Lauren Leikam

Lauren Leikam is a professional license defense attorney with Chapman Law Group. She is a former prosecutor for the Florida Department of Health and has many years of experience prosecuting health professionals. She knows all too well the impact a disciplinary action can have on a health professional’s career. Lauren now dedicates her career to the defense of health professionals. While her primary location is the Sarasota office, Lauren travels across the state of Florida helping health professionals protect their licenses.

Lauren obtained a Bachelor of Science in Criminology from the University of Tampa in 2005, and a Juris Doctorate from Florida State University in 2008.

Throughout law school, Lauren successfully represented individuals accused of committing crimes for the Public Defender’s Office of the Second Judicial Circuit. Lauren also graduated with recognition for her outstanding public service to the Capital Crimes Division, where she assisted in the defense of individuals facing the death penalty.

In 2009, Lauren dove into her practice of administrative law when she became a Special Deputy Hearing Officer for the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity. She administered approximately 40 unemployment hearings per week for a period of three years, which included topics such as qualification for benefits, discrimination, harassment, Family Medical Leave Act, workplace violence, fraud, recoupment, and child support.

After leaving the Department of Economic Opportunity in 2012, Lauren spent the next four years working for the Florida Department of Health’s Prosecution Services Unit. As a prosecutor in both the Department’s Nursing and Medical Sections, Lauren was responsible for prosecuting the licenses of medical doctors, osteopathic physicians, pharmacists, pharmacy technicians, pain management clinics, pharmacies, compounding pharmacies, electrologists, and nurses. In this position, Lauren regularly presented cases to probable cause panels and medical licensing boards and gained valuable experience prosecuting cases that involved over-prescribing, failure to meet the standard of care, impairment and drug diversion, wrong-site surgery, sexual misconduct, out of state discipline, and other statutory/rule violations.

Lauren’s last year and a half with the Florida Department of Health were spent in the Office of General Counsel representing the Bureaus within the Department that receive funding from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). Adding to her six previous years of government and administrative practice, Lauren gained experience in this position by representing the Department in administrative hearings involving federal regulations.

In her free time, Lauren loves to work on her art, she is also an aspiring writer and likes to compete in Tough Mudder races.

Lauren’s background in criminal defense, government and administrative law, as well as her invaluable experience as a former Department of Health prosecutor, make her an excellent addition to our team.