sumber : ohbulan
Personal Injury Attorney Fort Myers
The firm was founded as Kaufman, Englett and Lynd in 1999, and shortened the name as it grew. K.E.L. was best known for taking on hundreds of foreclosure defense cases during the recession, and it got into trouble with the Florida Bar over failing to communicate with its clients at that time.
The firm�s managing partner, Matthew Englett, is keeping most of firm�s portfolio of clients, and its new name, LawyerASAP.
The two other firm owners, Jeffrey Kaufman and Craig Lynd, are setting up a new, smaller firm, apparently to be called Kaufman Lynd.
LawyerASAP now has about 160 employees, Englett said.
�We had a breakup in mind when we rebranded, but that was done mostly because we had expanded into new markets,� Englett said. �We are still on good terms. There�s no drama.�
Englett said he was in charge of landing new clients for years, and �it just didn�t make sense for us to be practicing together anymore.�
The Florida Bar disciplined the three founders of the firm, twice. Last year the three men acknowledged that they violated the state�s attorney regulations regarding regular communication with clients, and also allowed non-attorney staff to share in legal fees.
In 2010, all three received admonishments for violating advertising rules.
Also, in 2012, K.E.L. attorneys were investigated by the Bar, but eventually cleared, regarding a scam connected to its now-defunct K.E.L. Title Insurance Group.
Englett said the breakup had nothing to do with the Florida Bar discipline.
�They�re going to start small,� he said of Kaufman and Lynd. �They took three employees and 150 cases.�
Kaufman and Lynd have taken up offices in the Fifth Third Bank building in downtown Orlando, a short distance from Englett�s firm, LawyerASAP, which is at 150 N. Orange Ave.
LawyerASAP now has branch offices in Tampa, West Palm Beach, Fort Lauderdale and Fort Myers, with smaller meeting rooms or intake offices in Naples, Miami, and Jacksonville.
Englett said he rebranded because he had expanded to those other markets, and it was harder to market the name KEL outside of Orlando. He still does a lot of foreclosure defense.
�In the recession, 60 percent of our work was foreclosure defense. The remainder was family law, some contract law, a few criminal cases, and personal injury. Then we had a boom in personal bankruptcy, and that�s also subsiding now,� Englett said. �We still have about half of our practice in bankruptcy and foreclosure defense, and we�re also doing debtor harassment cases now, and looking into other areas.�
