Andrew Smith
Arbitration Specialist — BMA Law
Hyde Park neighborhood of Tampa, Florida
Education
J.D., Stetson University College of Law. B.A. in Risk Management, University of South Florida. Served on the Stetson Law Review and competed in the school’s trial advocacy program. Focused coursework on insurance law and contractual interpretation.
Experience
18 years in insurance coverage disputes and property claim enforcement. Started at Kirkland & Voss, a Tampa insurance litigation firm, representing policyholders in hurricane damage, flood insurance, and commercial property coverage disputes for seven years. Spent two years at Navarro Chen LLP, a two-attorney practice handling condominium association coverage disputes and commercial roof damage claim enforcement. Joined BMA Law to focus on arbitration — the seasonal surge of hurricane-related claims and the urgency policyholders face in getting resolution before the next storm season made arbitration’s faster timeline essential. Has handled over 180 insurance coverage and property arbitration matters across the Tampa Bay area — hurricane damage coverage denials, flood insurance disputes, commercial property policy interpretation, and roof damage claim conflicts.
Arbitration Focus Areas
Insurance coverage disputes, property-related contract conflicts, commercial property claims, coverage exclusion interpretation, and bad faith denial analysis. Most of his work involves disputes involving policy coverage limits and claims handling interpretations.
Bar Admission & Memberships
The Florida Bar. Member, American Arbitration Association; Hillsborough County Bar Association; ABA Section of Insurance Coverage Litigation.
Publications
Published in the Florida Bar Journal and the Insurance Coverage Law Bulletin on property insurance dispute resolution, coverage arbitration trends, and hurricane claim enforcement.
Community Involvement
Volunteers with the Hillsborough County Bar Association’s hurricane preparedness legal clinic. Board member of Bay Area Legal Services’ disaster relief advisory committee.
Based in the Hyde Park neighborhood of Tampa, Florida. Passionate home cook specializing in regional Italian dishes. Enjoys casual Magic: The Gathering drafts and volunteers as a coach for youth soccer teams. Holds a Master classification in USPSA competitive shooting. Follows the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
A Case That Stayed With Andrew
One of the more complex matters Andrew handled involved a condominium association in 2022 whose $1.4 million hurricane damage claim was denied based on a “maintenance exclusion” in the master policy. The carrier argued that pre-existing roof wear — documented in a 2019 inspection report — contributed to the storm damage. An independent structural engineering report confirmed the damage was 94% storm-caused. The arbitration lasted six months. The association recovered $1.1 million — seventy-eight percent of the original claim — after Andrew demonstrated that the carrier’s own adjuster had photographed the roof two days after the storm and noted “catastrophic wind damage” before the denial was issued.
What Shaped His Approach
Andrew credits a senior litigator at Kirkland & Voss who told him that the best insurance attorneys are not the ones who know the most case law — they are the ones who can read a policy faster and more carefully than the adjuster who denied the claim. She made Andrew read 200 coverage denial files in his first year. By the end, he could identify the denial strategy from the first paragraph of the letter. That skill still defines his practice.
Where He Draws the Line
Andrew declined a $60,000 engagement in 2022 to represent a property owner whose building had a $280,000 hurricane claim — legitimate damage — but who had materially misrepresented the building’s construction type on the insurance application, listing “concrete block” when the structure was wood frame. The misrepresentation voided the foundation of the claim. Andrew told the owner the truth and walked away.
Building Something That Lasts
Beyond individual cases, Andrew has developed a hurricane claim documentation protocol in 2021 that is now used by four Tampa-area public adjusters as a standard for organizing coverage dispute evidence. The protocol includes a 47-point checklist covering everything from initial damage photography to contractor bid documentation. It has been used in over 60 matters and was shared as a practice resource through the Hillsborough County Bar Association.
The Path to Law
Andrew switched from a pre-med track at USF to law school after watching his parents spend two years — from 2003 to 2005 — fighting their insurance company over $42,000 in storm damage to their Seminole Heights home. The carrier denied the claim, then offered $8,000 on a policy that should have covered the full amount. His parents settled because they could not afford an attorney. Andrew went to Stetson Law instead of medical school. He has never questioned the decision.
Beyond the Practice
Andrew runs a hurricane preparedness legal clinic through the Hillsborough County Bar Association since 2021 that helps property owners review their coverage before storm season — not after. The clinic served 340 property owners in 2025 and identified coverage gaps in roughly 40% of the policies reviewed. It operates from a community center in Town ‘n’ Country.
How He Works
Andrew begins every hurricane season by publishing a free coverage review checklist for Tampa Bay property owners on the Hillsborough County Bar Association website. The 2025 edition was downloaded 2,200 times. The time to discover your policy has a gap is before the storm — not after, when you are standing in your living room with six inches of water and a denied claim.
Andrew earned a Haag Engineering residential roof certification in 2022 — the same credential used by the engineers that insurance carriers hire to deny claims. The program cost $1,200 and took three weeks of study. In his next case, he used the certification to challenge a carrier engineer’s finding that hail damage was “mechanical” — a $190,000 distinction that changed the case outcome.
Practice Notes
Andrew has particular depth in insurance contracts. A common mistake Andrew sees: coverage confusion. In his experience, policy terms are among the most frequent triggers. His approach leans toward clarity-first — getting to a decision point before costs compound.
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