• Attorney James Hanratty has relocated to Marshall Dennehey Warner Coleman & Goggin’s Jacksonville office. He joined the firm in 2006 as a shareholder with the firm’s Cleveland, Ohio, office. Hanratty focuses his practice on the resolution of motor vehicle, brain injury, product liability, construction and medical-related cases.
• KEL Attorneys has opened a Jacksonville office at 10151 Deerwood Park Blvd. in Southside. It will be headed by attorney Jared Lopez Loucel, who earned his law degree at Florida Coastal School of Law. Loucel previously served in the Family Law Clinic and Legal Aid office in Jacksonville before joining a general practice firm.
• Four lawyers with the Smith Hulsey & Busey law firm in Jacksonville have been chosen for Florida Trend magazine’s Florida’s 2012 “Legal Elite.” They are Stephen Busey, William Kuntz, Lanny Russell and Harry Wilson III. Busey, the firm’s chairman, also is recognized in the Legal Elite Hall of Fame.
• Michael Tanner and Thomas Bishop of Tanner Bishop are included on the 2012 list of Florida Super Lawyers and Tanner is among the 2012 list of Top 100 Florida Super Lawyers.
• Ann Smith of the Law Office of Ann K. Smith, P.A., has become a Florida Supreme Court certified circuit court mediator.
• Matt Breuer has become a partner with the Driver, McAfee, Peek & Hawthorne firm. He will focus on real estate and banking law. He formerly was a partner with Foley & Lardner.
• Amanda Eaton Ferrelle has joined Dawson Orr as Of Counsel. She will focus her practice on business and commercial litigation. She formerly was with the Bedell Firm.
• Duval County’s unemployment rate rose to a seasonally adjusted 8.7 percent in June from 8.1 percent in May but down from 10.51 percent in June 2011. University of North Florida economics professor Paul Mason adjusted figures released Friday from the state to account for seasonal factors. He said the unemployment rate in the five-county metropolitan statistical area fell to just below 8 percent. “It is clear that the unemployment rate rose in Duval while the rest of the MSA unemployment fell,” Mason said. He said June is traditionally the month in which the unemployment rate is affected by graduates and students looking for jobs in the summer.
• A resolution filed last week and introduced as an emergency to City Council on Tuesday would reschedule the 5 p.m. Council meeting Aug. 14 to 5 p.m. Aug. 15 and reschedule the Council Land Use and Zoning Committee meeting from 5 p.m. Nov. 6 to 5 p.m. Nov. 7. The reason is Aug. 14 and Nov. 6 are election days.