public for the purposes of financial gain has a duty to inspect, fix and warn of dangerous conditions on their land. If a property owner breaches their duty, they may be held legally liable under Florida law.
Products liability causes of action are also frequently brought. Under products liability, individuals or business can be held liable for design defects, manufacturing defects, inadequate or failure to warn. By legal definition, design defects are poor designs that make a particular product inherently dangerous. A manufacturing defect is where a defect occurs during the manufacturing process. Finally, a failure to warn is exactly how it sounds. Failure to warn or inadequate warning occurs when a commercial seller fails to provide either adequate warnings or instructions on how to safely use a product and a person is injured as a result. These are the most common things that injury people every day and fall within the realm of injury law.
My name is Savanna Gaslin, and I am a personal injury lawyer. I represent people that have been injured in incidents ranging from automobile and truck wrecks, slip and falls, defective products, to construction mishaps and wrongful deaths. I help everyday people deal with the devastating effects of their injuries that were caused through no fault of their own. These injuries can result in long-lasting and sometimes debilitating physical and mental complications as well as the emotional and financial repercussions. I fight the legal battles for my clients, to get them the best financial settlement. I enjoy practicing injury law because I am passionate about helping victims of negligence get their lives back.