Lawyer: Majority of RRA Attorneys Not Crooks!

Ok, let me start with a few congrats -- Manny Diaz is going to join Richard Lydecker's insurance defense firm, and Marcos Jimenez is leaving Mike Nachwalter's firm to join the Miami office of Kasowitz Benson.

I'm usually leery of out-of-state big firms setting up offices in Miami, but this one has a lot of potential:

Jimenez joins former Akerman partners Lawrence D. Silverman, Scott B. Cosgrove and James G. Sammataro, and former Clarke Silverglate & Campbell partners Kelly Luther and Maria Ruiz. Silverman oversaw Akerman’s Miami litigation department and the firm’s antitrust practice group.

That's a powerhouse crew -- good luck!

Meanwhile, it turns out only 35 RRA lawyers are being investigated by the Bar:

The Florida Bar is investigating at least 35 former senior lawyers in the now-bankrupt Fort Lauderdale law firm headed by Scott Rothstein, who was disbarred before he was criminally charged last month with using the firm to run a $1.2 billion investment racket.

The Bar confirmed to The Miami Herald Wednesday that it is examining whether those members of the former firm -- Rothstein Rosenfeldt Adler -- lied about the amount of money in client trust accounts and whether they stole any of it.

According to Howard Greitzer, however, the majority of RRA attorneys did nothing illegal:

``There has been no determination of wrongdoing,'' Greitzer said. ``The majority of the lawyers that I am familiar with from RRA were hard-working, competent colleagues who did nothing illegal, inappropriate or unethical.''

I agree with Howard -- in fact, if you can get a simple majority on something like that you've got yourself a pretty good law firm.