COUNSEL ON COUNCIL
Three Attorneys Now Represent Wellington Residents On The Dais Story by Julie Unger • Photos by Abner Pedraza
The Wellington Village Council has included lawyers before, but one of the striking differences about the new council seated after the March election is that three members — a majority — are attorneys. Councilmen John McGovern, Michael Drahos and Michael Napoleone are the counsel on the council. McGovern is a trial lawyer, or litigator, who represents people injured by the negligence of someone else, be it an individual or a corporation. He earned his law degree at the University of Florida in 1999 and was admitted to the Florida Bar in 2000. McGovern is a managing partner at McGovern Gerardi Law P.A., while balancing life as husband to wife Michelle and father to daughters Emilia, 10, and Victoria, 8. McGovern anticipates more brief, succinct council meetings in the coming years with three lawyers sitting on the dais. He believes that it will provide a benefit to residents to have three individuals, who just happen to be lawyers, working for the good of one client — the community of Wellington. “Wellington has a village attorney,” McGovern said. “Another challenge of having three lawyers on the council is we are not Wellington’s lawyer. We are not here practicing law. That’s not our job, and that’s one of the things, since being appointed a year ago, that I’ve worked very hard at.” He is always quick to remember his role on the dais. “In dealing with the village attorney, I’m the client, not the lawyer,” he said.
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The job of the council, McGovern explained, is to safeguard what is best for the future of Wellington and its residents. As a father, McGovern explained that striving to do the right things for the right reasons becomes even more important as his daughters learn more about his occupation and position on the council. “There’s nothing harder than trying to explain a decision at the dinner table at your own house,” he said. But he can’t imagine doing anything else, given his healthy respect and curiosity about the law. “Through the law, even the largest of problems can be resolved in a fair and equitable way, such that an individual, a community, a neighborhood, can get a result through an orderly process, and I think that’s what the law is,” McGovern said. “It’s a way to solve problems.” Drahos found law to be his calling when he was in eighth grade and saw the movie A Few Good Men. “There was something about that movie, and the dramatic nature of courtroom cases and watching them unfold; I was drawn to that immediately,” he said. “Ever since I was young, it’s a
profession that I found to be admirable and one that could do a lot of good in people’s lives. I’ve found it to be exactly as I expected, which is rare. I consider myself really fortunate.” Drahos specializes in civil defense, where he defends corporations and other clients in large-exposure personal injury cases, focusing mostly on maritime medical malpractice, as well as liability. “Any type of product, from roller coasters to bicycles to basketball hoops to automotive component parts to agricultural parts, I handle them all,” he said. Drahos graduated from Florida State University in 1999 with an English degree before attending Nova Southeastern University for law school, graduating in 2002. He has spent his entire legal career with Fowler White Burnett P.A. He predicts that council meetings will flow more efficiently with a more professional tone. “We, as lawyers, are trained to be adversarial on behalf of our clients, but most good lawyers are able to know, when the job is over, you don’t take it outside of the courtroom,” Drahos said. “I believe this will translate well into this council, because we are inevitably going to have debate up there over what we feel is best for Wellington, but when that debate is over, we’ll be able to move on to the next issue without carrying baggage. That is exactly what Wellington needs.”