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Miami Herald
31-07-2025
- Business
- Miami Herald
With millions at stake, Sergio Pino's wife reaches key settlement in estate case
Just over a year ago, wealthy Coral Gables developer Sergio Pino fatally shot himself at his waterfront home in Cocoplum as FBI agents closed in to arrest him on charges of plotting to kill his wife, Tatiana, with whom he'd been going through a bitter divorce. The day after Pino, 67, died on July 16, 2024, his brother filed an estate case in the probate division of the Miami-Dade Circuit Court — a legal move that set the stage for a dramatic conflict over hundreds of millions of dollars in assets. The dispute has pitted Tatiana against the brother-in-law, Carlos Pino, and top executives of the late developer's company, Century Homebuilders Group. READ MORE: Miami developer Sergio Pino found dead amid FBI 'murder for hire' investigation In mid-July, Tatiana, 56, fortified her position in the estate case and dozens of related lawsuits when she reached a key settlement agreement with her two grown daughters from her marriage with Pino as well as with the two adult children from Pino's prior marriage, according to her lawyers Glen Waldman and Ray Rafool. The agreement was negotiated as six of nine defendants in the FBI's murder-for-hire probe targeting Pino pleaded guilty to conspiracy and related charges in Miami federal court. A trial is scheduled for October. The recent settlement, which is expected to be approved by Probate Judge Yvonne Colodny, says that Tatiana is entitled to full ownership of Century Homebuilders, the biggest of the couple's martial assets, with two dozen residential developments across Florida. 'It's critically important,' Waldman told the Miami Herald Wednesday. 'I'm very happy we got this done.' The settlement reinforces an operating agreement set up by Pino in 2013 when he founded Coral Gables-based Century Homebuilders and listed himself as owning half of the company and his wife the other half, the lawyers said. When he died last year, his ownership half automatically transferred to Tatiana under the terms of the agreement, they said. She is Century Homebuilder's president, according to the company's website. But just because Tatiana and Pino's four adult children stand 'united' on her full ownership of Century Homebuilders — along with the allocation of other assets listed in the settlement agreement — it doesn't mean the legal disputes between Pino's wife and several others with estate claims will be easily resolved. The reason: In the months and days before Pino killed himself, he arranged to transfer his half ownership of Century Homebuilders to a newly created trust benefiting the company's longtime chief operating officer, Pedro Hernandez, and a few other senior employees. Pino carried out this change despite a Miami-Dade judge's order in the couple's long-running divorce case that prohibited him from disposing of their marital assets. Tatiana's divorce petition, filed in 2022, was not finalized before Pino's death last summer. As a result, the curator of Pino's estate, Coral Gables accountant Philip Schechter, took the position that half of Century Homebuilders was an estate asset and potentially subject to a claim by Hernandez that he and the other employees should be allowed to receive Pino's equity in the company. At minimum, the wife should get the other half. But Waldman, Tatiana's probate lawyer, said that as the curator, Schecter is 'standing in the shoes of Pino on behalf of his four grown children.' And now that they agree with Pino's wife, Tatiana, that she should be entitled to full ownership of Century Homebuilders, Hernandez's ownership claim rings hollow. Ultimately, a resolution to the central conflict in Pino's estate case might be negotiated by a court-appointed mediator, lawyer Bruce Greer. Then, Colodny, the probate judge, would have final say. Century Homebuilders has been run by Tatiana and her two daughters almost since Pino's death. Attorney Luis Barreto, who represents Hernandez and other Century Homebuilders employees, declined to comment, noting that he's 'in the middle of settlement discussions.' Hernandez, formerly second in command at Century, is no longer working for the company. In the family's settlement, dated July 17, Tatiana's two daughters, Carolina Pino Neuman and Allesandra Pino, and Pino's two grown children from a prior marriage, Jacqueline Pino Wechsler and Sergio Alexander Pino, agreed to terms not only on her ownership of Century Homebuilders but on other major real estate assets in Miami, Doral and South Miami. Among the company's assets: 850 Living, an eight-story, multi-family project with 230 units at 811 NW 43rd Ave., was sold for $71.5 million in March. Under the settlement, Tatiana and the four children agreed that Jacqueline Pino Wechsler shall receive half of the net proceeds from the 850 Living property sale, according to a profit-sharing agreement set up by Pino a decade ago. Tatiana Pino shall receive a quarter of the proceeds, and another quarter shall go in equal parts to Pino's four grown children. Miami attorney Mark Raymond, who is advising the Pino estate's curator, Schecter, said the settlement between Tatiana and Pino's four grown children was a step in the right direction, reducing the amount of litigation and costs. 'This is a positive development,' Raymond said. 'It will expedite the administration of the estate to the benefit of all beneficiaries and creditors.' Attorney Sergio Mendez, who represents Pino's brother Carlos, who filed the estate case, did not respond to a request for comment. In addition to the family's settlement, Tatiana has filed dozens of claims against Pino's estate, including one seeking $30 million in damages based on FBI allegations that her late husband conspired to kill her toward the end of their 32-year marriage. Her claim states that Pino, a Cuban immigrant who had built a real estate empire over decades, committed 'attempted murder, battery, and intentional infliction of emotional distress by slowly poisoning Ms. Pino with fentanyl and hiring hitmen squads, who followed Ms. Pino for days, and then brandished a firearm at Ms. Pino and her daughter.' The claim, which attaches federal charging documents filed against his nine co-conspirators, states that the developer 'caused Ms. Pino to be hospitalized on various occasions and suffer serious physical injury and emotional distress.'
Miami Herald
25-06-2025
- Business
- Miami Herald
A Coral Gables firm is planning apartments and a rooftop spot at Florida landmark
Developers plan to transform the vacant lot that once housed Bradenton's city hall into a seven-story luxury apartment building with nearly 400 units. The City of Bradenton's Community Redevelopment Agency Board unanimously supported the idea at its June 11 meeting and moved the application forward. The action directed staff to create a more detailed contract and return to the board. The upcoming project is listed as a mixed-use development with 367 apartment units, a rooftop restaurant, retail space and other services in the building at 500 15th St. West. These components are estimated to bring over 100 jobs, according to the presentation. Behind the project is Coral Gables-based Allen Morris Co., which plans to spend $130 million to redevelop the 3.7-acre parcel currently owned by Manatee County. The Allen Morris Company's website states construction on the downtown Bradenton project is expected to begin in 2026 and finish in the second quarter of 2028. 'Beyond delivering high-quality rental residences, the project will feature an acclaimed local restaurant overlooking the water, a new dock with kayak and paddleboard rentals and a thoughtfully designed boardwalk connecting Wares Creek to the neighborhood — all open to the public and enriching the urban fabric,' the project website states. The Allen Morris Company did not respond to the Bradenton Herald's requests for comment. Bradenton luxury apartments planned downtown AMRES Investments, LLC, the investment firm behind the project, is under contract with Manatee County Government to buy the 3.7-acre parcel for $8 million. The parcel was valued at $2.2 million for the 2024 tax year, according to the Manatee County Property Appraiser. Estimated construction costs for the project are around $130 million, with a stabilized value of $175 million upon completion. The project would be part of the City of Bradenton's Community Redevelopment Agency, which utilizes increased property values within designated areas to offer incentives through increment revenue from the property tax increases. At the June 11 meeting, Executive Director of Bradenton Community and Economic Development Jeff Burton praised the project and its compatibility with the city redevelopment plans. Burton said this is the first market-rate apartment project in the downtown area of the CRA, which will help to build downtown's tax base. 'They are coming in and giving us something we really do need in downtown,' Burton told the board. 'This is a great opportunity, we got a great developer. They've done a lot of really good projects.' The Allen Morris Company's portfolio includes an extensive list of high-end, luxury apartments in places like Sarasota, St. Petersburg and Miami. While the complex will mainly be luxury apartments charging market rate, the developers plan to add some amount of workforce housing in order to receive additional incentives from the CRA. The CRA offers incentives to developers in one of three districts: Central, Downtown and Tamiami Trail. When developers include components like affordable housing, workforce housing, low-impact development or public art, they receive a larger property tax reimbursement. 'We lower the risk with the incentives so the bank feels more comfortable knowing there's a public partner involved,' Burton told the board at the June 11 meeting. 'We lower the risk as much as we feel we can with the public dollar…if we didn't do it, they wouldn't build it.' Carl Callahan represented AMRES Investments, LLC at the June 11 meeting. Callahan was formerly the City Administrator for the City of Bradenton from 2015 to 2021. Callahan told the board the incentives will help the project move forward with financing, which he said is the toughest obstacle. 'The toughest thing is not building it, the toughest thing is not designing it,' Callahan said. 'The toughest thing about any of these projects in Bradenton, because of the rents right now, is to get it financed. So this is the way to help get it financed.' Before the board voted in favor of the project, Councilwoman Marianne Barnebey voiced support for the idea and said the high-end apartments would help boost downtown's appeal. It's critical, she said, to have a mix of high-end apartments and affordable housing in a sustainable downtown. 'If you set everything so that it is all affordable, low-income, you're going to damage your downtown,' Barnebey said. 'You've got to mix in the higher rents, the luxury apartments.' Burton spoke at the meeting about how market-rate apartments would help draw in other services, like a long-awaited grocery store, by creating demand for such services.
Miami Herald
13-06-2025
- Business
- Miami Herald
Law aimed to fast-track housing. Two years in, Miami-Dade sees first modest project
Two years after it was first approved, the controversial Live Local Act, a state law designed to fast-track housing construction across Florida by overriding local density limits, is about to deliver its first project in Miami-Dade County. It's not what you may be expecting. Instead of the splashy, zoning-busting high-rise proposals that have set off political and court battles across South Florida, Beacon Hill at Princeton is modest in scale and scope: Three-story garden-style buildings with a total of 112 rental apartments, all of them affordable to people making a middle-class income. But its developers are doing something that no other Live Local proposal in Miami-Dade has managed to accomplish so far: They are actually ready to start construction. In doing so, developers Matthew Martinez and David Rothenstein say, the $20 million Beacon Hill at Princeton may provide a model for making the law work the way it was sold to the public — expanding the supply of so-called 'workforce' housing in urban areas where exploding costs have made renting a home unaffordable for many middle-income workers. The developers say their project, on South Dixie Highway just north of Homestead, is the first in the county to be fully conceived, designed and approved under Live Local that's ready to go. Unlike numerous other proposals that have yet to get off the ground, their development did not seek to supersize under Live Local and has no market-rate apartments, keeping cost lows with simple, low-rise designs. By focusing on Live Local's generous tax breaks and other incentives instead, they say, they were able to preserve relative affordability while still projecting a healthy return on their investment. The project is privately financed. 'What we've tried to do at Beacon Hill is create and develop workforce housing for the missing middle that adheres to the spirit of the legislation,' Martinez, president of Coral Gables-based Beacon Hill Property Group, said. 'We want to provide good, safe financially attainable housing for people who make our communities work and function.' Added Rothenstein, Beacon Hill's managing director: 'We're making a little dent in this huge need. We're using it for exactly what it was meant for, to add workforce housing, not market-rate housing.' Beacon Hill's Princeton project broke ground with a ceremony June 6. The developers expect completion by late next year, with monthly rents ranging from $1,700 to $1,900 for a one-bedroom apartment, and between $2,100 and $2,300 for a two-bedroom. To qualify, renters must meet income caps set at no more than 120 percent of the county's median household income, or about $95,000. But the developers and even some Live Local backers warn not to expect a flood of projects, at least not yet. Originally approved by the Florida Legislature in 2023, the Live Local Act allows mixed-use projects in commercial and industrial districts to exceed limits on local density and height zoning rules so long as developers set aside 40 percent of residential units for workforce housing. Under Live Local, championed among others by Florida GOP Rep. Vicki Lopez of Miami, municipal and county authorities are obligated to approve a proposal that qualifies without public hearings or review. The law, which received overwhelming bipartisan support, also provides significant breaks on property taxes and impact fees paid by developers, while earmarking millions of dollars in state funds for housing development over 10 years — lucrative provisions that have not received the attention that the law's zoning pre-emption measures have. The idea was to allow developers to build more profitable market-rate apartments using greater height and density while providing financial support to balance out the lower rents for workforce tenants. Backers said they expected the law to quickly result in development of low- to mid-rise buildings, or up to about eight stories, because construction costs and complications rise substantially above that height, likely making high-rise Live Local proposals hard to finance and slow to receive building permits. Speculation over construction Instead, the law has so far most conspicuously produced what some critics have said is an avalanche of speculation by developers across South Florida who rushed to propose complex skyscraper projects with hundreds of market-rate and even luxury apartments in addition to the desired workforce units. In many cases the contemplated towers would far exceed the previously allowed height and density in municipalities from Hollywood to Doral, Bal Harbour and Miami Beach, prompting an uproar from residents and setting off some high-profile legal battles. Earlier this year, the latest in a series of amendments to the Live Local law designed get projects moving could lead to the demolition of historic Miami Beach buildings, including its famed Art Deco buildings, for skyscrapers. Backers note that the need for so-called workforce housing is acute across much of the state. But some skeptics say Live Local's zoning and financial measures provide developers outsize benefits while delivering little comparable relief for the county's housing crisis, which is concentrated among low-income families that cannot afford workforce rents, and saddling communities with traffic and other infrastructure impacts and costs they have not planned for. Whereas Miami-Dade has a shortfall of some 17,000 workforce homes, the gap for low-income housing — defined as households making under 80 percent of the area median income — sits at 90,000 units, said Annie Lord, executive director of Miami Homes for All, a research and advocacy organization. 'What you're getting in exchange,' she said of Live Local's benefits for developers, 'it's just dwarfed by that five-to-one gap in affordable housing.' While some of those high-rise, high-density projects have been approved, not one has begun or announced the start of construction. Local resistance to Live Local The poster child is perhaps a contested proposal from the owners of a dying Sears store on Coral Way, on the Miami side of the border with suburban Coral Gables, that drew strenuous opposition from the residents of the abutting, low-scale Coral Gate neighborhood. The developers' plan would put three eight-story buildings and 1,050 apartments on the already traffic-clogged intersection of Douglas Road and Coral Way, a historic road that can't be altered. In May, after the city of Miami, adhering to Live Local's rules, approved the project with no hearing or chance for public input, owner Ranaan Katz, one of the original partners in the Miami Heat, promptly put the eight-acre property — its value now multiplied by Live Local — up for sale for a reported $100 million-plus. The Miami-Dade tax appraiser's website puts the property's market value at $37.7 million. A leading Live Local expert in Miami, land-use lawyer Javier Avino, said he believes there is a shake-up going on as developers realize large-scale projects under the law may be unfeasible, at least for now, given high interest rates and land, insurance and construction costs. Avino, a partner and land-use lawyer at Bilzin Sumberg, noted that some chief beneficiaries of Live Local to date have been affordable housing projects already under development or construction that ran into difficulties because of rising costs. Several received significant low-interest loans from the Florida Housing Finance Corporation, a state agency, under Live Local to finish projects. One since-completed project by a Bilzin client, Cymbal DLT's Laguna Gardens in Miami Gardens, initially a market-rent project, fully retooled before construction was finished to accommodate Live Local's income limits for all 341 units and qualify for its tax and financial incentives. Also making progress, Avino said, are several proposals by Related Urban, the affordable housing arm of the giant Related Group, that take advantage of Live Local's zoning hikes. But those have the advantage of using public land under publicly bid agreements with the county housing agency — a massive cost savings other most private projects don't enjoy. Bilzin represents Related Urban. 'There's always going to be the reality that some folks try and entitle for highest and best use without truly committing to actually doing the development,' Avino said. 'The reality is that the ones we are seeing truly progress are the ones that provide enough of an incentive to pencil out financially. It's not going to be something that goes from 100 to 1,001 units of development. If you supersize something, it's going to create a slew of other issues that really become cost-prohibitive. 'In 2023 we saw a lot of exploration. What we're seeing now is a balancing out. Some people are seeing it doesn't make sense for me.' Breaks on taxes, impact fees The Beacon Hill developers said they found Live Local useful not for its zoning breaks, but for tax and other financial incentives. Beacon Hill, which got its start in Boston before moving to South Florida, has experience with affordable housing. It has built federally subsidized Section 8 housing, in which the government pays a portion of the rent for low-income families and individuals. But Live Local incentives made it advantageous for Beacon Hill to switch their model to workforce housing, its principals said. The Live Local financial benefits include a substantial 75 percent to 100 percent reduction in property taxes once a development is occupied, depending on tenants' incomes. To qualify, a project must have at least 70 workforce units. Impact fees to local governments, funds typically used to make street and sewer improvements, for instance, can also be reduced, by 80 percent. There's also a $5,000 rebate on sales tax per workforce unit on building materials. ·'I've heard market-rate developers tell me the big plus of Live Local is ultimately going to be the tax breaks,' Lord, of Miami Homes for All, said. But Lord warns that even the tax breaks are not yet proving to be a magic formula, either. That's because banks and other lenders have been loath to provide financing based on the promise of those breaks, which are not approved until a project is completed and may need to be periodically recertified. 'That is a major barrier to Live Local scaling up,' she said. Counting on the breaks, Beacon Hill bought a 2.6-acre parcel for $2.55 in cash in 2024 in unincorporated Princeton, and designed a workforce project to slot into existing mixed-use zoning enacted by the county years ago to urbanize the unincorporated Princeton area, once a rural stop along Henry Flagler's Florida East Coast Railway. Hit hard by Hurricane Andrew in 1992 and the loss of surrounding agriculture, Princeton has been a piece of what some long-time residents called the Dead Zone, a socially and economically depressed stretch of South Dixie north of Homestead. That's changing quickly. The search for less expensive and available land on which to build homes has led developers to the South Dixie corridor as the county gets set to open the new rapid-bus South Dade TransitWay that replaces the old busway and occupies the original route of the Flagler rail line. 'We think this is a phenomenal area for people to live,' Martinez said. To encourage housing development along the 20-mile-long TransitWay, which features 14 stations serving express buses that get green lights all the way at rush hour, the county has enacted special zoning districts that allow greater height and density, drawing dozens of new apartment projects to the area. That has meant both market-rate and workforce housing developments that are subsidized by a complex formula that relies on federal tax credits and low-cost state financing. The Beacon Hill project sits about a block and a half from a TransitWay station, But the developers said they sought no upzoning under the county's rapid-transit district rules, which provide flexibility for greater density along its SMART corridors, often in exchange for public benefits such as inclusion of workforce housing. Martinez said he found the Live Local financial incentives and the expedited planning review a better alternative to the traditional workforce approach. That faster approval can save a developer valuable months or even years, he said, but cautioned that it still took a year for the county to issue all necessary permits. Without Live Local, the Princeton project would not have been feasible financially, Martinez and Rothenstein said. 'Without it, we couldn't get to the return on capital that we need,' Rothenstein said. 'The reduction in taxes is what made this deal pencil out.' The approach has proven so promising that the partners are now planning 1,500 new workforce apartments using the model across South Florida. All will be in a similar garden style and scale to the Princeton development, which they say is the most efficient and cost-effective way to produce workforce housing. They are already working on a new Miami Gardens development. But they cautioned not to expect a flood of Live Local apartments to come on the market, however. Building and other permits for construction still take time. 'The supply is still going to take time due to the nature of having to deal with so many permits,' Martinez said.
Yahoo
04-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Construction to begin on St Petersburg's $800 million SkyTown development
A mixed-use development that will bring thousands of apartments and a grocery store to St. Petersburg's SkyWay Marina District is starting to take shape after receiving funding from public and private backers. The project, dubbed SkyTown, is slated for the former Ceridian office campus at 3201 34th St. S. Coral Gables-based developer Altis Cardinal bought the 32-acre property in 2021 for $40 million. 'We're the largest community that has been approved in all of St Pete,' said Frank Guerra, principal of Altis Cardinal. 'We're putting a 24-hour kind of living situation together on this one 32-acre parcel.' It will be built in six phases and is expected to cost between $750 and $800 million. Once complete, it will add 2,084 apartments, 69,000 square feet of retail space including a Sprouts Farmers Market and 120,000 square feet of self-storage. This is the first Sprouts Farmers Market to open in St. Petersburg, and is slated to open in October. It joins four other locations in Pinellas County and 19 around Tampa Bay. On Tuesday, Altis Cardinal, secured a $68 million construction loan from Third Fifth Bank, according to records filed with the Pinellas County Clerk's Office. The developer also got approved for a $4.5 million forgivable loan from the City of St. Petersburg in April and a $5.5 million allocation from Pinellas County through the Penny for Pinellas sales tax. All this funding will go toward the first phase, which will feature 401 apartments and 12,000 square feet of ground-floor retail. Of those apartments, 121 will be designated as workforce housing. About half will be reserved for households that earn up to 120% of the area median income, which is currently about $87,600 for a single person or $125,160 for a family of four. The other half will be for those who earn up to 80% of the area median income — $58,450 for a single person or $83,450 for a family of four. People could start moving in by the the third quarter of 2027. Guerra said they're already in talks to fill the retail space below. He envisions something neighborhood-oriented like a wine bar, restaurant, coffee shop, bakery or day spa. Building out the entire project could take eight to ten years. The Skyway Marina District is currently undergoing a transformation, with at least four other residential projects popping up within a stone's throw of SkyTown. But Guerra said what sets his development apart is the 'town-square' feel it will have. 'We are making a walkable community where people can get everything they need on site,' said Guerra. 'We think our retail will draw people from outside the area.'
Miami Herald
13-05-2025
- Business
- Miami Herald
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.
