In Bill Boothe’s September 29, 2010 letter to the community, he makes the statement “The Board engages the services of Becker & Poliakoff, a leading law firm specializing in HOA and Condominium law. These attorneys are recognized throughout Florida as leading experts in their field. . . the Board relies on the truly expert opinion of its legal counsel.”

The following is an itemized list of some of the identified problems of this leading law firm recognized as leading experts with a truly expert opinion:

PROBLEMS NOT RELATED TO BAYWINDS

1) B&P Attorney Rosenbaum: A little more than two years ago, 28-year B&P veteran Dan Rosenbaum left the law firm taking with him other B&P attorneys. According to an article in the ABA Journal, “A nine-lawyer team has defected from the West Palm Beach office of Florida's Becker & Poliakoff, citing mismanagement . . .” (Click here to view the original article )

2) B&P Attorney Romero: The September 17, 2009 issue of the Palm Beach Post reported that Alan Becker, one of the founders of the B&P law firm, characterized B&P attorney Romero as a “rogue lawyer who filed this case without authority” and had the case dismissed “due to (Mr. Romero’s) error” and that “Mr. Romero purposely hid that information from the law firm.” A jury awarded the woman bringing the complaint against B&P “$4.5 million for their mistake.” This woman was only one of 54 employees who were harmed by this B&P attorney (i.e., there could be 53 more lawsuits filed against B&P). The article goes on to say that the B&P law firm made sure that it’s interests were protected and ended up collecting “$2.9 million in attorney’s fees.” (Click here to view the original article.)

PROBLEMS RELATED TO BAYWINDS

3) B&P Partner Draper: There are a number of issues with this B&P partner regarding a 2008 small claims action against the Association:

a) Mr. Draper was the attorney representing the Association in court on September 8, 2008 AND the B&P invoices show that that day was the first day he charged time to the Association (i.e., his trial preparation was done the day of the trial).

b) Mr. Draper misrepresented the Florida Statutes regarding presuit mediation requirements leading to avoidable significant costs to the Association and eventually leading to a settlement agreement in which the Association paid $1,114.94 for its “failure to produce official records.”

c) Dave Kaiser indicated after the trial that he was angry at the way in which Mr. Draper handled the case on September 8, 2008 and that the Association had sent the message that they didn’t want Mr. Draper representing the Association again. Dave subsequently stated that he was concerned that Mr. Draper was now handling the Association’s collection work.

d) Mr. Draper signed three separate affidavits: the first on October 7, the second October 23 and the third on November 5, 2008. In these affidavits Mr. Draper swore under penalty of perjury that the costs that he listed “accurately reflects time and services reasonably and necessarily rendered by [B&P] in pursuit of the above matter, and that [Baywinds] is indebted to counsel for legal services rendered in this matter in the amount” of $7,725, $6,675 and $7,760, respectively. One of these affidavits even included a claim regarding mold remediation (i.e., “Review and analysis of issues pertaining to claims and mold remediation”)

e) In these three affidavits, Mr. Draper swore under penalty of perjury that the Association paid $350/hour for his time while knowing that the Association only paid $300/hour for his time.

f) In these three affidavits, Mr. Draper swore under penalty of perjury that the Association paid $350/hour for “Research regarding attorney-client privilege issues concerning attorney billing statements” rather than the $215/hour actually billed to and paid for by the Association.

g) In these three affidavits, there are literally dozens of false statements like the ones mentioned above fraudulently adding thousands of dollars to the costs. (Click here to view a tabular listing of the dozens of false claims that Mr. Draper included in his three sworn affidavits.)

h) The Settlement Agreement from B&P regarding this small claims case included provisions

i) For the “termination of the Maintenance Contract” when no such contract was in issue and

ii) To “irrevocably remise, release, acquit, satisfy, and forever discharge . . . all past and present . . . corporations (i.e., Lennar) of and from any and all claims (e.g., our 558 claim) actions, causes of actions, demands, obligations, liens, rights, damages, costs, loss of service, expense and/or compensation, of any nature whatsoever, which . . . (the) Association has, on account of, or any way growing out of, and all known or unknown, foreseen and unforeseen, injuries and/or damages and the consequences thereof, including by not limited to, all differences, disputes and claims, asserted and unasserted, from the beginning of the world through the date of this General Release . . .” Had this blanket release of corporations such as Lennar been executed as proposed by B&P, a leading law firm recognized as leading experts with a truly expert opinion, Baywinds would have released Lennar from any and all liabilities claimed by Baywinds.

4) Lennar Bankruptcy:

a) B&P is recognized as the preeminent law firm in the state of Florida for HOAs and condos and Lennar is one of the top HOA developers in the state of Florida.

b) Lennar Land Partners filed for bankruptcy protection on June 8, 2008. Proper notice regarding this bankruptcy was sent to Baywinds on September 12, 2008 setting November 14, 2008 as the deadline for Baywinds to file a claim in bankruptcy court. Despite having received this notification, Baywinds failed to file a claim by the set deadline.

c) Lennar representative Jason Hill notified B&P of the Lennar Land Partners bankruptcy on or about February 16, 2009.

d) As per a February 26, 2009 email from B&P attorney Bill Cea to Lennar representative Jason Hill, Bill Cea had “not been able to confirm that any of the entities have filed for bankruptcy protection.”

e) The B&P invoices through March 31, 2009 show evidence that B&P still had not yet confirmed the Lennar Land Partners bankruptcy (e.g., 3/9/09 “review and analysis of information procured regarding possible bankruptcy of Lennar entities.” 3/11/09 “Telephone conference with W. Cea regarding issues surrounding alleged bankruptcy entity.” 3/11/09 “Analysis of litigation strategy regarding ‘possible’ bankruptcy”)

f) Bill Cea sent Lennar representative Jason Hill an email on April 21, 2009 stating “Nothwithstanding your comments as to the financial status of Lennar Land Partners . . .”

g) According to Howard Horowitz, B&P became aware that Baywinds had received proper and timely notice of Lennar Land Partners bankruptcy at a meeting with Board members on May 5, 2009. Subsequent to becoming aware that Baywinds had recieved proper and timely notice of the bankruptcy, B&P directed the filing of a Motion to Allow Late Filed Proofs of Claim as Timely Filed in which it was falsely claimed that Baywinds "did not receive notice nor had actual notice of these [bankruptcy] proceedings until after the Claims Bar Date."

g) Why wasn’t B&P aware of the Lennar Land Partners bankruptcy filing until it was too late for us?

h) Why couldn’t B&P verify Lennar Land Partners had filed for bankruptcy after being notified of same?

i) Why did B&P allow the false claim to be made that Baywinds "did not receive notice nor had actual notice of these [bankruptcy] proceedings until after the Claims Bar Date?

I'll trust Baywinders to judge the credibility of Bill Boothe's statement that B&P is a leading law firm recognized as leading experts with a truly expert opinion.

Bernie Amero, A Baywinder for Improved Governance Through Full Disclosure