Gregory P. Holder

Retired Judge Gregory P. Holder is a native of Melbourne, Florida. In 1975, he received his B.S. Degree in Engineering and was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the United States Air Force. While serving as an Armament Systems Development Engineer in the Air Force, he received his M.B.A. from the University of West Florida in 1978. Mr. Holder was selected to attend Stetson University College of Law under the Air Force Funded Legal Education Program and received his Juris Doctor Degree in 1981. While attending law school, he served as Associate Editor of the Stetson Law Review and authored several published articles.

Upon graduation from law school, he served at several stateside and overseas military bases as an Assistant Judge Advocate and Area Defense Counsel. He resigned his Regular Commission in 1988 and accepted a USAF Reserve Commission serving at U.S. Special Operations Command (“USSOCOM”) from 1988 through 1996. At the time of his retirement from the U.S. Air Force Reserve on 1 February 2004, Colonel Holder served as the Chief Reserve Trial Judge for the USAF. Judge Holder was elected as a Florida County Court Judge in 1994 and Circuit Court Judge in 1996. He served in virtually every division within Florida’s Thirteenth Judicial Circuit. Judge Holder served as a Hillsborough County Judge for 26 years. He served 13 years within the General Civil Division, 10 years in the Felony Division, and presided over the Veterans Treatment Court from 2014 to 2016, where he expanded the role of the court helping veterans overcome service-related issues. In this role, he helped to create the National Model for Veterans Treatment Courts and currently serves on the National Veterans Court Alliance working to develop legislation to provide Federal funds and oversight to the nation’s Veterans Treatment Courts.

Mr. Holder served as an adjunct faculty member at Webster University, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University (“ERAU”), University of South Florida and Lead Faculty/Area Chair for the Central Florida Campus of the University of Phoenix until 2020. As an adjunct professor for ERAU, Mr. Holder taught aviation law for 30 years at the ERAU MacDill Air Force Base Campus.

Mr. Holder retired from the Florida Circuit Court on December 31, 2020, and immediately began his practice as a problem solver. He now serves as a mediator, arbitrator, or special magistrate for the Courts in a variety of commercial, tort, and reinsurance matters in both federal and state courts throughout the United States. Mr. Holder is routinely appointed mediator by Federal Court Judges throughout Florida. He is a Florida Supreme Court certified mediator admitted as both attorney and mediator in the middle district and southern district of Florida. He serves on the AAA roster of neutrals. Since retirement from the bench, Mr. Holder has mediated over 1,100 matters involving in the aggregate more than $500 million. He has conducted or is conducting commercial domestic arbitrations under the AAA, CPR and Florida Rules and Statutes. He has also served as a Special Magistrate for State Court Judges throughout Florida to address a variety of discovery issues in complex commercial and tort litigation.

Mr. Holder has been recognized in the areas of ADR having been selected as a member of the National Academy of Distinguished Neutrals in 2021 and Best Lawyers in America – Arbitration and Mediation (since 2023).

Mr. Holder has been married to D. A. (“Dee”) Kobliska for over 47 years. Dee served over 23 years active duty in both the U.S. Army and Air Force and retired from the Air Force as a Lieutenant Colonel in 1993. She currently works as a nurse practitioner providing GYN care. They have two children: U.S. Air Force, Lt. Col. Daniel Holder, currently serving as the Chief of Legislative Affairs for the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Andrea Holder, a practicing commercial litigation attorney. Mr. Holder proudly joined the firm of Zinober, Diana, and Monteverde, P.A. on January 1, 2021, and focuses his practice solely in the areas of mediation and arbitration.

• Stetson University College of Law, St. Petersburg, Florida
  • Juris Doctor – 1981
• University of West Florida, Pensacola, Florida
  • M.B.A. – 1978
  • Major: Engineering
• United States Military Academy, West Point, New York
  • B.S. – 1975

• The Implied Warranty of Habitability: Does it Exist in Florida Leaseholds?, 10 Stetson L. Rev. 563 (1981), Vol 10 Iss 3, 1981
• The Implied Warranty of Habitability Applicable to Florida Leaseholds, The Florida Bar Real Property, Probate and Trust Law Sec., Vol X No. 2, 1982

• Florida 13th Judicial Circuit, Judge, 1995 to 2020
• S. Air Force Chief Reserve Trial Judge, 2000 – 2004
• Williams, Reed, Weinstein, Schifino & Mangione, A., Partner, 1991 to 1994