Holland & Knight Partner David Cannella was honored with the Orange County Bar Association's William Trickel, Jr. Professionalism Award for 2026. The Orange County Bar Association (OCBA) presented the award at its Professionalism Awards Ceremony on March 26.
Each year the OCBA honors members of the legal community whose conduct and career stand as a model of success built on unquestioned professionalism. As OCBA's highest honor, recipients of the William Trickel, Jr. Professionalism Award are nominated by their peers based on career service, services to the community, services to the profession, consistently ethical conduct, courteous demeanor, high moral standards, professional behavior and have practiced law for 15 or more years. Holland & Knight Partners Suzanne Gilbert and Glenn Adams have also received the award in the past.
Mr. Cannella is a well-respected litigator and lead counsel with a practice dedicated to complex business litigation. He has extensive experience in class action defense, trade secret litigation, enforcement of restrictive covenants, "business divorce" proceedings between officers and founders of companies, stock option agreement litigation, defamation, franchise and distributor litigation, unfair competition, and defense of deceptive and unfair trade practices claims.
Mr. Cannella is also deeply engaged in the Central Florida legal community. He has served as president of the Legal Aid Society of the OCBA, as chair of The Florida Bar's Ninth Judicial Circuit Grievance Committee and on multiple substantive committees for The Florida Bar. He currently serves on the board of the George C. Young American Inn of Court.
In addition to his legal practice and pro bono work, Mr. Cannella has served as an adjunct professor of business law at the University of Central Florida and as a faculty member of the Kessler-Eidson Program for Trial Techniques at Emory University School of Law.
Mr. Cannella's professionalism and legal skills have been recognized repeatedly throughout his career. Most recently, he was named a Stand-Out Lawyer in theThomson ReutersSharplegal Survey of In-House Counsel for 2024-2026.