Lenorae Atter has had an interesting and diverse career in law and real estate and is now managing broker at the Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Florida Network Realty Beaches Office.
You are a licensed Florida attorney. Can you tell us a little about that part of your career, how it began, where it’s taken you?
My legal career started with an education at Florida State University College of Law.
After graduation, I worked in the political realm for some time before deciding to practice law and, after considering a few offers, I decided that my best opportunity for true mentorship and being the best attorney I could be was to accept a position with my father’s firm at Wood, Atter & Wolf, PA in Jacksonville, Florida, the root of my inspiration to practice law.
I had a strong desire to practice law with my dad since I was a child and at the time, I really wanted to be in family law, which happened to be an area of practice in which the firm was expanding and it seemed like the right place at the right time.
I loved working with him but after almost 10 years, I decided I wanted a new challenge and had the opportunity to work in-house at Fidelity National Financial first in property title claims and later in their corporate litigation supporting team, which was fascinating work. I was then offered a role as the director of legal operations at J. David Tax Law, where I helped in growing the company in multiple capacities, becoming one of the top 10 fastest growing companies in the area.
After COVID, and a lot of weekends exploring model homes and real estate with my parents, I decided that having my own company and challenging myself to a new field would be fun, and I found myself in real estate, where all roads from family law to title to tax law seemed to lead.
You are a top-producing Realtor. How has your legal background contributed toward your success in that capacity?
I want to be clear that in my present capacity I am a noncompeting broker, meaning that I no longer actively work with clients in buying and selling their homes. However, the legal background really helped catapult my real estate business from the beginning because I had been in the Jacksonville/Ponte Vedra Beach market most of my life, and certainly throughout my career, a lot of people knew me as an attorney, so when I rebranded myself as a Realtor, they automatically had that trust in my knowledge and skill set.
Taking the role I’m in now, it’s been very similar because the agents in the company naturally trust me to help them in their transactions and in training and coaching the agents in the office and company.
Now, as managing broker at the Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Florida Network Realty Beaches Office, you create an environment where agents can succeed. Tell us a little about the strategies you employ toward that end.
In my experience, running a real estate business is not always easy, because it takes dedication, consistency, perseverance and overall grit. To stay consistent is probably the biggest challenge agents face because sometimes you need to be focused on a transaction and it’s easy to lose focus on still running a business.
Having recently been an agent, I understand those struggles very well and have worked hard at helping agents overcome those challenges in order to have a successful business both client facing and behind the scenes. In doing that, I have created different training opportunities in the office and also offer one-on-one coaching since no one agent works the same as the other nor are they motivated by the same things, so I really try to help agents in crafting a plan that works best for them, their skill sets and their personalities.
I think that’s really what separates me in that I can adapt and create plans that are workable and bitesize specific to an agent.
What do you like most about what you do?
I love helping people succeed in meeting their goals. I would say that’s always been my drive in all things that I have chosen to do in my career. Now, I am not just helping succeed to get through a life-changing event or helping attorneys become the best at what they do, but I am literally helping agents increase their professional skills, and I can literally see it in their sales numbers, which means I am having a positive impact on their entire business and by extension their personal lives.
Are you from this area originally or have you relocated here from elsewhere?
I am from the Jacksonville and Ponte Vedra Beach areas. We lived in Hidden Hills when I was growing up, but my stepmom, Helen Atter, was in-house counsel with The PGA Tour for 22 years, so most of my childhood was also spent at many of the executive events associated with the Tour, playing golf with my dad at Sawgrass and the like.
My dad’s family is originally from the Jacksonville area. My grandfather, Flip Atter, worked for the City of Jacksonville, my great aunt, Virginia Atter-Keys, was on Channel 4 from its inception to many years of broadcasting and had her own show.
A large part of my family has resided in the Neptune and Atlantic Beach area for three generations now, so I’m now working in their part of town, which is great. We have an extensive family in the area … my roots here are rather deep.
What do you like most about living in this area?
You can’t really beat having the ocean, Intracoastal and river in one area. It’s grown up so much over the years yet stayed the same in so many ways as well. I love the fact that we have as many people relocating to our area that we do because it’s been great for diversity, growth and cultural engagement that we have not always had, and that makes living here even more entertaining.
How do you like to spend your free time?
I always struggle with this question because I have a lot of interests. I’m single, never married and no kids, so whatever I feel like doing in my time off I do without hesitation and without permission needed.
I love going to watch live theater productions from The Alhambra and Limelight to the FSCJ Broadway Series. This past year I have really gotten into solo travel with a company I found and have gone to Colombia, Iceland, Southern Italy, and I’m going to the Dominican Republic in December. It’s really been incredible to do so many solo trips in the last 12 months, and I look forward to my 2026 travels with Hawaii on the horizon.
