Wilson McCoy, P.A.

Focus and practice areas

Wilson McCoy, P.A. works on both sides of the employment relationship. The Maitland, Florida firm represents employees bringing workplace claims and employers defending them. It also advises small businesses, startups and labor unions.

On the employee side, the firm handles discrimination claims, sexual harassment, wage and hour disputes, and whistleblower and retaliation matters. It reviews employment contracts, severance agreements and non-compete clauses. That second group covers work people often need before a dispute exists at all.

Employer services cover business organizations and startups, commercial disputes, employment litigation and general counseling. The firm also offers mediation. In my opinion, that combination is the most interesting thing about the listing: a firm that has argued both sides tends to have a sharper read on how a claim will be received across the table.

What these matters usually involve

Employment discrimination claims in Florida generally start with an administrative charge before a state or federal agency. That agency investigates and may issue a right-to-sue letter, which opens the door to court. The timeline runs on strict deadlines measured in days from the incident.

Wage and hour claims work differently. They turn on records: time sheets, pay stubs, job descriptions, classification decisions. Much of the early work is documentary rather than argumentative.

Non-compete matters in Florida are governed by statute, and courts examine whether the restriction protects a legitimate business interest and whether its duration and geography are reasonable. These cases often move fast because one party is seeking an injunction. General context only, and not a description of any particular result at this firm.

How the team is built

The site names four attorneys. Gary D. Wilson and Nathan A. McCoy co-founded the firm. Paul L. Sutherland and Karina S. Xart McMahon round out the roster.

Gary D. Wilson has been admitted in Florida since 1990. He earned his JD at the University of Mississippi School of Law and holds a BS in Real Estate from Florida State University. He has been admitted to practice before the United States Supreme Court.

Wilson's own practice covers civil rights, discrimination and non-compete matters for individuals, defense work for employers facing the same claims, and representation of unions and their members in disciplinary proceedings and collective bargaining. Union-side labor work is a distinct skill set with its own procedural rules, and it appears here alongside the individual and management practices.

Mediation and arbitration credentials

Wilson is a Circuit Civil mediator certified by the Florida Supreme Court and a qualified arbitrator. Those are formal designations with defined training and experience requirements behind them.

The practical effect matters for clients. A lawyer who regularly sits as a neutral has watched hundreds of cases get valued, argued and settled from the middle chair. As a reviewer, I treat that credential as one of the more concrete data points on this listing, because it comes from a certifying body rather than from the firm's own description of itself.

The firm reports more than 30 years of combined legal experience across employment law arbitration, litigation and alternative dispute resolution. The site states that figure as a combined total for the attorneys.

Who the firm serves and how

Geographically the firm covers Maitland, Orange County and the state of Florida. Maitland sits in the Orlando metro area, which puts the office within reach of the Middle District of Florida's Orlando division and the Ninth Judicial Circuit.

Two access features appear in the site navigation. The firm offers flat-fee services aimed at startups and small businesses. It also provides services in Spanish.

Flat-fee arrangements suit predictable, document-driven work: entity formation, handbook drafting, contract templates. A young company can price that work before committing to it. The Spanish-language offering has obvious relevance in Central Florida, where a large share of the workforce speaks Spanish at home.

What the record shows

The firm's public material describes practice scope, attorney names and one attorney's credentials in detail. Gary D. Wilson's page carries the fullest biography, with admission year, law school, undergraduate degree, Supreme Court admission and the mediator and arbitrator qualifications. The other three attorneys are named without accompanying profile text on the pages reviewed.

The site states combined years of experience and gives no founding year. That is a common way for firms to present tenure, though it makes the firm's own age harder to pin down.

What can be verified is verifiable. Florida Bar admission, Supreme Court certification as a mediator, and arbitrator qualification are all matters of public record that a prospective client can check independently. Directories like this one exist partly so people know which claims carry that kind of backing.

Reading the listing as a prospective client

Someone weighing this firm has a clear picture of subject matter. Employment law is the spine of the practice, with business formation and commercial disputes attached to the employer side of it.

The dual representation model shapes what a client should ask about. Firms that take both employee and employer matters run conflict checks carefully, and a first conversation will normally cover whether any conflict exists with a current or former client. That is routine practice.

In my opinion, the listing is most useful to two groups. Employees in Orange County facing a discrimination, wage or retaliation issue will find a practice organized around exactly those claims. Small business owners who want employment counseling and formation work in one place will find both under the same roof, with flat-fee pricing available for some of it.

Gary D. Wilson has practiced in Florida since 1990 and holds Florida Supreme Court certification as a Circuit Civil mediator.

The attorneys behind the founders

Beyond Gary D. Wilson, three lawyers fill out the practice. Nathan A. McCoy co-founded the firm with Wilson and manages it. He studied general business administration at the University of Central Florida and earned his law degree at the University of Tennessee, where he was Managing Editor of Transactions: The Tennessee Journal of Business Law and sat on the Board of Editors for the Tennessee Law Review. He works on employment and labor matters, along with business and contract questions. He has been a guest professor on contracts for UCF and lectures at legal seminars.

Karina S. Xart McMahon is a shareholder at the firm. She holds a bachelor's degree in human development and communications from Boston College and a law degree from the University of Tennessee College of Law, where she concentrated in advocacy and dispute resolution. She advises small and medium-sized businesses and enforces non-competition agreements. On the individual side she handles discrimination and whistleblower claims, along with unpaid wage disputes.

Paul L. Sutherland earned his Juris Doctor from Barry University Dwayne O. Andreas School of Law in 2018. His practice covers employment and labor law, contracts, discrimination, and corporate formation, and he handles that work in transactional and litigation settings as well as advisory ones. He represents workers and employers alike, along with union clients. He sits on the City of Orlando Public Arts Advisory Board.

Courts and agencies the firm appears before

Gary D. Wilson's court admissions extend past the Supreme Court noted elsewhere on this listing. He is admitted before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit and the U.S. District Courts for the Northern and Middle Districts of Florida, along with every Florida state court. Those two district admissions cover much of the state. The Middle District reaches the Orlando area near the office, and the Northern District covers the capital region and the panhandle.

Karina McMahon brings a record before administrative bodies. She has appeared before the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the Florida Commission on Human Relations, one federal and one state, which handle discrimination charges. She has also appeared before the Public Employee Relations Commission, which hears public sector labor disputes, and in Florida state and federal courts.