Our attorneys are ready to serve YOU in our Brandon office. Dean has been providing his clients with energetic, dynamic, and effective representation for nearly 30 years. His clients consider him a benefit to each case he handles. He’s a lawyer you want on your side.
Most importantly, we love God as well as our clients. We’re honest, industrious, and diligent. And we want to represent you in the best way possible while still honoring the Lord with our work.
Dean Burnetti
Early Life
Dean’s grandparents immigrated from Italy to the United States in the early 1900s with the promise of land and opportunity, only to be forced into sharecropping and harsh labor in the Deep South. It was for this reason that his parents then migrated to the Greater Chicago area, and Dean was born in Elgin, Illinois in 1957. During this time, Dean’s father began working for a major construction company as a laborer.
Only a few years after beginning his new job, Dean’s dad was involved in a work-related accident when a wall caved in on him at a construction site. As a result, he suffered multiple herniated discs in his low back. It was several months before he was able to have surgery, and afterwards, Dean watched as his dad strapped on a back brace and went to work despite his pain. Dean’s dad eventually worked his way up into supervision, all the while instilling the value of a good education in his children. But the memory of the way his dad would wince in pain and his face would turn ashen as he removed his back brace each evening stayed seared in Dean’s memory, even to this day.
Seminary
As Dean grew up, he took an interest and became very involved in church activities, including playing the piano and organ, and even teaching Sunday school. His faith in God was strong, and he felt very certainly that he one day wanted to serve the Lord with his career.
Upon graduation from high school, Dean left for seminary at Oklahoma Baptist Seminary in Marlow, Oklahoma, and received a Seminary Degree in Theology. This was where he met his sweetheart, Patti, and they were soon married.
Law School
As Dean graduated from seminary, the memory of his dad’s horrific back injury was still fresh in his mind. After much prayer and consideration, Dean felt that he would better serve the Lord as an attorney where he could help people in need. His parents and siblings had since moved to Central Florida where his dad had opened a convenience store, so Dean decided to move there and search for a Christian liberal arts college.
Three years later, Dean graduated from Warner University in Lake Wales, Florida, where he earned a Bachelor’s Degree for his double major in Psychology and Biblical Studies. He then returned to Oklahoma, and attended Oral Roberts University Law School in Tulsa, where he earned his Juris Doctorate degree.
Attorney Life
By this time, Dean and Patti had two daughters. Upon Dean’s graduation from Oral Roberts University in 1986, he packed up the family and moved back to Florida where, for the next few months, he studied for his Bar Exam as he worked the graveyard shift of his dad’s store. During this time, Patti worked the day shift as a cashier at Winn-Dixie, and Dean’s family shared a couple of bedrooms at his dad’s house in Lake Alfred.
When the opportunity finally came for Dean to take his Bar Exam, he passed on the first try, and received his license to practice law in the State of Florida.
When he first started practicing law, Dean focused on serving people who had been injured in work-related accidents. He felt this was a splendid way to honor his father as well as the Lord. Shortly after the turn of the century, Dean lost his father in an automobile accident. Because of that, as well as significant changes to laws in the field of Workers’ Compensation, he has expanded the focus of his practice to representing people who have been injured or suffered from disability from all types of accidents.
To date, Dean has been married to his wife, Patti, for nearly forty years, and they reside in Auburndale, Florida. Their two daughters have grown and married, and between them, they have given Dean and Patti twelve beautiful grandchildren. Dean is still a very active member of his church, and in 2015, he realized his dream of opening a Christian Law Firm where he is proud to serve God as well as his clients.
Education
- Seminary Degree in Theology, Oklahoma Baptist Seminary Pastoral Ministries, Marlow, Oklahoma, 1980
- B.A. in Psychology and Biblical Studies, Warner University, Lake Wales, Florida, 1983
- Juris Doctor, Oral Roberts University School of Law, Tulsa, Oklahoma, 1986
Licenses & Memberships
- Florida Bar Board Certified in Workers’ Compensation Law, 1992
- Florida Bar Board Certified in Civil Trial Law, 2013
- U.S. District Court Common Middle District of Florida 11th Circuit Court of Appeals
About
Dean has been married to his wife, Patti, for over 40 years, and together they have two daughters and twelve grandchildren. He enjoys global traveling, bicycling, playing guitar and piano, adding to his vintage Boy Scout collection, and serving the Lord.
Deuteronomy 25:1 If there is a dispute between men and they go to court, and the judges decide
their case, and they justify the righteous and condemn the wicked…