November 14, 2025

1. The Florida Bar

   PROFESSIONAL ETHICS COMMITTEE OFFERS GUIDANCE ON STANDARDS AND CONDUCT

   The Florida Bar | Article | November 14, 2025

   The Florida Bar’s Professional Ethics Committee (PEC) plays a critical role in guiding attorneys on the rules that govern the legal profession, helping ensure that lawyers uphold the highest standards of integrity, confidentiality, and professional responsibility. Chaired this year by Carolina Saavedra of Shutts & Bowen in Tampa, the committee recently convened its first meeting of the year during The Florida Bar’s Fall Meeting, serving as both an orientation for new members and a reaffirmation of the committee’s essential work in maintaining public trust in Florida’s legal system. Bar President-elect Michael Fox Orr welcomed PEC members, emphasizing the significance of their service and thanking them for their contributions. The meeting, supported by Ethics & Advertising Director Jonathan Grabb and Bar Senior Attorney Deanna Ebanks, offered a detailed overview of committee duties and processes.

   Also in The Florida Bar News:

   • BE A BANKRUPTCY LAWYER

   • SLOTS STILL AVAILABLE FOR MENTEES IN COUNSEL TO COUNSEL PROGRAM

2. The Florida Bar

   THE FLORIDA BAR INVITES LOCAL ATTORNEYS TO HELP SHAPE FLORIDA’S COURTS

   Westside Gazette | Article | November 13, 2025

   The Florida Bar is opening the door for attorneys across the state to make a lasting impact on Florida’s judicial system. The Bar is now accepting applications from qualified lawyers to serve on the state’s Judicial Nominating Commissions (JNCs) — the bodies responsible for screening and recommending candidates for judgeships. Each year, these commissions play a vital role in ensuring that Florida’s courts reflect fairness, integrity, and the diversity of the communities they serve. The Florida Bar will nominate six lawyers for each JNC, with the Governor making the final appointments. Each commissioner will serve a four-year term beginning July 1, 2026. The deadline to apply is Friday, Jan. 16, 2026. Applicants must be active members of The Florida Bar who are engaged in the practice of law and live within the jurisdiction of the commission they wish to serve.

3. Legal Discipline

   MIAMI LAKES ATTORNEY INDICTED ON WIRE FRAUD AND MONEY LAUNDERING CHARGES

   Daily Business Review | Article | November 13, 2025

   A Miami Lakes attorney, Rodolfo Mario Blanco, is facing federal wire fraud and money laundering charges after the Department of Justice said he embezzled millions of dollars in investment funds that were put in his attorney trust account. Blanco, managing member and legal counsel of RMB Consultants & Associates LLC, is accused of stealing over $3 million entrusted to him for investment by clients for his own personal use, siphoning the cash from the trust to pay for a home in the Miami area. Miami-Dade County property records indicate that Blanco owns multiple homes in the area, including a 2,000-square-foot residence in Miami Lakes that may be subject to forfeiture. Blanco allegedly lied to investors about the status and funds in the trust, emailing fund directors to claim that he could not release investment funds because the trust account was bound by diligence and compliance reviews, fabricating bank communications and forging bank statements.

4. Legal Discipline

   EX-BIG LAW PARTNER CONVICTED IN CRYPTO PONZI SCHEME PLANS TO FIGHT TO KEEP HIS LEGAL LICENSE

   Daily Business Review | Article | November 13, 2025

   Mark Scott, an embattled Coral Gables attorney, plans to fight The Florida Bar’s attempt to permanently disbar him after he was convicted of conspiracy to commit fraud and money laundering for his concealment of $400 million in profits from a cryptocurrency Ponzi scheme — an effort his attorney said will be “an extremely uphill battle.” Scott — a former partner at Holland & Knight, Locke Lord and Arnestein & Lehr — was convicted in November 2019 in the Southern District of New York after prosecutors proved he netted $50 million from helping launder the fake cryptocurrency OneCoin. The Bulgaria-based company scammed investors into buying the worthless digital currency, which was marketed through a global pyramid scheme. Scott facilitated phony private equity investments in offshore accounts, disguising OneCoin profits as investments from “wealthy European families.” According to the Department of Justice, Scott used his illicit earnings to purchase a collection of luxury watches, cars, a yacht and three homes on Cape Cod.

5. Judiciary

   CITIZENS INSURANCE JUDGES FUNDED BY INSURER THEY RULE ON, COURT RECORDS SHOW

   WPTV | Article | November 13, 2025

   Florida homeowners forced into arbitration with Citizens Insurance face judges whose salaries are funded by the very company they’re ruling against, court records obtained by WPTV reveal. In 2023, the state-run insurer added mandatory arbitration clauses to policies, forcing policyholders into a process where administrative law judges — not juries — decide claim disputes. A contract between Citizens and the state’s Division of Administrative Hearings (DOAH) shows the insurer funds these judges’ salaries at about $250,000 per year, set to increase to $266,000 next year. The Florida Legislature approved the agreement in House Bill 799. WPTV read through a full year of final hearing cases from May 2024 to May 2025 and found that of the 54 cases that weren’t settled and went to a final hearing — with both sides presenting evidence — judges sided with Citizens in 53 out of 54 of them — 99%.

6. Civil Justice

   HEAT INDEX INSIDE A MIAMI-DADE STATE PRISON HIT SWELTERING 119, SAYS NEW LAWSUIT REPORT

   Miami Herald | Article | November 13, 2025

   A new report filed by The Florida Justice Institute in a class-action lawsuit shows that conditions inside a South Florida men’s prison were far more extreme than the sweltering summer temperatures outside — with the heat index peaking at a scorching 119 degrees. The Miami-based nonprofit filed the lawsuit last year aiming to protect prisoners at the Dade Correctional Institution from what it calls “deadly” temperatures. The suit seeks to keep the prison’s indoor heat index — a feels-like measure combining temperature and humidity — below 88 degrees, which is a threshold experts say is critical to prevent heat-related illness and death. A new filing argues the facility is no where close, citing a study that recorded an average heat index of 98 degrees between May and October, topping out at 119 degrees.

7. Civil Justice

   LAWYER ASKS FL JURY FOR $1.5B IN OPIOID DAMAGES AGAINST WALGREENS, WALMART, CVS

   Daily Business Review | Article | November 12, 2025

   Warren Burns, an attorney for 15 hospitals in Florida asked a jury on Wednesday [Nov. 12] to award nearly $1.5 billion in costs caused by an opioid epidemic that was fueled by three pharmacies: Walgreens, Walmart and CVS. In closing arguments at the end of a 51-day trial, Burns, of Dallas-based Burns Charest, who represents hospitals such as Tampa General Hospital and Broward Health, called the pharmacies the “gatekeepers” of opioids, which are prescription painkillers with known risks of addiction and death. Like a reservoir, Burns said, their role was to prevent the floodgates in the distribution of opioids from bursting open. The hospitals accused the three pharmacies of costing them millions of dollars to treat uninsured patients admitted for problems associated with opioids. As distributors of the painkillers, the pharmacies encouraged their pharmacists to prescribe large numbers of opioids despite knowledge of “red flags” in prescriptions.