A 35-Year Blueprint for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

By Meaghan Goldstein  | July/August, 2021

The legal profession has reached a tipping point. Decades of aspirational words from private law firms about diversity, equity, and inclusion are giving way to concrete action.

At Kozyak Tropin & Throckmorton (KTT), diversity has been a key to success from the beginning. For nearly 40 years, KTT has prioritized attracting and retaining elite talent to foster a diverse and inclusive firm. Active inclusion is a perpetually evolving, forward-looking process. What was once innovative and brave now seems obvious, and that is a good thing—it is a sign of progress.

Click here to read the full article.

Click here to read the full PDF.

RSVP JUDGE LISA WALSH 6/13/2023

How To Avoid A Run-In With Biden’s Anti-Competitive Order

By Erik Sherman 

July 29, 2021

Big tech has been a big issue for politicians on both sides of the aisle. Now it, and some other industries, caught attention from the Biden administration. In July, the White House announced an executive order to promote competition.

A fact sheet from the administration listed many factors that it says have reduced competition, including corporate consolidation, higher prices from fewer competitors in different markets, lower wages with more jobs concentrated among fewer employers, non-compete agreements required to get a job, fewer opportunities for new businesses, and lower median household incomes as a result.

The administration points to 72 planned initiatives by more than a dozen federal agencies “to promptly tackle some of the most pressing competition problems across our economy.”

Click here for the original article.

Click here to read the full pdf.

Condo Collapse Litigation Leaders Talk Of Coming Challenges

By Carolina Bolado

July 23, 2021

As leaders of the team representing victims of the Surfside, Florida, condominium collapse, Harley Tropin of Kozyak Tropin Throckmorton and Rachel Furst of Grossman Roth Yaffa Cohen PA will have their hands full trying to maximize recovery for the victims and balancing what will sometimes be competing interests between those who lost their apartments and the 97 who lost their lives.

Tropin and Furst, who were appointed by Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Michael Hanzman to oversee the plaintiffs’ attorneys in the consolidated litigation, bring a wealth of experience litigating complex class actions that they intend to use as they guide the effort to get victims of the Champlain Towers South collapse some economic relief. The plaintiffs’ attorneys have all agreed to forgo fees to maximize recovery for the victims.

Tropin has been at the center of a number of high-stakes cases, such as the litigation surrounding the $1.2 billion Ponzi scheme run by former attorney Scott Rothstein, where Tropin helped a group of investors recover more than 95% of the $190 million they had lost.

Click here to read the original article.

Click here to read the full PDF.

Circuit Courts Split: Victim of a Data Breach? Can You “STAND” and Sue in Federal Court

By Darlyn de la Rosa

July 20, 2021

As data breaches become more frequent, those whose data has been stolen have begun to sue the companies that kept their personal data.

Click here to read the original article.

Fla. Court Names Lead Attys In Surfside Condo Collapse Suits

By Carolina Bolado

July 16, 2021

Attorneys from Kozyak Tropin Throckmorton, Podhurst Orseck PA, Grossman Roth Yaffa Cohen PA and The Moskowitz Law Firm will oversee the economic loss, wrongful death and personal injury claims arising from the Surfside condominium collapse under an attorney leadership structure approved by a Florida judge Friday.

At a hearing in Miami, Judge Michael Hanzman signed off on the proposal by Kozyak Tropin partner Harley Tropin, who had been tasked by the court with putting together a team that would lead two proposed classes of victims.

Adam Moskowitz and Kozyak Tropin’s Javier Lopez are the lead lawyers for the proposed class of victims who lost property when the 12-story Champlain Towers South building collapsed on June 24. Podhurst Orseck’s Ricardo Martinez-Cid will lead the subclass of plaintiffs who also have personal injury or wrongful death claims, with Curtis Miner of Colson Hicks Eidson and StuartGrossman of Grossman Roth Yaffa Cohen as liaison counsel.

Click here to read the original article.

Click here to read the full PDF.

Judge Plans To Move Quickly On Sale Of Surfside Property

July 14, 2021

The judge overseeing litigation over the condominium collapse in Surfside, Florida, told attorneys Wednesday that he intends to move forward quickly with a sale of the property where the building once stood in order to maximize recovery for victims.

In a hearing in Miami, Judge Michael Hanzman said he is “not interested in a prolonged negotiation” regarding the Champlain Towers South property and instructed the receiver for the condominium association to begin the process of setting up an auction of the property.

He acknowledged that there had been talk of creating a memorial park in the space, where at least 95 died when the building collapsed in the early morning hours of June 24. But he said the victims would not be sacrificing potential funds to build the park.

Click here to read the original article.

Click here to read the full PDF.

Miami-Dade judge approves pursuing sale of Surfside property that is site of condo collapse

By Jay Weaver

July 14, 2021

Hundreds of victims of the deadly collapse of a Surfside condo building could expect to see compensation in the near future, as a Miami-Dade Circuit judge Wednesday approved the planned sale of the oceanfront property, valued at more than $100 million, as well as the disbursement of millions more in insurance payments for property and personal damages.

Circuit Judge Michael Hanzman told a courtroom packed with civil attorneys that he wanted to start the process of putting the site of the partially collapsed 12-story Champlain Towers South up for sale immediately. He also wants the court-appointed receiver for its condominium association to begin disbursing millions of dollars in insurance payments to former owners of the 136-unit building.

Click here to read the original article.

Click here to read the full PDF.

Surfside condo collapse prompts industry changes

Tragedy in South Florida sends aftershocks rippling across the country

July 12, 2021

By Katherine Kallergis

Raysa Rodriguez, 59, described the moment she was awakened by the collapsing northeast portion of her Surfside condo building, home to more than 50 units.

The tower “swayed like a sheet of paper,” Rodriguez said, according to a lawsuit filed on her behalf. It was 1:30 a.m. on June 24, and she fled. After making it to an outdoor stairwell, she was faced with the devastation that had been Champlain Towers South.

“The beachside of Champlain had collapsed, pancaked,” she recounted in the complaint. “I screamed in horror.”

At least 90 people died in the disaster, according to the latest count, with dozens of others still unaccounted for. The collapse of the tower, where a 2018 inspection identified design and structural flaws, has sent aftershocks reverberating across the country as residents of buildings from Miami Beach to California are alerting engineers and inspectors to cracked concrete, rusty rebar and water leaks.

Click here for the original article.

Click here for the original PDF.

‘Frustrating’: Miami Litigators React as Courthouse Closed Indefinitely Amid Safety Concerns

By Melea VanOstrand

July 12, 2021

All judges and court staff based at the Miami-Dade County Courthouse are back to working remotely until further notice after an engineer’s report identified safety concerns on various floors of the 28-story historic building.

It’s a development that’s thrown the court’s reopening process into limbo and added to mounting concerns over the safety of Miami high-rises, as the review was prompted by the partial collapse of Champlain Towers South in Surfside on June 24.

The June 30 inspection, by South Florida general contracting and engineering firm U.S. Structures Inc., uncovered visible signs of concrete spalling and cracks in some of the overhead beams and slabs, corrosion at steel column members and a water leak seeping through an existing beam on the third floor.

Click here to read the original article.

Click here to read the full PDF.