Jake Blanchard came to the law through an unusually practical door. A U.S. Navy veteran who served as a welder and firefighter, he spent a decade after his service owning a well-regarded collateral-recovery firm in the Tampa Bay area — repossessing collateral for lenders and seeing firsthand the financial pressures that push people and businesses toward bankruptcy. When he turned to the law, that ground-level knowledge of debt collection and property recovery became the foundation of his practice: helping clients on the other side of those same pressures reclaim their financial footing.

Jake earned a B.S. in Management Information Systems, summa cum laude, from the University of South Florida before pursuing his legal education at Stetson University College of Law, where he studied in the honors program and served as Articles and Symposia Editor of the Stetson Law Review. He graduated with his Juris Doctor magna cum laude and served as a judicial intern at the United States Bankruptcy Court in Tampa. Upon graduation he became a partner at Reissman and Blanchard, where he represented debtors through Chapter 7, Chapter 13, and Chapter 11 bankruptcies, collection proceedings, and foreclosures.

A member in good standing of The Florida Bar, Jake is admitted in all Florida courts and the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida. He serves as President of the Tampa Bay Bankruptcy Bar Association and BNI Success Masters, and is a former member of the Rotary Club of St. Petersburg West. Outside the practice, he competes in triathlons, mountain bikes, welds, and spends time with his wife and three children.