Chuck Hobbs is a former trial lawyer and award winning freelance writer. A Tallahassee native, Hobbs earned a B.A. in history from Morehouse College in 1994 and an M.A. with a concentration in history from Florida A&M University in 1995. In 1998, Hobbs earned a J.D. from the University of Florida Levin College of Law.
While initially serving as a state prosecutor in Tallahassee, in 2001, Hobbs founded his own law firm, one that has handled thousands of criminal and personal injury cases in federal and state courts across the south. Since 2003, Hobbs has tried a number of high profile cases, including two jury trials that aired on Court TV. The first was the 2003 gambling trial of former Florida State University quarterback Adrian McPherson, one that ended in a hung jury. The second was in 2006, when Hobbs served as lead attorney for four of his younger fraternity brothers in what became known as the “Kappa Hazing Case,” the nation’s first ever felony hazing trial. When Deneilo Bradshaw was indicted for capital murder in the death of Tallahassee Police Department informant Rachel Hoffman, Hobbs was retained by Bradshaw’s family in 2009 to serve as lead counsel in a case that was chronicled on NBC’s “Dateline” and ultimately led to changes in Florida law regarding confidential informants. In 2011, Hobbs served as civil counsel for Dr. Julian E. White, the legendary Band Director of the Florida A&M University Marching 100, following the hazing death of Drum Major Robert Champion.
Over the past ten years, Hobbs has been a regularly featured columnist in The Hill, The Grio and the Tallahassee Democrat. His editorials also have appeared in the New York Times, Miami Herald, and Florida Times-Union. Hobbs has twice been nominated for a prestigious Pulitzer Prize in Commentary, first by the Tallahassee Democrat in 2011 and this year by The Hill. Hobbs won a coveted Florida Bar Media Award in 2010 for a series of articles regarding race, gender and the judiciary.
Due to his work in the courtroom and as a writer, in 2014, Hobbs was invited by the United States Department of Defense to travel to Naval Base Guantanamo in Cuba, where he observed and wrote extensively about the court proceedings for Khalid Sheikh Mohammad and the 9/11 terror co-conspirators. Hobbs also has provided legal commentary on CNN, Fox News, the “E” network and ESPN on topics ranging from hazing on college campuses to the Duke Lacrosse scandal.
A former legal adviser to the Florida NAACP, Hobbs is an active member of Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church, the Tallahassee Alumni Chapter of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Incorporated, and Valentine Lodge #147, Prince Hall Afilliated Free & Accepted Masons.