Stephen was raised in the Florida Panhandle, attending and graduating from Altha High School in Calhoun County. Stephen went on to attend Chipola College in Marianna before graduating with honors from the University of Florida with a B.S. in Public Relations. He then, during the height of the housing boom, went to work in his family's residential construction business for several years, before eventually taking a job with the City of Marianna as a city planner in 2007. In 2013, Stephen was accepted to the Florida State University College of Law and graduated with his Juris Doctor in 2016. During his time in law school, he interned with both the FDOT General Counsel in Tallahassee and with Matthews and Jones, LLP in both its Destin and Niceville offices.
After graduating from law school, Stephen and his family moved to Niceville and he accepted a position with Matthews and Jones in its Destin office, where he focuses primarily on REAL ESTATE development, land use, and local government-related legal and planning issues in and around Okaloosa, Walton, and bay counties. Stephen's experience in both the construction and city planning arenas, along with his close ties to north Florida, has garnered him a wealth of knowledge , experience, and a particularized understanding of the intricacies associated with REAL ESTATE development work.
