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Stephen W. Buckley celebrates 50 years with the firm this year! He says he never intended to stay in Florida after his grandparents offered to pay for his college at the “new” Edison College (now Florida SouthWestern State College). His planned to get his education in Florida and move back to Connecticut where he grew up. His grandparents had been vacationing on the other coast and moved to Fort Myers in the 1950s. “None of the kids or grandkids were close by, so they asked me if I would come down and start my college and they would help with expenses.” He transferred to the University of Florida for his undergraduate degree in journalism and then Florida State University for his law degree. “One of the kids in the class asked the assistant dean where he would go to practice law, and he said Fort Myers,” Buckley said. “I had ties in Fort Myers.” He said he always knew he wanted to be a lawyer. His father and grandparents were in real estate. “I grew up with real estate law,” he said. Now he assists clients with wills, trusts, estate planning, probate, real estate and real property law cases. Buckley is a top-rated lawyer under the Martindale-Hubbell Peer Review rating system. After graduating from law school in 1969, he moved to Florida and joined the firm, then seven years old and located in downtown Fort Myers in its present location at the corner of Main Street and Broadway. Fort Myers was a different place when he started. Area Bar meetings were held in a corner of the former Snack House restaurant. Edison Mall had just opened, pulling Sears and J.C. Penney’s from downtown. When he started, he said there were five men’s stores downtown. “Attorneys wore suits more then than they do now,” he said, “Everyone dressed to the hilt.” Stephen W. Buckley celebrates 50 years with the firm Buckley has seen tremendous change in the law through the years. “I think today there are more judges than attorneys,” he said. “When I started there were two circuit judges and one county judge.” He remembers one of his first cases was to get a woman in real estate the right to sell property she owned without consent of her husband, which was the rule at the time. Shortly after he was able to make her a “free dealer,” the rule was abolished. He also remembers a case where he worked with the Coast Guard to have a man declared dead who disappeared in the Bermuda Triangle on a flight to Bimini. Without a body, it would have taken five years for his spouse to get a death certificate. He said the investigation determined how much fuel the plane had and every place the plane could have landed. The plane, the man and his passenger were never found. He enjoys spending time vacationing at his home in Maine, but Buckley says he has no intention of retiring. “I enjoy what I’m doing,” he said. “I don’t play golf. I don’t play tennis. I don’t fish. I’ll just keep doing it while I can, and the clients want to work with me. My wife would have a long honey-do list if I did retire.” He and his wife, Bonnie, who he met in Fort Myers at a roller-skating rink, celebrate their 50 th wedding anniversary in August.

For the fourteenth year, Goldstein, Buckley, Cechman, Rice & Purtz, P.A. offices are collecting toys to be distributed by the U.S. Marine Corps Toys for Tots Foundation. Toys for Tots donations will be collected until Dec. 15, when they will be picked up and distributed by Toys for Tots to approved local social welfare agencies, church groups and other organizations. “Supporting community-based organizations is within the core of Goldstein, Buckley, Cechman, Rice & Purtz, P.A., and these Toys for Tots donations are an exemplary example of a local organization having a tremendous impact,” said Managing Partner Chris Smith. “It’s our privilege to be a part of the community for nearly 60 years, so we feel it’s important to give back.” In 2019, Toys for Tots donations in Lee County distributed 55,321 toys to 16,422 children, sizable increases from the 38,090 toys and 10,960 children supported during the previous year. In Collier County, Toys for Tots distributed 28,579 toys to 4,497 children last year. The public is invited to bring new, unwrapped toys for newborn children through age 12 to any of the six Goldstein, Buckley, Cechman, Rice & Purtz offices. In addition, members of the firm also donate toys for the drive. Goldstein, Buckley, Cechman, Rice & Purtz locations accepting Toys for Tots donations include: Fort Myers – Downtown: 1515 Broadway St., 239-334-1146 Fort Myers – McGregor: 2300 McGregor Blvd., 239-332-9437 Cape Coral – 461 Del Prado Blvd., 239-574-5575 Naples – 2590 Northbrooke Plaza Drive, Suite 105, 239-514-0924 Lehigh Acres – 4802 Lee Blvd., 239-368-6101 Port Charlotte – New Office: 2602 Tamiami Trail, 941-624-2393 In addition to donations of toys, monetary donations also are accepted at www.toysfortots.org.

Attorney Eve Kosciuszko Joins the Firm Distinguished Ave Maria School of Law graduate and Attorney Eve Kosciuszko joins the firm Goldstein, Buckley, Cechman, Rice & Purtz. Her practice will focus on general civil litigation, commercial litigation, estate planning and probate. Kosciuszko was admitted to the Florida Bar after graduating magna cum laude from Ave Maria School of Law in May 2019, ranking fourth in her class. She earned the Book Awards for highest grade in her class for Commercial Law, Healthcare Law, and Research, Writing & Advocacy. As a Moot Court Board member, Kosciuszko won best oralist of the St. Thomas More Oral Advocacy Competition and the Robert H. Bork Appellate Team Competition and Best Brief. She received the Saint Francis Cabrini Award for excellence in clinical programs for her work in the Ave Maria Law School’s Estate Planning Clinic. She was associate editor on the Ave Maria Law Review, secretary of the Ave Chapter Federalist Society, Dean’s Delegate and the student commencement speaker. Kosciuszko is a board member of the Southwest Florida Federal Court Bar Association and was a judicial intern clerk to the U.S. District Judge Sheri Polster Chappell and to the U.S. Magistrate Judge Mac R. McCoy. Originally from Brooklyn, N.Y., Kosciuszko moved to Southwest Florida in 2005. She graduated summa cum laude from Hodges University with a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration and Marketing and worked for eight years in the senior aging and health care industry. “As an award-winning second career law student, Attorney Eve Kosciuszko joins the firm and brings proven speaking ability and courtroom exposure,” said Christopher Smith, partner. “Her well-rounded experience working in the senior aging and health care industry makes her especially knowledgeable about senior issues.”