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Class Action Settlement Lands Law Firm CEO in Hot Water With State Bar
Daily Business Review
July 14, 2009
Hank Adorno, head of the nation's largest minority-owned law firm, violated nine Florida Bar rules when he engineered a $7 million class action settlement that distributed money to only seven people instead of all Miami taxpayers, the state regulatory agency for attorneys claims.
The Bar charged the founding partner of Adorno & Yoss breached his fiduciary duty to Miami property owners by making false statements in court, charging excessive fees and representing one client to the detriment of others in a flawed attempt to end a constitutional challenge to a city fire fee.
Adorno and the city negotiated the settlement calling for payouts that left out thousands of city taxpayers but guaranteed his firm a $2 million contingency fee. The settlement was discarded when the details came out, and the 3rd District Court of Appeal railed about fraud when the case came before it.
"Plainly and simply, this was a scheme to defraud. It was a case of unchecked avarice coupled with a total absence of shame on the part of the original lawyers," the appellate court said in its order setting aside the settlement.
The Bar also filed a complaint against former Assistant City Attorney Charles Mays alleging five violations and withdrew a minor misconduct determination against Adorno & Yoss partner Robin Campbell, Bar counsel Arlene Sankel said. She had no comment on the Bar actions.
Adorno "breached his fiduciary duty to the putative class members for pecuniary gain to himself and the individually named plaintiffs," the Bar wrote in its complaint June 5. "But for the setting aside of the settlement agreement, [Adorno's] law firm and the individually named plaintiffs would have received a financial windfall resulting in an illegal, prohibited or clearly excessive fee."
George Yoss, Adorno & Yoss' managing partner, issued an e-mailed response, saying Adorno "acted ethically, lawfully and in the best interests of our clients." He said the Bar "ignored the opinions of numerous local and nationally recognized class action experts whose testimony was submitted to them proving the charges to be without merit."
Adorno is represented in the Bar action by Fort Lauderdale attorney Bruce Rogow, who said he would vigorously defend Adorno.
Born in Havana in 1947, Adorno was a top prosecutor under former State Attorney Janet Reno and is CEO of the 300-lawyer Coral Gables-based firm founded in 1986. Geographical expansion and acquisitions stretched its reach to more than a dozen cities, branching out from South Florida in 2004. The firm now has firms in New York, Los Angeles and Dallas under its umbrella.
The firm inherited the fire fee case when it took over the struggling Fort Lauderdale firm Atlas Pearlman in 2002.
In the wake of the resulting scandal, Adorno moved to Atlanta, kept his post with the law firm and became vice chairman of online publishing client HSW International. A 2007 Forbes magazine profile listed his total compensation that year at $1.3 million. Recent regulatory filings by HSW list a phone number for Adorno, but it does not accept messages. He did not respond by deadline to an e-mail seeking comment.
