Peggy Smith Bush

Peggy is a shareholder in the Casualty Department and an accomplished litigator, advocate, and counselor with more than 23 years of experience. She focuses her practice on defending corporations, large self-insureds, and public entities in cases involving negligence, transportation and trucking liability, and premises liability. Born and raised in North Alabama, Peggy is known for pairing strategic, results-oriented litigation with professionalism, civility, and a practical approach to problem-solving.

Peggy routinely defends claims arising from motor vehicle accidents, premises liability, product liability, negligent security, and general liability. Her broad experience also extends to commercial matters—such as breach of contract and indemnification—as well as code compliance, environmental toxic torts, crisis management, false imprisonment, malicious prosecution, negligent hiring and retention, and ADA accessibility claims, including complex website accessibility disputes. She also brings more than a decade of experience in public entity defense, with extensive knowledge of Florida’s Public Records Act, Sunshine Law, sovereign immunity, statutory limitations, fee-shifting provisions, and compliance and enforcement issues. She regularly works alongside risk management professionals on investigations, litigation, and risk avoidance strategies.

Peggy began her career at a respected Orlando defense firm, gaining valuable trial experience before becoming a founding shareholder of Southern Trial Counsel | PLC in 2010, where she also served as managing partner. Her legal career is rooted in a broader 40-year career working with and for businesses, which began in television and radio before moving into the financial industry, where she held Series 7, Series 6, and Series 63 licenses as a stockbroker. While working her way through law school, Peggy clerked for the in-house general counsel of an international restaurant company headquartered in Orlando. Today, she is recognized with Martindale-Hubbell’s highest rating (5.0/5.0 Preeminent©), and is also a Florida Supreme Court Certified Mediator and a Certified Claims and Litigation Management Professional.

Outside of the courtroom, Peggy has been married to her husband, Stephen, since 1985. They live in Orlando with their twin boys, Jack Hunter and Finn, and their calico cat, Harlie. Peggy treasures family time, enjoys music, cooking, and reading, and is dedicated to mentoring the next generation of attorneys.