Kelly Barcia Nunez

Kelly Nunez has practiced workers' compensation and personal injury law in Florida for more than 30 years. She is a founding partner at Barbas Nunez Sanders Butler & Hovsepian, a Tampa native, and one of a small number of partner-level attorneys in Florida who handle cases in Spanish as fluently as English — not as a service the firm offers, but as a native capability she has brought to client representation throughout her career.

Workers' compensation isn't a side practice for Kelly. It's the work she has built her career around. She has stood alongside injured workers and accident victims at some of the most difficult moments of their lives — when the bills are stacking up, when the employer is applying pressure, and when the carrier has already decided what the claim is worth. She has spent three decades learning how that system operates and how to move through it effectively on behalf of the people it's supposed to protect.

Her approach is direct. She is known among clients for the clarity she brings to every stage of a case — explaining what is happening, why it matters, and what the realistic options are. That directness, delivered in English or Spanish, is something clients notice from the first conversation.

Su abogada habla español.

Kelly earned a Bachelor of Science, cum laude, from the University of Florida in 1988, and a Juris Doctor, cum laude, from Stetson University in 1990 — where she served as Chapter Justice of Phi Alpha Delta Law Fraternity and was listed in Who's Who Among American Law Students. She has been a published legal author and seminar lecturer throughout her career, contributing to the development of workers' compensation law in Florida well before most practitioners entered the field.

Her practice has focused on workers' compensation and personal injury throughout her career, with particular depth in cases involving serious injuries, disputed claims, and carriers who have dug in against legitimate claimants. She has also conducted private mediations — a role available to attorneys-only referrals — reflecting the depth of her command of how workers' compensation disputes are evaluated and resolved.

Admitted: Florida Bar; U.S. District Court, Middle District of Florida; U.S. Supreme Court; U.S. Court of Appeals, Eleventh Circuit; U.S. Court of Federal Claims
Education: University of Florida, B.S. cum laude, 1988 | Stetson University, J.D. cum laude, 1990
Languages: English, Spanish

Publications

"A Look at Workers' Compensation Immunity" — Pinellas County Review, March 1991
"Bypassing the Secondary Heart Attack" — News and Four-Forty Report, Summer 1991 (co-authored)
"The Recently Hired Employee's Heart Attack" — Hillsborough County Bar Association Lawyer Magazine, June/July 1991

Seminar Lectures

"West Coast Guide to Litigation" — 1993/94
"Changes in Attitudes, Changes in Latitudes" — 1995
"A Look at Florida's Workers' Compensation Law" — 1996
"Social Security Disability Insurance Offset — The Real Math" — 1998
Florida Regional Workers' Compensation Professionalism Workshop — panel member, 1999

Bar Memberships and Professional Organizations

Florida Bar — Workers' Compensation Section; Practice Management Section
Hillsborough County Bar Association — Workers' Compensation Section; Social Security Section Committee Member
American Bar Association
Hillsborough Association of Women Lawyers (HAWLS)
Phi Alpha Delta Law Fraternity — Chapter Justice, 1989–90
Who's Who Among American Law Students — listed

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Founding Partner | Workers' Compensation & Personal Injury | Bilingual — Spanish & English

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Recognition, Publications, & Professional Memberships