Order

PATRICIA D. BARKSDALE, Magistrate Judge.

The plaintiff filed this legal malpractice case in state court on June 17, 2015, against the law firm of Lieff, Cabraser, Heiman & Bernstein, LLP, and eleven of its current or former lawyers. Doc. 2. Under Florida Rule of Civil Procedure 1.070(j), she had 120 days—until October 15, 2015—to serve process. Two days before the deadline, she filed a motion for a 120-day extension to serve process on Jennifer Gross, Esquire—until February 12, 2016. Doc. 3. The other defendants who had been served with process removed the case to this Court on November 5, 2015, while the motion was pending, Doc. 1.

Under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 4(m), "[i]f a defendant is not served within 120 days after the complaint is filed, the court—on motion or on its own after notice to the plaintiff—must dismiss the action without prejudice against that defendant or order that service be made within a specified time."1 Fed. R. Civ. P. 4(m). The 120-day period applies if an action is removed from state court to federal court except, by operation of Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 81(c)(1), the period begins on the date of removal. Cardenas v. City of Chicago, 646 F.3d 1001, 1004-05 (7th Cir. 2011); Wallace v. Microsoft Corp., 596 F.3d 703, 706 (10th Cir. 2010); Medlen v. Estate of Meyers, 273 F. App'x 464, 470 (6th Cir. 2008); see also White v. Capio Partners, LLC, No. 1:15-cv-120, 2015 WL 5944943, at *2 (S.D. Ga. Oct. 13, 2015) (unpublished) (citing cases).

Because the plaintiff has 120 days from the November 5, 2015, removal date— until March 4, 2016—to serve Gross, the Court denies the motion for an extension of time to serve her, Doc. 3, as moot.2

Ordered.