John W. Hawkins

Position Managing Partner Education University of Texas (B.B.A., 1981) University of Texas of the Permian Basin (M.B.A., 1985) South Texas College of Law (J.D., 1990) Practical Experience: District Landman, Crown Central Petroleum Corporation, 1982-1985; Product Trader, Crown Central Petroleum Corporation, 1985-1989; Futures Trader, Elf Trading, Inc., 1987-1990. Bar Admissions Florida Texas U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas U.S. Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals Member Okaloosa-Walton County Bar Association; American Bar Association; State Bar of Texas; The Florida Bar; Estate Planning Council of the Emerald Coast (President, 2008). Areas of Practice Asset Protection and Wealth Preservation Charitable Gift Planning Estate and Trust Planning Guardianship and Conservatorships Gift and Generation Skipping Tax Planning Probate and Post Mortem Estate Tax Planning Wills, Trusts, Power of Attorneys and Living Wills Complex Commercial Litigation

John Hawkins' path to the Emerald Coast is familiar to many who now live here full time. John grew up in Dallas, Texas and obtained his education and real world work experience in Texas, but once John experienced the natural beauty of the area and the warmth of its residents, the desire to live here was irresistible.

A graduate of the McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas at Austin, with a double major in Finance and Petroleum Land Management, John worked in the oil industry as a landman for a Fortune 500 corporation while obtaining a Masters of Business Administration degree specializing in Management from the University of Texas of the Permian Basin. John then became a futures trader for Elf Trading, Inc., the international trading arm of France's national oil company, Elf Acquitaine, and was involved in risk management and speculative trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX), the International Petroleum Exchange in London (IPE), and the Singapore International Monetary Exchange (SIMEX), with traders in ETI's offices in London, Paris, Geneva, Tokyo, and Singapore. During his stint in the international commodities markets John attended the South Texas College of Law in Houston, graduating with a Juris Doctorate degree.

In 1993 John relocated to Destin and opened his solo general practice, broadening his commercial litigation experience to include family law, personal injury matter, misdemeanor criminal defense and business planning. John has been a member of the American Bar Association since he was a law student, and a member of the Okaloosa-Walton Bar Association since 1993. John is on the Board of Directors of the Estate Planning Council of the Emerald Coast, and served as President of the EPCEC in 2008.

As John and Dana grew to know and respect each other as colleagues and friends, they shared a vision to create a full service locally based law firm to meet the increasing demands of a rapidly growing Northwest Florida client base. Drawing on his practical experience in the business world, John's practice transformed to concentrate in estate planning, closely held business formation and business litigation. Since the formation of Matthews & Hawkins in 1998, John and Dana's guidance and oversight of Matthews & Hawkins made a realization of their shared vision possible, as they recruited like-minded attorneys and staff to advance the firm's mission of relationship based service.