Biography
Randall C Grantham, PA is proud to announce that at the annual meeting and conference held earlier this year in Tampa, Florida, the Hillsborough County Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers awarded our attorney, Randall C. Grantham, the inaugural Barry A. Cohen Memorial Award for Excellence in Criminal Defense.
The award is named after the late Barry Cohen, who founded both the Hillsborough County Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers and the statewide Florida Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. He was renowned nationwide for his work defending high publicity and celebrity defendants who were unjustly accused of heinous crimes and were successfully defended by the late Mr. Cohen.
This award commemorates Mr. Grantham's decades-long commitment to providing his clients outstanding and dedicated representation in all manners of criminal defense services and zealous defense work. It recognizes his desire to obtain justice for his clients against all odds and sometimes in the face of state persecution and political pressure.
Mr. Grantham is humbled and honored to be recognized by his peers and partners in the field who toil alongside him and appreciate the difficulties and hard work involved in the criminal defense profession.
Randall Grantham was born and raised in Lutz and still lives on the same lake he was raised on. He spent his youth working and playing in the cow pastures and citrus groves throughout the area.
Randall attended Lutz Elementary School and was the last year to actually have classes in the old two-story building by U.S. 41, where he attended grades 5 and 6.
He attended Buchanan Junior High and Chamberlain High School before going early admission to University of South Florida and skipping his first year of college via the CLEP Test. During college and the break between law school he sold real estate with his mother, Helen B. Grantham, who was a long-time Realtor in the area.
He attended law school at the University of Florida and graduated in 1980 after interning in the Public Defender’s Office in Jacksonville.
He worked for four years in the Jacksonville Public Defender’s Office after graduation and then came home where he worked for two years as a Public Defender in Dade City. Among his clients was serial killer, Bobby Joe Long whom he represented in the first trial of nine murders committed in the Tampa Bay Area.
Notably, the Motion to Suppress, presented by Mr. Grantham was denied at the Trial Court level, but reversed unanimously by the Florida Supreme Court and eventually resulted in Bobby Joe being discharged from prosecution on that case. (No worries, he was serving several hundred years on related cases and received the death penalty on the other homicides in Hillsborough County).
He went into private practice in 1987 and solo practice in 1993, where he has continued to represent citizens accused of crimes.
After over 45 years of practicing from a “brick and mortar” space, in 2024, RCGPA is going virtual. We will have access to offices but nearly all business will be conducted virtually, by phone, email or ZOOM. This will lower our overhead and reduce stress for all involved.
