Jounice Nealy-Brown

Overview

Jounice Nealy-Brown is a litigator who counsels businesses and institutions in a variety of matters, including employment law issues, labor relations, labor disputes, and professional liability. Her experience includes working with clients in the healthcare, technology, cybersecurity, manufacturing, higher education, nonprofit, real estate, and construction sectors. She regularly represents companies in pre-litigation, mediation, arbitration, and all other phases of litigation to trial.

Jounice handles matters that involve allegations of unfair labor practices, discrimination, harassment, and retaliation. She assists clients in matters involving grievances, contract disputes, business torts, non-competition agreements, non-solicitation agreements, whistleblower claims, partnership agreements, class action, and complex commercial cases, including breach of fiduciary duty, misappropriation of trade secrets, and shareholder disputes. She also has experience in probate and guardianship litigation.

Jounice works closely with clients to understand their goals, evaluate legal and business risks, and develop tailored solutions that support their broader objectives. She focuses on being a thoughtful listener, detail-oriented advocate, and practical advisor who helps clients navigate challenges with clarity and confidence.

Jounice is the past President of the St. Petersburg Bar Association, for which she served as the 100^th president from 2024 to 2025.

She joined Gunster after serving as a federal judicial law clerk for The Honorable Anthony E. Porcelli and The Honorable Mary S. Scriven, both of the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida, Tampa Division.

Jounice graduated cum laude from Stetson University College of Law, where she was selected for the Honors Program. While at Stetson, Jounice was an associate member of Stetson Law Review and received the Outstanding New Associate Award in addition to the Walter Mann Award for showing the greatest promise of leadership in the legal profession.

In addition to her Juris Doctor degree, Jounice has her Master of Business Administration from The University of Miami, where she also earned the Academic Merit Award.

She is very involved in her church, currently serving as a member of the Hospitality Committee, which focuses on orientation for and outreach to new members, and formerly volunteering as a children’s Sunday School teacher.  Jounice has also long served on the board of Suncoast Credit Union, which is a non-profit financial institution that also helps provide financial services to under-served communities.

Prior to her legal career, Jounice worked as a newspaper journalist, sales and marketing executive, and a strategic corporate communications director at the Tampa Bay Times.