Joshua T. Higgins

Joshua Higgins is a Partner and Business Unit Leader at Kelley Kronenberg where he focuses his practice on workers’ compensation defense. He has previous experience handling employment law matters, Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA) issues, police professional litigation, correctional healthcare, and civil rights claims.

The team that Joshua leads comprises of nine (9) people (attorneys, paralegals, and legal assistants), which collectively have over 100 years’ experience handling workers’ compensation matters in Florida. Joshua handles workers’ compensation claims for a wide array of industries, for a clientele that ranges from multi-billion companies to small employers.

One of the primary industries Joshua handles workers’ compensation claims for is the construction industry. He represents general contractors and subcontractors of all sizes, and is enmeshed in the construction industry of South Florida. He is an active member of the Construction Association of South Florida (CASF), where he has been on the Young Leaders Committee for several years (and the firm is the legal advisor to), he is involved in the Associated General Contractors (AGC), for which he was instrumental in having the Fort Lauderdale office of Kelley Kronenberg designated as the host for the meetings in South Florida, and he is the legal advisor to the Safety Alliance for Excellence (SAFE) since its inception. He assists his clients daily in all aspects of claims handling, both prior to and after litigation has begun, and has handled complex matters through trial on numerous occasions, with a high percentage of success.

Joshua is a popular and frequent writer and presenter on various workers’ compensation issues, both in Florida and on a national level.  For his success and reputation, he has been named a Florida Super Lawyers Rising Star for 2020 – 2023 (bestowed on less than 2.5% of attorneys in Florida), was named a 2020, 2021, and 2022 Top Lawyer in workers’ compensation by Fort Lauderdale Illustrated (one of only two defense attorneys on the list), and was named a 2022 and 2023 Best Lawyers in America: Ones to Watch by U.S. News & World Report.  Joshua is also rated AV Preeminent by Martindale-Hubbell, based upon peer reviews, which indicates that he has achieved the highest professional and ethical standards and is the highest rating a lawyer can receive.

Joshua is also the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of In the Know, a monthly workers’ compensation newsletter, providing up-to-date “KK Takeaways” from recent 1st DCA and JCC Final Compensation Orders.

Prior to joining the firm, Joshua worked as an Assistant State Attorney at the State Attorney’s Office, 17th Judicial Circuit, in both the felony trial unit and county court division. While there, Joshua tried more than 30 bench trials and 22 jury trials, with his last trial featured on local Fox news.

During law school at Nova Southeastern University, Joshua served for two years as the Chairperson of Administration for the Moot Court Honor Society, a Staff Member for the Inter-American Center for Human Rights, and the Secretary for the National Security and Law Society. He received a perfect score from the Chief Justice in the first round of the ABA National Appellate Advocacy Competition, and placed in the top 8 out of more than 125 students in the Feinrider Moot Court Competition. Further, Joshua was one of 40 law students selected nationwide as a summer fellow for the Florida Bar Foundation, which resulted in him working at Coast to Coast Legal Aid of South Florida doing foreclosure defense for indigent elderly citizens.

Prior to entering law school, Joshua obtained his undergraduate degree magna cum laude from the State University of New York at Buffalo, where he was selected for induction into the prestigious Phi Beta Kappa Society, received English Departmental Honors, and was listed in Who’s Who Among American College Students. Additionally, Joshua was chosen as a Renaissance Scholar, an award bestowed on less than 4% of graduates that year (only 82 students out of a class size of more than 2500), for those exhibiting scholarly excellence in at least two widely disparate areas of study.