Mr. Wachs focuses on commercial litigation with an emphasis on disputes involving complex contracts, trade secrets, intellectual property, covenants not to compete, securities, and commercial products liability. He additionally routinely handles insurance coverage litigation, including litigating bad faith claims, reinsurance disputes, and agent/broker malfeasance claims.

Mr. Wachs received his J.D. from The Florida State University College of Law in 1993 with High Honors, where he served as an Associate Editor, an Articles Editor, and Chair of the Business Committee of the Florida State University, Law Review. He also obtained Book Awards in law school in State and Local Taxation, Unfair Competition, Florida Civil Practice, and Creditor’s Rights. He earned his B.A., magna cum laude, from the University of North Florida in 1990.

For more than 25 years, Mr. Wachs has held the highest rating (AV) from Martindale-Hubbell, a national attorney rating service. Florida Trend magazine has on numerous occasions named him among one of Florida’s “Legal Elite” in commercial litigation. Mr. Wachs has been named to Florida’s Super Lawyers list for many years and has been selected to The Best Lawyers in America list for the last several years. In the 2022 and 2026 editions of Best Lawyers, he was named the “Lawyer of the Year” in Insurance Litigation in Jacksonville.

Mr. Wachs is the former Chair of The Florida Bar Grievance Committee “B” for the Fourth Judicial Circuit. He is also an emeritus member and former active member of the Florida Board of Bar Examiners, the licensing arm of the Supreme Court of Florida. Mr. Wachs is also a Supreme Court of Florida Certified Circuit Court Civil Mediator, an approved Mediator for the United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida, and an approved Arbitrator on FINRA’s arbitration panel. Mr. Wachs has recently been appointed to serve on the Fifth District Court of Appeal Judicial Nominating Commission.

Mr. Wachs has consistently provided Board service to non-profits. Mr. Wachs was one of the founding Board Members of, and the Board Secretary for, Feeding Northeast Florida, the Feeding America affiliated food bank for all of Northeast Florida. He is also the prior Vice Chair of the Board of JaxMetro Credit Union on whose board he served for many years. He is currently a member of the Board of Trustees of the Cummer Museum.

Mr. Wachs has been a frequent lecturer for Florida Bar approved continuing legal education courses, including lectures on “Using Depositions at Trial,” “Commercial and Residential Landlord Tenant Litigation,” and “Bad Faith Litigation.” He authored Chapter 22, “Declaratory Judgments” in The Florida Bar’s Civil Practice Before Trial manual (7th, 8th, 9th, 10th, 11th and 12th, 13th and 14th editions) and wrote “The Emerging Trend Against Arbitration of Commercial Disputes: Pros and Cons of Including Arbitration Provisions in Commercial Contracts” published in the ACC-North Florida Chapter Newsletter Q1 2014. Mr. Wachs previously taught Insurance Law as an adjunct professor at the Florida Coastal School of Law.