This is What a Mensch Looks Like.

Are you ready for some football?

I don't know about you, but the hype is bordering on ridiculous and according to both Le Batard and Herald political reporter/budding sports analyst Marc Caputo, nearly everyone in South Florida hates both teams and their visiting fans.

Welcome to Miami!

In other news, Dan Gelber plays the long game and shows us what it means to be a mensch:

Twenty-four years ago Big Brothers and Sisters matched me up with a 6-year-old little gap-toothed boy living in a poor Miami neighborhood I knew only as a place to avoid driving through.

Read this story. 

As we begin a new year let's think about how we can make a positive impact on the people around us -- in ways large, small, and in between.  Make this year count.

BTW, that photo of a young Danny Gelber in his acid washed jeans and sneaks is priceless:

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/01/04/3168125/what-mentoring-can-do.html#storylink=cpy

A Tale of Two AGs -- Pam Bondi vs. Dan Gelber.

Happy Monday, kids!

Did you watch a bunch of show business kids making movies of themselves, you know they don't give a....

Oh well, you know the rest.

(Lost Wages)

Remember the last election?

As they say, these things have consequences.

That's why at the same time Miami Beach mensch Dan Gelber is helping foreclosure lawyer Marc Ben-Ezra "provide support with quality control and to help evaluate policies and procedures," whatever that means, the actual AG, Pam Bondi, is doing something really important -- stopping felons from ever voting again:

Attorney General Pam Bondi says it is too easy for felons to regain their civil rights in Florida and wants new restrictions, including a waiting period of up to five years before they can seek clemency.

“I don’t believe that any felon should have an automatic restoration of rights,” said Bondi, a former Tampa prosecutor elected in November. “I believe you should have to ask, and there should be an appropriate waiting period.” (ed. note -- right after the next election!)


Bondi’s proposal, set to be formally discussed at a March 9 Cabinet meeting, would reverse a major change that took place in April 2007 at the urging of former Gov. Charlie Crist, who said the civil rights restoration process in Florida was too cumbersome and cruel to many ex-offenders.

Crist’s changes streamlined the restoration process to allow tens of thousands of felons to regain their right to vote, sit on a jury and obtain various state licenses without having to undergo a lengthy review and hearing process.

 See what happens when people vote (except released felons)?

While the poor people sleepin'
With the shade on the light
While the poor people sleepin'
All the stars come out at night

Dan Gelber Won the AG Election?

Well, according to Palm Beach County, he did:

Dan Gelber may not have won the race to become Florida's Attorney General, but Palm Beach County's official Guide to Services says he did.

The 88-page book, which includes names and phone numbers for county and state offices, lists Gelber as the state's attorney general, even though Pam Bondi defeated the former democratic state senator in November.

"We have apologized," said Lisa De La Rionda, the county's public affairs director. "We recognize our mistake."

The county printed 35,000 copies of the services guide. About 13,000 have been distributed since it was printed last year, county officials said.

Although the name is wrong, the guide lists the correct phone number for the attorney general's office in Tallahassee.

So at least the guide has that going for it.

BTW, this thing costs the county $27k to produce.

Simple question -- why?

Why spend that much money (and get it wrong) when the entire enterprise has been superseded by a Google search?

As they say....follow the money.

Oh well, enjoy the commercials and intermittent violent ground acquisition, kids!

Trust Me, Dan Gelber Likes Jews!

It seems every lawyer I know has been sending me emails about this scurrilous attack by Karl Rove and Citizen United's unholy love child, the "Committee for Florida's Education Inc.," that alleges Dan Gelber -- a mensch by any measure and I can vouch for this personally -- is somehow anti-Semitic.

It's too bad Dan is a down-ticket candidate in an election where a bunch of yahoos are apparently going to get elected, but this latest attack is just simply beyond the pale.

Here's an excerpt from the attachment to the email making the rounds among lawyers on Dan's behalf:

If  this “Committee” were truly interested in providing access to Jewish education for needy children, they could have accomplished that with all the money it is spending to finance these defamatory pieces.  But, of course, the purpose of these flyers is not to ensure “access to Jewish education for needy children.”   They were bought with undisclosed, anonymous money in an effort to get Senator Gelber’s opponent, Pamela Bondi elected. 

Not true, Ms. Bondi?  Then renounce these despicable practices immediately.  The Attorney General is supposed to do justice.  To allow such lies to stand unchallenged while you reap their political benefit without absorbing their taint is unworthy of a person who would presume to lead our state’s highest law enforcement office.  Your deafening silence on this issue speaks poorly for your sense of justice and your candidacy.

The more worrisome issue is what do these big money GOP guys have in mind with Ms. Bondi?

We may have the unfortunate honor in this election cycle of catapulting two Palinesqe rock stars into national orbit.

But that's why we love our silly State!

Fort Lauderdale Attorney Jim Lewis Wants to Make Us (Legal) Potheads!

Well maybe I'm not reading that quite right, but my eyes are a little puffy at the moment and I've still got some residuals from last night's Dylan concert:

Relatively unknown as a candidate in the race to become Florida’s next Attorney General, Fort Lauderdale attorney Jim Lewis has announced he’s calling for Florida to take a step beyond simply decriminalizing marijuana for medical use, saying in press release Tuesday that he will seek the legalization of marijuana (in what is widely considered to be the state that ranks number one for highly potent, indoor-grown pot) should he be elected.

Jim even has some "science" and stuff to support his wacky views:

He added that studies have shown marijuana isn’t physically addictive and there are no documented cases of people dying from marijuana abuse. “I think some of the people using drugs like Oxycontin are using them because marijuana is illegal, and I think we’d be saving some lives,” he said.

A report by the Florida Medical Examiners Commission in July found that 5 percent of all deaths in 2009 were attributable to prescription drug use, far outnumbering those caused by illegal substances, and that Oxycodone, the generic version of the Purdue Pharma brand name prescription pain-killer OxyContin, was the cause of 1,185 state deaths in 2009, a 26-percent increase from the year before and a whopping 249-percent increase from 2005.

What say you, dashing Dan Gelber or "law and order" Pam Bondi?

Guess we can ask them both at the DCBA luncheon tomorrow (btw, what happened to Jim's invite?)

Gelber v. Aronberg -- Getting Dirty.

I'm not referring to their handsome faces of course.

I mean that accusations are flying and so is the mud as we get closer to the AG primary:

“In his ad, Aronberg calls Gelber a ‘Miami lawyer.’ This is both unseemly and ironic, considering Aronberg was himself a Miami lawyer,” said Christian Ulvert, Gelber‘s campaign manager. “Dave Aronberg should end his outrageous and false attacks on Dan Gelber. Newspapers across the state have overwhelmingly said Dave Aronberg is engaging in a manufactured campaign that is simply dishonest.

This is true -- they were (are?) both "Miami lawyers."

But I don't get why this is a pejorative.

Let's face it kids, Miami is where most of the sophisticated business transactions and litigation occurs in the state, and thus has the most sophisticated bar and judiciary in the state.

Or is that type of exceptionalism "unseemly"?

Gelber vs. Aronberg on BP Resignation

Here's an interesting video that puts together a point-counterpoint from the candidates on Dan Gelber's resignation from Akerman as that firm took on the massive BP Oil Spill defense work.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again -- Dan was slightly slow off the dime on this issue, and initially offered some weak tea in defense of his original argument that no conflict exists.

So David could certainly raise that as a legitimate issue.

But now that the issue has been resolved, I'm not following David in his continuing pursuit of it.

Could BP move to recuse Dan from the case if he is elected Attorney General?

Not likely in my view.

On the other hand, Dan has a slight case of exaggerated vapors in his reaction to it all, don't you think?

What strikes me, as I listen to Dan explain the timeline, is that it's pretty clear he didn't get much of a heads up from the firm as it aggressively (and successfully) sought out the business.

That's BigFirm life for you.

Aronberg Tars Gelber With "BP's Law Firm"

I've previously criticized my friend Dan Gelber's initial reaction over his firm Akerman getting all the BP Florida work.

Basically, when the news broke Dan did what lots of politicians do (he was joined by several other Akerman state legislators) -- he went into defense mode.

Specifically Gelber argued there was no conflict for two reasons I thought were pretty bogus:

1. He's "of counsel" (a contract lawyer) and therefore doesn't make any more money from the firm receiving the humongous BP business; and

2. The firm would build a "Chinese Wall" and isolate him from any BP work at Akerman.

As I detailed in my original post, both arguments and the conclusion (no conflict) are beyond weak, and to his credit Dan thought better of his initial reaction and left the firm shortly after making his initial comments on the matter.

Apparently, on the same day Dan announced his resignation, his opponent -- also my friend -- Dave Aronberg called for Dan to resign, leading to a predictable pissing match over who should get credit for Dan doing the right thing.

Now Dave has ratcheted it up with a flier that seems a bit over the top:

Aronberg, of Greenacres, recently began using the name of a defunct statewide Democratic group — the Florida Mainstream Democrats — to help raise money for his campaign.

And last week, Aronberg's campaign mailed Democratic voters a flier with a picture of an oily bird to attack Gelber, of Miami Beach, for working at the law firm retained by BP to handle its civil litigation in Florida.

State Rep. Rick Kriseman, the former chairman of Florida Mainstream Democrats, said he was "disappointed" Aronberg was using his group's name.

"It's misleading people," said Kriseman, who closed the political committee earlier this year after struggling to raise enough money.

He also is no fan of the BP ad for much the same reason. In a call that went to Democratic voters this weekend, Kriseman said he was "disappointed and frustrated that Dave Aronberg has sent out to Democratic voters mail pieces which are very misleading and are simply not true. Dan Gelber has been a leader in going after BP for the damage they have caused our communities."

The St. Petersburg Democrat said he had been neutral in the attorney general race, but decided to record the automated phone call for Gelber's campaign after he saw Aronberg's flier.

At least two other Democratic representatives, Luis Garcia of Miami Beach and Keith Fitzgerald of Sarasota, have lent their names to Gelber in opposition to the flier, which tells voters that 80 million gallons of oil gushed into the Gulf of Mexico before Gelber quit Akerman Senterfitt. It also refers to Gelber has having worked for "BP's law firm."

Ok, now it's Dave's turn for some criticism -- oily birds and "BP's law firm."

Dan might have reflexively defended his Akerman connection when the news first broke -- in fact I suggested Akerman might have thrown him under the bus to go after the BP business -- but days later Gelber did the right thing and it's time to move on.

The flier is beneath Dave's good judgment and I hope we never see another ad like it.

Like I always say, play nice kids!

Dan Gelber and Akerman: Who's Zooming Who?

The always intrepid Julie Kay breaks the slightly late resignation of Dan Gelber from Akerman in the wake of that firm getting the massive BP business:

State Sen. Dan Gelber has resigned his counsel position with Akerman Senterfitt two weeks after saying his firm’s representation of BP was a “non-issue.”

Gelber is joined by state Sen. Joe Negron, who quit Akerman in the last week to join Gunster in West Palm Beach. Two other state lawmakers are still working at Akerman: state Sen. Alex Villalobos and state Rep. Joe Gibbons, a nonlawyer consultant.

Read the letter from Dan Gelber to supporters

Gelber, who now plans to run full-time for Florida attorney general, said he planned to quit immediately after being told by the Daily Business Review that his firm has been hired to represent BP for all Florida civil litigation. “I knew immediately I would have to,” he said. “But it doesn’t happen overnight. I’ve been a lawyer for 25 years. I have a lot of clients to tell.” But Gelber also said it was not an issue since he was of counsel and not an equity partner at Akerman, Florida’s largest law firm. Villalobos, who also is of counsel, agreed and shared a letter he wrote to Akerman’s managing partner, Andrew Smulian, on May 24 asking that the four legislators who work at Akerman be “walled off” from any BP discussions or documents.

As I said, I know and like both of these candidates, and they are eminently qualified and will make terrific AGs.

But Gelber should have immediately tendered his resignation in light of Akerman's retention, and not argued irrelevancies like his of counsel relationship and whatever Chinese Wall his firm thought was high enough to erase any perception of conflict.

And even if he decided last week he had to resign (before Aronberg demanded it), that is one week after the story broke and therefore one week too late. He should have included his resignation in his first public statement on this matter.

But really this episode shows you how little regard Akerman holds for its "of counsel" partners.

When they ran the conflicts check, the issue with Dan obviously came up.

And rather than support their partner and stay on one side of that issue, they seem to have decided that gelt is the better part of valor and the dude running for office will have to deal with the consequences.

Two weeks later, he did.

Conflict? What Conflict?

Julie Kay breaks the story of Akerman representing BP in the Gulf Oil disaster, a huge piece of business worth many millions of dollars.

But there's a little wrinkle:

State Sens. Alex Villalobos and Dan Gelber are taking the lead in calling for a special legislative session to ban offshore drilling in Florida waters.

Yet the two work for Akerman Senterfitt, the law firm that has been retained to handle BP’s oil spill defense work in Florida.

Villalobos and Gelber both said they don’t think there is a conflict in their dual roles as attorneys with the law firm defending BP in court. Two other state legislators at the firm, state Sen. Joe Negron and state Rep. Joe Gibbons — are also of counsel at Akerman.

Villalobos, who chairs the Senate rules committee and sits on the policy and steering committee on energy, environment and land use, wrote to Akerman chairman Andrew Smulian on behalf of the firm’s four legislators on May 24.

He requested that the four be “walled off” and isolated from any “discussions, documents or activities of any kind between the firm and BP.”

He noted the legislators’ “of counsel” status at the firm means they have no ownership stake or access to the firm’s financial records and do not share in firm profits.

“By serving in the ‘of counsel’ relationship, the legislators who are associated with the firm are not involved in any manner with this client nor do we have access to files or information relating to the firm’s representation of BP,” the letter stated.

The problem is that the state is preparing to sue BP.

This would mean that if Dan Gelber is elected Florida's Attorney General, he will be supervising a highly significant piece of litigation against his own firm (or possibly former firm).

Can a Chinese Wall (how anachronistic is that?) and "of counsel" relationship cure that issue?

(Both Dan and Dave Aronberg are buddies and both are immensely qualified btw.)