Carol Rooney

Carol M. Rooney is a defense-side attorney who began her legal career as a staff attorney for the Ninth Judicial Circuit in Orange and Osceola Counties, Florida — the circuit covering Orlando/Orange County. She is now a Partner at Hinshaw & Culbertson LLP, based in the firm's Tampa, FL office, where she concentrates her practice on complex civil appeals and litigation, handling cases involving products liability, construction, real estate, and insurance disputes in federal and state courts nationwide. She is Board Certified by The Florida Bar as a specialist in Appellate Practice (since 2015), and frequently serves as embedded appellate counsel at trial, collaborating with trial counsel on pre-trial and post-trial motions to develop appellate strategy.

She earned her J.D. from Stetson University College of Law and her B.A. from the University of South Florida, and is admitted to practice in Florida, as well as before the U.S. Courts of Appeals for the Second, Fourth, Eighth, and Eleventh Circuits, and the U.S. District Courts for the Middle, Northern, and Southern Districts of Florida. Her defense-oriented case record includes numerous appellate wins for insurers, landlords, and property owners — including affirming summary judgment for owners/landlords in premises liability cases (Bovee v. Captain D's, Sallee v. St. John United Methodist Church), affirming dismissal for an umbrella insurer in an excess UM case (Kachele v. Estate of Hoffman), and affirming summary judgment for insurers in bad-faith and proof-of-loss disputes (Edwards v. SafePoint, Sallies v. First Liberty).

She has been recognized in The Best Lawyers in America® for Appellate Practice from 2022–2026 and holds a Martindale-Hubbell AV® Peer Review Rating, the organization's highest peer rating. Professionally, she chairs the American Bar Association TIPS Appellate Advocacy Committee (2024–2025) and serves on the Executive Board of the Council of Appellate Lawyers as Florida State Chair; she is also active with the Claims and Litigation Management Alliance, DRI, the Hillsborough Association for Women Lawyers, and the Hillsborough County Bar Association. Outside of law, she enjoys traveling, hiking, and kayaking.