About Gilbert Schaffnit

“Gilbert A. Schaffnit, Esquire graduated Phi Beta Kappa with his undergraduate degree from the University of Florida in 1974. In 1977, Mr. Schaffnit graduated from the University of Florida’s College of Law. Mr. Schaffnit has practiced criminal defense in Alachua County and surrounding counties for over forty (40) years. His practice focuses on federal state and criminal defense. Mr. Schaffnit is a sole practitioner with a select number of cases that receive his individual attention.”

Mr. Schaffnit is a member of the Florida Bar as well as the Bars of the Northern District of Florida, Middle District of Florida, the Sixth and Eleventh Circuit Courts of Appeals, and the United States Supreme Court. Mr. Schaffnit has also been retained to be admitted pro hac vice in other jurisdictions, both state and federal, to represent clients in various criminal cases in the Southern District of Florida and all over the United States.

Mr. Schaffnit is the former Defender Services Advisory Group Representative for the 11th Circuit and the Chair of the Criminal Justice Act Committee in and for the Northern District of Florida.

Mr. Schaffnit is the current President and co-founder of the North Central Florida Chapter of the Federal Bar Association. He has served as Gainesville Chapter President of the Florida Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers and is a member of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers.

Mr. Schaffnit is an adjunct professor at the University of Florida, College of Law and speaks nationally at conferences and seminars concerning the prosecution and defense of sex offenses and the Federal Sentencing Guidelines as they apply to child pornography and traveling to meet a minor prosecutions. In 2015, Mr. Schaffnit co-authored a chapter on federal child pornography sentencing for the Civil Research Institutes book entitled “The Sex Offender”.

Gilbert A. Schaffnit has, for the past twenty (20) years, consistently received the highest rating from Martindale & Hubbell (A/V rating) and has been a member of The National Trial Lawyers Top 100 Trial Lawyers since 2013.