Jason Boone

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Jason Boone '13 still has a legal writing worksheet that Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, Professor of Law and Director of the Legal Methods Program Anna Hemingway handed out in class more than a decade ago.

It's not tucked away in a box of law school keepsakes. It's still close enough to pull out when he's refining a brief. 

"Sometimes I'll go back and reference it,” Boon said. “What you write matters."

For Boone, now senior counsel with Clyde & Co. in Miami, Florida, that's never seemed unusual. Great lawyers never stop learning.

That mindset has carried Boone from Widener University Commonwealth Law School to courtrooms across the country, where he now defends insurers and corporate clients in high-exposure liability litigation. His practice includes automobile, trucking, premises liability, maritime and commercial litigation, and he has secured defense verdicts in cases involving multimillion-dollar claims.

Despite the size and complexity of those cases, Boone says what excites him most hasn't changed.

"I love trial work," he said. "If you've ever played sports, it brings out that competitiveness. You want to win."

It's a career he envisioned long before he ever stepped into a courtroom.

In eighth grade, Boone wrote in his yearbook that he wanted to become a lawyer. There were no attorneys in his family, and he isn't exactly sure where the dream began, but it never disappeared. After graduating from Virginia Military Institute with a history degree in 2004, he spent several years working as a claims examiner for GEICO before his wife encouraged him to stop waiting.

"She said, 'If you want to go to law school, do it now,'" Boone recalled.

Widener Law Commonwealth's Trial Admissions Program, also known as TAP, became the opportunity that changed everything.

Boone admits his undergraduate GPA and law school admission test score weren't where he wanted them to be, the latter after taking the exam while recovering from the flu. TAP gave him something numbers couldn't.

"It gave me the opportunity to show I was capable of succeeding in law school," he said. "My worth wasn't determined by a GPA or a test score."

The program also gave him confidence.

"It was like, 'You can do this,'" Boone said. "I'm very appreciative and grateful for that opportunity."

As a student, Boone immersed himself in the Trial Advocacy Honors Society, moot court and a clerkship with the Hon. Richard Lewis. Just as meaningful were the professors who challenged him to believe in himself.

He still remembers Professor Randy Lee stopping class after hearing students compare themselves to graduates of more prestigious law schools.

"If you don't think you're going to be as good of a lawyer as somebody going to Harvard or Yale, get out because I don't want to teach you," Boone recalled Lee saying.

More than a decade later, after litigating against attorneys from some of the nation's most recognizable law schools, Boone says Lee was right.

"They're the same as us," Boone said.

Following graduation, Boone passed the Pennsylvania and New Jersey bar exams before moving to Florida, where he added a third bar exam and eventually returned to GEICO as in-house counsel. He later became a partner at two firms before joining Clyde & Co., where no two days are the same.

A typical week may include depositions, mediations, drafting motions, meeting clients, inspecting accident scenes or preparing for trial.

Even now, Boone continues sitting in on depositions led by more experienced attorneys, not because he has to, but because he believes there's always something new to learn.

"There are very few lawyers who can say they've perfected what they're doing," he said. "Always be willing to learn. Be open to constructive criticism and absorb as much as you can."

Outside the courtroom, Boone is equally intentional about making time for family. Since 2022, he, his wife and their children have traveled to more than a dozen countries together, including a road trip across Poland and an African safari. He also makes protecting his physical and mental health a priority, starting each day in the gym before work.

For Boone, success has never been about where someone starts. It's about the work they're willing to put in.

"Don't doubt yourself," he said. "Treat law school like a job. Listen to your professors. Put in the work, keep learning and the opportunities will come."

Interview conducted in Summer 2026.