Overview

Amit Agarwal is co-chair of Holland & Knight's appellate litigation team and a partner in the firm's Tallahassee and Washington, D.C., offices. Mr. Agarwal focuses his practice on federal and state appellate litigation, complex and high-stakes issues, and federal, state and internal investigations.

Some of his recent successes include:

  • successfully presented oral argument to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit on behalf of a large coalition of generic pharmaceutical manufacturers who are among the defendants in this complex multidistrict litigation
  • successfully briefed and argued a contract dispute involving the interpretation of the Florida Settlement Agreement; that win resulted in a one-time payment to the state of approximately $100 million and substantial additional yearly payments on an ongoing basis
  • successfully briefed and argued en banc case addressing the constitutionality of the Stored Communications Act

Mr. Agarwal previously served as Florida's solicitor general within the Office of the Attorney General. In this role, Mr. Agarwal was the chief appellate litigator for the state, representing Florida in the U.S. Supreme Court and supervising civil and criminal appeals in all lower courts. As solicitor general, he also served as the Richard W. Ervin Eminent Scholar Chair at the Florida State University College of Law, where he taught a course on the separation of powers.

Before that, Mr. Agarwal served as deputy chief of the Appellate Division of the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Florida. In this role, he supervised 20 appellate attorneys. He also served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Major Crimes Section and the Appellate Division, where he briefed and argued civil and criminal appeals in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, including an en banc case addressing a constitutional challenge to the Stored Communications Act. He also prosecuted a broad range of federal crimes, including firearms, healthcare fraud, identity theft, bank robbery and narcotics offenses.

Mr. Agarwal also previously served as an attorney advisor in the Office of Legal Counsel of the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), where he rendered formal and informal legal advice to the Office of the President of the United States, the Attorney General, DOJ components and federal administrative agencies. He served in this role under President George W. Bush and President Barack Obama. Mr. Agarwal then served as a law clerk to the Honorable Samuel Alito Jr., Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court.

After law school, Mr. Agarwal served as a law clerk for three federal appellate judges: the Honorable Samuel Alito Jr., and Honorable Edward Becker in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, and the Honorable Brett Kavanaugh in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

Credentials

Education
  • Georgetown University Law Center, J.D., magna cum laude
  • Duke University, B.A., English
Bar Admissions/Licenses
  • Florida
  • Maryland
Court Admissions
  • U.S. Supreme Court
  • U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit
  • Florida Supreme Court
  • All Appellate Courts in Florida
  • U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida
  • U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida
  • U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida
Memberships
  • American Criminal Law Review, Editor-in-Chief
Honors & Awards
  • Richard W. Ervin Eminent Scholar Chair, Florida State University College of Law
  • Cornerstone Award, South Asian Bar Association of North America, 2019
  • Director's Award for Superior Performance as an Assistant U.S. Attorney, U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), 2016
  • 40 Under 40 in South Florida, Daily Business Journal, 2015
  • Order of the Coif

Publications

Speaking Engagements

News