No matter what becomes of these claims, it’s been a rough year for Akerman LLP. It’s only July and the firm has a strong lead in the “Most Cases Against Its Own Clients” race. A couple months ago, the firm went to court seeking unpaid fees from some medical companies only to have the defendants whip around and allege malpractice. This week, a real estate investment firm filed its own malpractice claim against the firm over $45 million worth of alleged errors.
“Akerman failed to advise [plaintiff] Turner of the most basic and appropriate remedies available to landlords under Florida law in the event of a breach by a tenant,” the complaint reads. “Because of Akerman’s malpractice, Turner was left holding the proverbial bag to the tune of tens of millions of dollars with no adequate remedies.”
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Of course, the only thing more Florida than having no enforceable remedy in your lease is realizing it because your own firm finally realized it three years later.
The plaintiff, represented by Vedder Price shareholder Javier Lopez, asserts that Akerman negotiated lease agreements that improperly reflected Florida law regarding rent acceleration.
38. Defendants entirely failed to draft Section 22 in a manner consistent with Florida law because they included the rent acceleration remedy only in Section 22.2.1 which provided for rent acceleration upon termination of the lease, which is not an enforceable remedy in Florida.
39. Defendants also failed to include the rent acceleration remedy where it properly belonged – in Section 22.2.2, which specifically addresses instances in which the landlord recovers possession of the premises without terminating the lease and endeavors to relet the premises for the account of tenant.
According to the complaint, the agreements needed to specify that in the event of the breach the lease would remain but the right of possession would be terminated and the landlord would then re-rent it for the “account of the tenant.” Without those magic words, Florida courts consider the agreement as potentially providing illegal double recovery. This is why no one likes Florida. Well, this and the fact that their state government’s top priority right now is banning airports from having weather machines — which sounds like a joke but OH MY GOD IT IS NOT A JOKE.
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Anyway, the tenant, CareMax Medical Center, breached seven leases with Turner by deciding they wanted to reduce their business exposure in a state that officially asks questions like “what if they’re controlling the weather?!?!” And that’s when Turner learned — from Akerman, as it turned out — that the agreements wouldn’t give them the remedy they wanted.
50.On March 6, 2024, Turner spoke with Clayton, who quickly advised that the Leases were not properly drafted to allow for rent acceleration under Florida law.
51. Presumably, Clayton did not realize at the time that Defendants had reviewed, commented on, and then approved the remedies provisions in the Leases when she made the concession to Turner, presumably thinking it had to have been different counsel that had approved the fatal provision.
52. After subsequent questions from Turner, Clayton responded, “I don’t know what to tell you. I didn’t draft it.”
53. It was then that Turner informed Clayton that Defendants had developed the provisions at issue and under Clayton’s review.
Well… that’s a shame.
“Akerman made a $45 million mistake,” said Lopez. “Despite acknowledging their error, Akerman has refused to make things right financially with Turner Healthcare Facilities Fund. Akerman left us no other remedy than to file today’s complaint.”
Obviously this complaint just dropped and Akerman may have defenses available. But no firm wants to keep finding its name next to “malpractice allegations” in the headlines.
(Check out complaint on the next page…)
Joe Patrice is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Feel free to email any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on Twitter or Bluesky if you’re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news. Joe also serves as a Managing Director at RPN Executive Search.