September 10, 2024
Stearns Weaver Miller News Update
Erin is extremely knowledgeable of litigation and is a pleasure to work with. Her writing skills are superb.
Chambers USA 2024
Overview
Erin Tilton represents private and public sector clients before local, regional, and state agencies, courts, and elected bodies on a wide-range of complex land use permitting and entitlement issues. She is particularly skilled in the negotiation of development approvals and implementing litigation strategy to defend those approvals.
Erin maintains a broad litigation practice where she represents clients in administrative, circuit court, and appellate litigation in matters relating to complex business, real estate, contract, and private property rights disputes. She also has extensive experience litigating issues under Florida’s Public Records Act.
Areas of Concentration
Land Use & Zoning
- Local Development Order Approvals – Rezonings, Planned Developments, Site Plans and Subdivisions, Variances, Special Exceptions, etc.
- Comprehensive Plan Amendments
- Land Development Code Amendments
- Chapter 163 Development Agreements
- Concurrency and Proportionate Share Agreements
- Code Enforcement
- Large Scale Planning – Developments of Regional Impact (DRI), Master Planned Communities
Land Use & Property Rights Litigation
- Administrative Hearings and Appeals
- Comprehensive Plan Compliance & Consistency Challenges
- Constitutional Property Rights Issues – Civil Rights, Due Process, Equal Protection & Vested Rights
- Inverse Condemnation, Regulatory Takings & Eminent Domain
- Dispute Resolution and Florida Land Use and Environmental Dispute Resolution Act (FLUEDRA) Proceedings
- Bert J. Harris Jr. Private Property Rights Protection Act Claims
- Public Records Act and Sunshine Law Violations
Notable Experience
- Serves as special counsel for a multinational conglomerate, and one of the state of Florida’s largest employers, in land use litigation matters regarding the defense of the validity and enforceability of land use, development, and infrastructure contracts.
- Represented large landowner seeking to recover $298 million under the Bert J. Harris, Jr. Private Property Rights Protection Act in a case involving multiple issues of first impression.
- Served as counsel to mortgage holder in $150 million multi-family residential foreclosure action in federal court involving several construction liens and hundreds of unit purchasers.
- Negotiated complex settlement agreement on behalf of state agency resolving $60 million in potential liability over failed public-private partnership.
- Served as in-house counsel to a large investor-owned electric utility on matters before the Florida Public Service Commission.
- Successfully tried multiple cases under Florida’s Public Records Act to judgment, recovering attorney’s fees and costs of enforcement.
Credentials
Education
- J.D., summa cum laude, Stetson University College of Law, 2013
- Presidential Scholar
- Honors Program
- Environmental Law Certificate
- Stetson Law Review, Notes and Comments Editor
- Journal of International Wildlife Law & Policy, Editor
- B.A., Boston College, 2010
Admissions
- Florida
- United States District Courts for the Northern, Middle and Southern Districts of Florida
- United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit
Professional & Community Involvement
- Greater Tallahassee Chamber of Commerce
- Executive Committee, Governance Chair, 2025-Present
- Board of Directors, 2024-Present
- Urban Land Institute (ULI)
- Capital Region Leadership Council, 2022-Present
- Stetson Lawyers Alumni Association Advisory Council, 2020-Present
- Tallahassee Bar Association, 2013-Present
- President, 2023-2024
- Board of Directors, 2018-2025
- Young Lawyer Section Board of Directors, 2014-2019; President, 2017-2018
- The Florida Bar, Real Property, Probate & Trust Law Section (RPPTL), Development and Land Use Planning Committee, 2014-Present
- American Bar Association, Managing Editor, Administrative & Regulatory Law News, 2018-2021
Recognition
- Chambers USA, Real Estate: Zoning/Land Use (North & Central Florida), Up and Coming, 2024-Present
- Best Lawyers: Ones to Watch, 2021-Present
- The Florida Bar Young Lawyers Division, 36 Under Thirty-Six Professionalism Award, 2024
- National Association of Women Lawyers, Rising List, 2023
- Florida Super Lawyers, Rising Star, 2017-2023
- Florida Trend’s Florida Legal Elite, Up & Comer, 2001-2022
- Tallahassee Bar Association, Thomas M. Ervin, Jr. Distinguished Young Lawyer Award, 2018
- Tallahassee Woman Magazine, Women to Watch, 2018
- The Florida Bar, Environmental and Land Use Law Section, Dean Frank E. Maloney Memorial Writing Contest winner, 2013
- Stetson University College of Law, Hearne Environmental Law Award, 2013