6 days ago
Attorney in Herald condo sale investigation loses his license — as he requested
A Hollywood lawyer whose system for cheaply buying condominiums in foreclosure spawned a Florida Bar complaint and a Miami Herald investigation has lost his law license.
And that's exactly what Brad Schandler requested when he filed for disciplinary revocation.
'Disciplinary revocation is tantamount to disbarment,' states the state Supreme Court's general language in acceptance of such petitions.
Here's how disciplinary revocation works: Schandler, 69, gets kicked out of the Bar for five years. He can ask to be readmitted on July 3, 2030. He has to pay an administrative fee of $1,250, plus possibly Bar auditor and investigator costs. He will also have to reimburse the Client Security Fund for any payments made to clients from his actions.
In return, the pending Florida Bar investigations and grievances against Schandler go away. This has no effect on any civil or criminal cases related to the actions being investigated.
Disciplinary revocation gets used by lawyers who are near retirement, and lawyers who don't want to be lawyers anymore or who expect to be suspended or disbarred at the end of a possibly augmented disciplinary process.
The granting of the petition didn't please Hernando Posse, who filed a Bar complaint against Schandler after being outbid for a two-bedroom unit in Pompano Beach's Emerald Tower, 1401 Ocean Blvd. The Bar closed the complaint without any action, then reopened the complaint after 2024 Miami Herald reporting on several such sales.
'This is incredible .... how corrupt the whole system is' Posse said..
MORE: Supreme Court suspends license of Coral Gables attorney accused of swindling clients
Schandler described his system to a Miami Herald reporter as an 'alternative, legal foreclosure method' for buying condos that have foreclosure judgments, overdue maintenance fees or unpaid assessments. In his petition for disciplinary revocation, he described it thusly:
Schandler, as the attorney for various companies, bought the judgments from the condominium associations and then would ask the courts to change two auction rules: allow a public auction at the actual property, instead of online, and, if the highest bidder didn't pay, the auction wouldn't have to be repeated.
This allowed Schandler's client to buy the property, usually for $100.
Posse believes Schandler's sister outbid him under a phony name, then intentionally failed to pay. Under auction rules Schandler persuaded a judge to approve, the property then got sold to a Schandler-controlled company. Quit claim deeds passed it through a couple of entities with connections to Schandler or his associates for $100 per change. Broward County records say a company affiliated with one of Schandler's associates sold the unit to a couple for $525,000.
Schandler's petition said, 'According to (Posse) ... as well as a Miami Herald article published on April 2, 2004, the change in auction rules [Schandler] had the courts approve would enable [Schandler's] clients to obtain ownership of the properties for a payment, which, in most instances, would be less than the properties' would have sold at a normal online auction.
The Bar's Board of Governors Executive Committee approved the petition on June 23 and the state Supreme Court did so on July 3.
