Misappropriated funds. Working while disbarred. Miami metro lawyers disciplined
Bad behavior and questions about where client money went added up to five South Florida attorneys on the monthly list of lawyers disciplined by the state Supreme Court.
Disciplinary revocation, which the state Supreme Court calls 'tantamount to disbarment' when it grants the petition, lets the attorney throw in the towel on any pending discipline matters. The lawyer is disbarred for five years. The disciplinary cases go away, but it does nothing to any criminal or civil matters from those actions.
In alphabetical order:
David Bernstein, Coconut Creek
Bernstein was admitted to the Florida Bar in 1994, but in 2025, apparently cared only enough to tell the Bar he didn't care about being a lawyer anymore. He petitioned and received immediate disciplinary revocation and can request to be readmitted after five years.
Disciplinary revocation was the logical move with 15 Bar complaints pending.
One Bar filing against Bernstein comprises five complaints from 2018 and 2019, three in which he's alleged to have 'entered into a fee agreement with a client and did not provide the agreed services and that [Bernstein] and his staff failed to properly communicate with the client;' one that says Bernstein didn't answer Bar inquiries; and one in which he's accused of doing all of the above.
Most of the other 10 Bar filings are some form of money for nothing, including one case during which Bernstein allegedly not only didn't do that for which he'd been paid, but didn't tell the client when he got suspended for a year, 'instead advising that he was closing his office due to illness.'
Bernstein can become a full attorney again in February 2030.
Xenia Hernandez, West Miami-Dade
A Florida Bar audit of personal injury lawyer Xenia Hernandez's trust account says Xenia Hernandez Law not only took its time giving clients their settlement money, but seemed to be using that money for other purposes. That's a no-no with trust account money, and Hernandez got hit with an emergency suspension on April 25.
READ MORE: A Miami personal injury attorney misappropriated up to $381,000, Bar says
Hernandez joined the Bar in 2017 after graduating from Ave Maria School of Law in 2016. The office space occupied by Xenia Hernandez Law, 6923 NW 77th Ave., is now occupied by Florida Injury Solutions and the Xenia Hernandez Law phone number is on the Bar profile of Siobhan Bonilla, Ave Maria Law 2017. Bonilla's LinkedIn profile says 'Sibby B.' became 'Principal Attorney' at Florida Injury Solutions in April, the same month the state Supreme Court decided on Hernandez's emergency suspension.
READ MORE: Coral Gables-based Florida Bar president accused of misappropriating $625,000
Suzanne Mandich, West Palm Beach
West Palm Beach's Suzanne Mandich (admitted in 2013) said in the case that earned her suspension 'the depth of her empathy took her from sympathetically understanding the client's plight to the more emotionally intertwined 'active sharing in the suffering person's emotional experience,' which clouded her judgment.'
Mandich's guilty plea for consent judgment also admits she behaved badly during a deposition during this custody fight.
Mandich represented the father, a client she described as a 'poorly-educated,' 'indigent,' and 'technologically handicapped.' The court ordered him to complete an online parenting course. He paid twice and failed to complete the course twice.
So Mandich had her assistant complete the course for the client, then filed notice of course completion.
The client testified during a deposition that he'd completed the online course, Mandich let stand what she knew to be a lie. She wasn't the only one who knew about the lie — the mother had emails 'coordinating completion of the course by the assistant.'
Mandich ended the deposition.
'The record reflects the deposition had become contentious by that point, with [Mandich] telling the mother not to touch her on at least two occasions during the deposition,' Mandich's guilty plea said.
She made the father complete the course on his own and decided to no longer accept child custody cases, 'acknowledging her inability to detach her emotions from her representation.'
Mandich's 91-day suspension starts May 24.
Thomas Neusom, Fort Lauderdale
In February, Fort Lauderdale's Thomas Neusom (admitted in 2007) started a two-year suspension for a series of inept filings.
During the process that ended in that suspension, Referee Ginger Learner-Wren called Neusom's behavior during a hearing on his motion to dismiss 'obstructive and unethical:' said he blew deadlines on providing a witness and exhibit list; and, finally, didn't show up at the final hearing.
'The cumulative nature of [Neusom's] contemptuous conduct makes it evident that [Neusom] does not value his privilege to practice law,' the Florida Bar argued.
The state Supreme Court agreed and disbarred Neusom.
Gregory Pillon, Miami
Miami's Gregory Pillon pleaded no contest in Marion County to obtaining a mortgage by false representation in 2007. Knowing he'd be disbarred after the discipline process played out, Pillon tendered a disbarment on consent application, which was accepted in 2009.
Being disbarred doesn't prevent someone from working under a supervising attorney, although it can't be a lawyer the disbarred attorney once supervised, and they're restricted as to what tasks they're allowed to handle.
Pillon didn't obey those, admitting 'he continued to work with another lawyer as an independent contractor, without filing the required annual reports to the Bar as an employed disbarred attorney.'
Also, he had 'direct client contact' with a client buyer in 2022 and 2023. That's a no-no.
Pillon, 78, petitioned for disciplinary revocation without leave to reapply. He's now doubly disbarred.
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