Dawn Vallejos-Nichols graduated with Honors from the University of Florida College of Law in 1994. Following graduation, Dawn was employed for two years as an attorney with Three Rivers Legal Services, where she interned with a fellowship grant during her final year of law school.
Since joining Avera & Smith in 1996, Dawn has represented Florida’s injured in personal injury cases of almost every description. She now serves as Managing Partner for Avera & Smith.
Currently, Dawn’s primary focus at the firm is wrongful death and personal injury litigation against tobacco manufacturing giants R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company and Philip Morris USA, Inc. Dawn played an instrumental role in winning two of the most significant cases in recent years with verdicts against R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company – one verdict for $34.7 million and another for $34.6 million; as well as a verdict against both R.J. Reynolds and Philip Morris in the amount of $18.7 million. Additional successful verdicts were rendered against these companies in amounts between $3 million and $12.5 million.
These cases received national attention and set an important precedent for all attorneys who battle the endless resources and limitless dollars that tobacco companies use in their efforts to deny victims who have suffered illness and death from the use of their products. To date, Dawn has been involved in the trial of 21 tobacco cases, achieving over $100 million in tobacco verdicts and settlements, and she is currently working with partner Rod Smith to bring another case to trial this year.
Dawn has served on the board of directors of the Eighth Judicial Circuit Bar Association continuously since 2005 and served as its President from 2012–13. She has also edited the EJCBA’s monthly newsletter, Forum 8, since 2005 and received the President’s Award for Service for that publication in 2007. She has served on the board of directors for both the Guardian Foundation and Three Rivers Legal Services since 2017 and 2018, respectively; she has been Chair of the Guardian Foundation since 2020.
Prior service includes sitting on the Judicial Nominating Commission for the Northern Conference in Florida from 2013-2017. Dawn also served for many years as a member of the James C. Adkins, Jr. American Inns of Court and the Gerald T. Bennett American Inns of Court at the “Master” level. In the community, she served for several years as a member of the Constituency Board for CARD, the Center for Autism and Related Disabilities.
Dawn has been honored by the American Institute of Personal Injury Attorneys as one of the 10 Best Female Attorneys for Client Satisfaction in North Florida. She has also been named a Lawyer of Distinction for multiple years, as well as a “Super Lawyer.”
Dawn and her husband, Eduardo, a Professor at the University of Florida, have two grown daughters, Natalia and Sophia.
