New Year, New Shareholder Attorney, New Firm Name!

Prominent Tampa Bay law firm
makes move to grow in St. Petersburg

Mechanik Nuccio Hearne & Wester is now Mechanik Nuccio Hearne & Silvestri,
adding prominent St. Petersburg real estate attorney Larry Silvestri as a Shareholder

TAMPA, FL (February 2, 2026) – The prominent Tampa Bay area law practice previously known as Mechanik Nuccio Hearne & Wester, P.A. is now Mechanik Nuccio Hearne & Silvestri, P.A., the firm announced today.

The change reflects the addition of well-known St. Petersburg attorney Larry Silvestri as a Shareholder, as former Shareholder J. Meredith Wester has moved into an Of Counsel role with the firm.

Silvestri is one of the top transactional real estate attorneys in St. Petersburg, working with property owners, developers, real estate companies, and local tenants on everything from title work to commercial property leases to counsel on complicated deals. His 10-year-old firm, Silvestri Law, merged on December 31 with Mechanik Nuccio Hearne & Silvestri, part of the firm’s plan to grow its clientele in St. Petersburg and Pinellas County.

“Larry Silvestri is an excellent fit with our firm’s culture, work ethic and focus on clients,” said David Mechanik, a Shareholder with Mechanik Nuccio Hearne & Silvestri. “We already help a number of clients in Pinellas County, and having Larry on our team will help us dramatically expand our presence there in the coming years.”

Silvestri has worked with such clients as the owner of The Factory St. Pete, in connection with its lease to St. Pete Athletic Paddle and Social Club; the owner of The Peninsula Bed & Cocktails in connection with its lease to Mademoiselle Paris French Restaurant; the Pinellas County area franchisee for Caribou Coffee in connection with five leases; a land developer in connection with the acquisition of unentitled parcels of land and sale of the land to homebuilders after entitlements were obtained, and the owners of several RV parks as closing attorney and title agent.

He is involved in a wide range of real estate industry organizations both locally and nationally, including The Florida Gulfcoast Commercial Association of Realtors, Florida CCIM Chapter West Coast District, CREW Tampa Bay, Urban Land Institute Tampa Bay, The Real Estate Investment Council of Tampa Bay, International Council of Shopping Centers, St. Petersburg Bar Association, The St. Petersburg Area Chamber of Commerce, and the St. Petersburg Downtown Partnership.

“I’m very excited to join this firm – a group of lawyers that I have admired for a long time,” Silvestri said. “They have built a powerhouse organization known statewide for their real estate and environmental work, and we are confident that our firm will have great success in St. Petersburg and Pinellas County.”

Mechanik Nuccio Hearne & Silvestri now has expanded to open a St. Petersburg office, and its leaders see Pinellas County as a prime opportunity for growth.

“With Pinellas County mostly built out, redevelopment is a high priority for many property owners and developers, which is a good fit with our skill set,” said Vince Nuccio, a Shareholder with Mechanik Nuccio Hearne & Silvestri. “We are experts in handling complex issues, sometimes involving challenging environmental situations, and this work requires highly experienced legal counsel.”

See Larry’s profile here.

Kyle Parks, Parks PR

New Associate Attorney: Travis Moore Hearne

Mechanik Nuccio Hearne & Wester welcomes our new associate attorney, Travis Moore Hearne. Travis is a recent graduate magna cum laude of Stetson University College of Law and was admitted to the Florida Bar in September 2019. Travis focused his law school studies on environmental, administrative, land use, and local government and municipal law, and was awarded the Outstanding Local Government Law School Student Award by the City, County, and Local Government Section of the Florida Bar upon graduation. Travis was an Associate of Stetson’s Moot Court Board, a Senior Associate of the Stetson Law Review, and his law review comment focused on the Tampa Bay Nitrogen Management Consortium was published in the Stetson Law Review’s 2019 Local Government Issue. Travis was also a Biodiversity Fellow at Stetson’s Institute for Biodiversity Law & Policy in 2018 and 2019 and was a certified legal intern for the City of St. Petersburg during the Spring 2019 semester. Travis’s legal practice will focus on environmental and land use aspects of commercial and industrial real estate and redevelopment, environmental permitting, and environmental remediation.  

Travis Hearne: Outstanding Graduate

The firm is very proud of our very own Travis Moore Hearne who is a recent outstanding graduate of the Stetson University College of Law Environmental Concentration. He was also awarded the 2019 Outstanding Local Government Law School Student Award by the City, County and Local Government Section of the Florida Bar. His paper From Category 4(b) to Category 2: How Local Stakeholders in the Tampa Bay Nitrogen Management Consortium Battled Nutrient Pollution to Make the Bay Better on the Tampa Bay Nitrogen Consortium appears in the Stetson Law Review’s 2019 Local Government Edition. He also authored a paper on Clean Water Act Section 404 delegation to the State of Florida and closely follows recent developments in environmental law. He was a member of Stetson’s  Moot  Court  Team  and  competed  twice at  Pace University’s National Environmental Moot Court Competition in 2018 and 2019. He also sat as a member of the Stetson Law Review’s 2019 Publication Committee and was a Biodiversity Fellow at Stetson’s Institute for Biodiversity Law and Policy in 2018 and 2019, where he assisted in researching and editing an Amicus brief filed in the Southern District of New York on behalf of the Society of Wetland Scientists in WOTUS litigation. He will practice environmental law at Mechanik Nuccio Hearne & Wester upon his admission to the Florida Bar.

David Mechanik named Best of the Best!

David Mechanik was named Best Attorney at NAIOP Tampa Bay's 2015 Best of the Best Awards. NAIOP Tampa Bay is the leading trade organization representing developers, owners, investors and related professionals in commercial real estate. They foster business relationships, promote responsible development and support sustainable growth of the region through education, leadership and advocacy.   See the full list here.

Meredith Wester receives 2015 Abraham Lincoln Award from The Tampa Bay American Inn of Court

The Tampa Bay American Inn of Court announces J. Meredith Wester, Esquire as the recipient of the 2015 Abraham Lincoln Award, which is an annual award honoring the member who best exemplifies the goals of the Inn in promoting legal excellence, civility, professionalism, and ethics in the practice of law. Ms. Wester was one of the founding members of the Tampa Bay Inn of Court in 1993 and served as its Treasurer (2005-2012) and Executive Director (2012-2014).  She is a shareholder at Mechanik, Nuccio, Hearne & Wester, P.A. where she concentrates her practice in commercial litigation.   Since her admittance to the Florida Bar in 1991, she has served as the Chairman for the Thirteenth Judicial Circuit Florida Bar Grievance Committee, has been a member of the Hillsborough County Bar Association, including service on the Board of Directors, a board member of the Hillsborough County Bar Foundation, and a member of the Hillsborough County Trial Lawyers Association.  She has served as an appointed board member of the Governing Board for the Southwest Florida Water Management District Northwest Hillsborough County Basin Board and has served as the founding Secretary for the FBI National Citizen’s Academy Alumni Association and founding President of the Association’s Tampa Bay Chapter.  She served as Treasurer of PACE for Girls, President and co-founder of the Hillsborough County Head Start Foundation, and was appointed to serve on the Hillsborough County Children’s Advisory Board.   She is a graduate of the University of South Florida where she received her Bachelor of Arts, magna cum laude.  She received her Juris Doctor, cum laude, from Stetson University College of Law.