Growing Pains

The Florida Supreme Court rejected a referee’s proposed sanction and disbarred an attorney

we approve the referee’s findings of fact in both cases, with one exception. We also approve in part and disapprove in part the referee’s recommendations as to guilt and findings in mitigation and aggravation in both cases. Last, we disapprove the referee’s recommendations as to discipline; instead, we disbar Strems based on his cumulative misconduct.

Law firm management

Strems was the sole partner and owner of the Strems Law Firm, P.A. (SLF), and the firm’s caseload grew significantly from its inception. By 2016, the firm had only three litigation attorneys, with each managing approximately 700 cases. SLF’s inadequate staffing and lack of sufficient office procedures resulted in client neglect, case dismissals, frustrated judges, and costly sanctions on a near weekly basis.

To deal with these growing pains, Strems hired a litigation managing attorney, Christopher Aguirre. Aguirre drafted policies and procedures to improve SLF’s efficiency, and he kept Strems up to date on firm metrics, such as deadlines for discovery, proposals for settlement, and deposition requests. But, despite Aguirre’s best efforts, SLF continued to neglect client matters and accrue court sanctions that ranged from $5,000 to $15,000 weekly.

Indeed, between 2016 and 2018, and because of SLF attorneys’ willful violation of court deadlines and procedural rules, many SLF clients had their cases dismissed pursuant to Kozel v. Ostendorf, 629 So. 2d 817 (Fla. 1993), which established a set of factors a trial court must consider in determining whether dismissal with prejudice is warranted where an attorney has failed to adhere to filing deadlines and other procedural requirements.

Sanction

Strems’ cumulative misconduct in both cases, which ranged from 2016 to the time of his emergency suspension in 2020, is similarly worthy of disbarment. For example, Strems failed to communicate with Nowak regarding the settlement offer in her case prior to accepting the insurer’s offer and then attempted to keep the amount offered that was above Nowak’s bottom line as SLF’s attorney’s fees. Additionally, multiple clients’ cases were dismissed with prejudice pursuant to Kozel after SLF failed to comply with court filing deadlines and procedural requirements. Also, Strems submitted false affidavits, and SLF should have known that the clients’ claims in Mora and Mojica were fraudulent. More significantly, Strems failed to fully address the underlying issues facing SLF that resulted from continuing to take on new cases weekly rather than focus on the firm’s already substantial caseload.

When all the violations are considered together, the totality of Strems’ misconduct warrants disbarment, which would achieve the three purposes of attorney discipline.

(Mike Frisch)