Blog of law articles

When I first read this story about a potential conflict of interest involving the "extremely Floridian" GrayRobinson that is being asserted by Proskauer Rose, my first reaction was:

These firms still have South Florida offices?

Wow, pretty neat!

But can anyone make heads or tails out of it:

GrayRobinson partner Leyza Blanco in Miami should not be appointed receiver of a Boca Raton health care company linked to an alleged $550 million hedge fund fraud because her firm has represented an affiliated company, one of the principals said in a court filing.
Blanco is the receiver for Naples-based Founding Partners Capital Management and asked to be named receiver of Sun Capital, which along with related companies received the bulk of Founding Partners’ money.

An affidavit filed by Howard Koslow, a principal with Sun Capital, Sun Capital Healthcare and Promise Healthcare attached a copy of a 2007 GrayRobinson contract with Promise for legal and lobbying services on Florida health licensing. Koslow said GrayRobinson has been paid $150,000 for its representation and also helped with licensing in Louisiana.

Koslow opposes the appointment of a receiver for the Sun Capital companies. But if one is ordered, he said it shouldn’t be the same one handling Founding Partners.

Blanco was in a meeting when contacted Wednesday and had no comment by deadline.

Leyza, listen to me -- stay in that meeting.

If your best defense is that the work for Promise was only lobbying services and not legal in nature, you better order in some food and hunker down until you come up with something slightly more creative (and a lot more credible).