Daily Business Review: 2019 Professional Excellence Awards – Litigation Departments, Small Law Firms (2019)
By Kluger, Kaplan, Silverman, Katzen & Levine, P.L. May 21, 2019
REAL ESTATE – SMALL FIRMS
The 10-year-old Kluger Kaplan litigation boutique distinguished itself in an assortment of hypertechnical real estate cases in 2018.
When the joint developers of the 19-unit boutique condominium at 300 Collins Ave. fought for control of the five-story building in Miami Beach’s resurrected South of Fifth neighborhood, Kluger Kaplan attorney Marko Cerenko succeeded in enforcing a buy-sell reverse option for his client, PSB Collins LLC, led by the Goldman Sachs’ youngest partner, Dhruv Piplani. Developer Jason Halpern’s JMH Development refused to surrender the property until Miami-Dade Circuit Judge William Thomas ruled for PSB last October.
Kluger Kaplan’s Alan Kluger and Josh Rubens, along with Todd Legon of Legon Fodiman, represented the minority owner of Miami Beach’s Seagull Hotel in obtaining a forced partition of the property and the $31 million sale of the beachfront hotel in January 2018 after 14 months of litigation.
The Third District Court of Appeal last August affirmed a decision in favor of Florida Pritikin Center LLC and its long-term lease at the Trump National Doral Miami golf resort. Kluger and Philippe Lieberman maintained soon-to-be President Donald Trump wrongly tried to force the center out of its leased space and out of business.
The appellate court last June also affirmed a decision favoring the sellers represented by Kluger and Ashley Frankel, along with Scott Kravetz of Duane Morris, in a $2.8 million home sale contract. The decision strictly upheld the termination provisions of the Florida Bar’s standard contract for real estate home purchases.
The founders of the 28-attorney Miami law firm sought to build a strong niche practice that would complement rather than compete with full-service firms. In the process, the firm has turned some previous adversaries into clients.