Bruce L. Udolf is the founder and principal attorney at Bruce L. Udolf, P.A., a South Florida criminal defense law firm focusing on white-collar and federal criminal law in Fort Lauderdale, Miami and West Palm Beach. Bruce brings more than 40 years of experience as a white-collar criminal trial lawyer to every case he handles and is devoted to achieving the best outcome for every client.
Distinguished Prosecutorial Career
Bruce earned his law degree at Emory Law School in 1979. After serving a judicial clerkship, he began working as an Assistant District Attorney for the Northeastern Judicial Circuit of Georgia. In 1982, Bruce was elected District Attorney of that circuit.
In 1987, Bruce joined the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida, working in the office’s sections on major crimes, narcotics and appeals. He became Chief of the office’s Public Integrity/Corruption section in 1992 and, for the next five years, he prosecuted and supervised some of the most significant public corruption cases in the nation. In 1997, he was tapped to join the Whitewater investigation as Associate Independent Counsel.
During his years at the Department of Justice, Bruce received multiple Outstanding Achievement Awards from DOJ, as well as commendations from the United States Customs Service, Office of Internal Affairs, the Drug Enforcement Administration Office of Professional Responsibility, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and, in 1992 and 1994, from the Director of the FBI. In 1996, he was honored by colleagues with the Assistant U.S. Attorneys Association Award for his career achievements.
Bruce is a past President of the Federal Bar Association (Broward Chapter) and member of the FBA (National) Government Relations Committee. He is also a past President of the Assistant U.S. Attorneys Association, Southern District of Florida.
Equally Distinguished in Federal White-Collar Criminal Defense
Bruce entered private practice in 1998 and formed his own firm in 2010, earning numerous accolades as a criminal defense lawyer. He has been rated AV Preeminent by Martindale-Hubbell for over ten years, the highest rating for legal ability and ethics as evaluated by his peers. He has also been named to the tier one ranking of U.S. News and World Report’s Best Lawyer listings in the White-Collar and Non-White Collar Criminal Defense category. Between 2016 and 2023 Bruce was named Lawyer of the Year in the area of Criminal and White-Collar Criminal Defense in Fort Lauderdale by Best Lawyers in America seven times. He was included by The National Trial Lawyers in the Top 100 Lawyers for Criminal Defense in 2016 and has been listed in Chambers USA, America’s Leading Lawyers for Business. He has been listed in Super Lawyers each year since 2010 and was recognized as a Lifetime Achiever in Marquis Who’s Who in America. Bruce is a fellow of the Litigation Counsel of America, the Trial Lawyer Honorary Society; the American Bar Association Foundation and; the Florida Bar Foundation. He is a Director and Life Member of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers.
A frequent author and speaker, Bruce has written and lectured extensively on numerous topics, including legal ethics and professionalism, public corruption, money laundering, racketeering and fraud and has been sought after as a speaker at legal conferences and symposia throughout the U.S., Europe, Asia and South America. Since 1987, he has taught at Emory University School of Law’s Trial Tactics program. He has also co-chaired the Criminal Justice Ethics Symposia co-sponsored by the ABA and the University of Miami Law School since 2002.
Recognized as a Creative and Fearless Advocate for his Clients
Over the years, Bruce has successfully defended numerous clients in high-profile, complex cases involving allegations of public corruption against numerous federal, state and local officials, including a member of Congress, FBI agents, county and city elected officials and police officers. In a case charging a former FBI agent with several homicide charges, Bruce was also able to establish that investigators had deliberately hidden concealed exculpatory evidence. The acquittals he obtained of those charges captured national attention and was featured on Dateline NBC.
Recently, in December 2017, Bruce achieved an acquittal for his client, a former president of a South American soccer federation in the so-called “FIFA-gate” case prosecuted in federal district court in Brooklyn, after a two-month trial – the only one of 41 defendants to have been found not guilty in connection with that case.
United States ,
Florida