Attorney Anthony Barbuto Expanding His Wellington Law Practice
Anthony Barbuto is licensed to practice law in three different states, but he settled in Wellington and has been practicing his craft here since 2008. “The law is not what brought me to Florida. Family is what brought me to Florida,” he said. “I liked it, and I stayed. I took the bar, and I stayed.”
While Barbuto Law & Associates P.A. has been around for some time, he more recently formed Barbuto & Johansson P.A., a practice devoted to personal injury law, with fellow attorney Carly Johansson.
“The thousands of clients that I have, they’ll call me up and say, ‘Hey, Anthony, I had an accident,’ or, ‘I know someone who had an accident; can you help me?’ and I wasn’t really focusing on that area,” Barbuto said. “But now I’m going to keep helping my clients in this particular area.”
Barbuto Law & Associates still remains the general practice, managing civil litigations, estate planning, wills and trusts, probate, family and equestrian cases. Clients will still go to Barbuto’s current location at 12773 W. Forest Hill Blvd. in Wellington for those types of queries, but now can meet specifically for personal injury cases there under Barbuto & Johansson.
“Carly has worked with me for several years. She has some background as well in personal injury, and it’s a project that we decided to be partners on,” Barbuto said. “She has a strong litigation background… and I worked for an insurance defense firm, so we decided we have very good synergy together.”
Barbuto has been a Wellington resident since 2008, when he succeeded longtime community lawyer Ann Porath at her firm’s practice upon her retirement.
“I came to Wellington from Fort Lauderdale, working for an insurance defense law firm,” Barbuto said. “Ann was the first lawyer to practice in Wellington on a full-time basis back in the 1980s. She was preparing to retire, so I came and took over her practice.”
Born and raised in Wayne, N.J., Barbuto is licensed to practice law in Florida, California and New Jersey. He took each state’s bar exams, one after the other.
He is proud to be a resident in Florida, and even more so a member of the Wellington community. “I couldn’t imagine being anywhere else in Florida,” he said.
Barbuto does have a home away from home. He and his wife, Rovena, and son, Leonardo, spend at least six weeks each year in Florence, Italy, where Barbuto met Rovena, who is a native of Italy.
“I still work, but I do very much enjoy traveling to Italy,” Barbuto said. “We have family there, and we’re trying to raise my son, when he starts talking, to be fluent in the Italian language.”
Many of Barbuto’s clients live in the equestrian communities of Wellington.
“We’re very busy with equestrian law. We do equestrian-related issues, ranging from agricultural classification applications [to] lease agreements for stalls or barns,” he said. “We do equestrian litigation when there are disputes relating to maybe misrepresentation of the sale of a horse [and] disputes relating to the ownership of a horse. We do horse issues in probate. There are horse issues in divorces.”
Barbuto has also helped clients from Wellington who own homes in Italy.
“I have a lot of Italian clients. I have clients in Italy who are involved in the equestrian business and have business interests or real estate interests here in the U.S., so I do still work there, not only work from Italy for my clients here, but I still generate business and meet with clients in Italy,” he said.
Barbuto is a member of the Wellington Chamber of Commerce. He does community service work throughout the year through the village’s adopt-a-street program. He is also a member of the Florida Bar’s Animal Law Section.
“If someone is interested in tax law, there are certain sections of the Florida Bar where a lot of the tax attorneys get together,” Barbuto explained. “So, the section that I’m involved in is animal law and the real property and probate law.”
Barbuto is also a licensed roofing contractor. The license is useful when he deals with construction cases at his practice.
“It’s something I obtained around 2001. My father is in the commercial roofing business,” Barbuto said. “I renew it each year, but I don’t actually have a [roofing] company.”
No matter where Barbuto is in the world, he is devoted to his practice and the people he serves.
“I really love Wellington for many reasons,” he said. “I’m a resident of Wellington. I’m a homeowner in Wellington. I live in Binks Forest with my wife and son. I love the community and the people. I’m very grateful for that, so I don’t plan on leaving.”
To contact Barbuto Law & Associates, call (561) 798-2907 or visit www.barbutolaw.com. To contact Barbuto & Johansson, call (561) 444-7980 or visit www.injurylawfirm 4all.com.
