The complaint, filed on August 14, 2026, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida’s Tallahassee Division, names The Florida Bar alongside Executive Director Joshua E. Doyle, Chief Ethics Counsel Jonathan Grabb, and Orlando Branch Chief Discipline Counsel Laura N. Gryb in their official capacities.
The regulation bans such content across print, broadcast, and digital formats, including websites and social media platforms. The rule includes limited exceptions, such as non-endorsing local radio announcers and testimonials from celebrities who are actual current or former clients.
The lawsuit alleges the restriction violates both the First Amendment and the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. According to the complaint, the rule is unconstitutionally vague because it defines a celebrity as anyone who is “recognizable” to an intended audience on a national, regional, or local level, without providing a clear standard for how that threshold is determined.
“The First Amendment protects a lawyer’s right to advertise. Yet for decades, Florida has stood alone among the states in imposing the most restrictive measures on attorney advertising, banning lawyers from using a celebrity’s voice or image in their ads, even as insurance companies run ads featuring celebrities like Peyton Manning and Jason Bateman every day,” said Deepak Gupta of Gupta Wessler LLP, counsel for the plaintiffs. “This rule doesn’t protect the public, it protects the industries and interests that already have the upper hand against consumers, while silencing the lawyers who represent them.”…