Miami Developer Avra Jain filed a malpractice and breach of fiduciary duty lawsuit against Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney, seeking about $15 million from the firm and shareholder Richard A. Morgan.

Jain is a Wall Street financier-turned-developer, known for transforming warehouses to lofts and condominiums, and revamping motels on Biscayne Boulevard near downtown Miami. But after a courtroom defeat in a multimillion-dollar spat with a onetime partner, Jain wants the court to hold her former lawyers responsible for what she suggests is an amateur litigation mistake. She claims Buchanan Ingersoll attorneys failed to ensure the plaintiff in the case against her had the signed financial document at the center of the dispute.

“The requirement to put the original promissory note into evidence is something that's a very basic and fundamental requirement under Florida law,” said her attorney Bruce Weil of Boies Schiller Flexner.

Buchanan Ingersoll spokeswoman Ela Voluck declined comment, and the firm has not responded to the lawsuit.

Jain and fellow investors Paul Cashman Murphy and defunct H-H Investments LLC were defendants in a February 2009 suit by former business associate Abraham Cohen, who alleged they owed him more than $4 million for his stake in a failed real estate venture. They lost at trial, and again before a state judicial panel when the Third District Court of Appeal ruled largely in their opponent's favor on April 19.

Cohen claimed the group agreed to pay $5 million for his 20.3 percent membership interest in Blueview LLC, a company developing a luxury condominium project near a landmark Trump-branded property in Doral. He alleged they contracted in June 2007 and paid $950,000 but stopped paying in 2008—right around the time the housing bubble burst. He sued H-H Investments to collect on the promissory note and sought to enforce the guaranty against Murphy and Jain.

“The guaranty follows the promissory note,” Weil said. “So if there is no promissory note, there is no guaranty.”

Jain and other defendants in the underlying case filed a counterclaim for fraud and misrepresentation, among other causes of action, alleging Cohen saddled them with a failing development that ultimately reverted to the mezzanine lender. They accused Cohen of lying about the project's viability to induce their participation, then deceiving them about the reason for his exit.

Jain told her former Buchanan Ingersoll attorneys “Cohen has recognized the issues and that he tore up the original note,” according to the legal malpractice suit filed Nov. 20 in Miami-Dade Circuit Court.

“The allegation is that her lawyers failed to object or raise the fact that the plaintiffs in the underlying action didn't have the original promissory note,” Weil said.

Cohen prevailed before Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Jacqueline Hogan Scola, who in January entered a nearly $8.2 million final judgment in his favor. That judgment included nearly $4.1 million in principal, about $174,800 in interest from June 2007 to May 2008 and nearly $4 million more in interest through January. Cohen sought a bigger payday on appeal, but the Third DCA affirmed Scola's decision.

Now Jain wants a court to hold Buchanan Ingersoll and its shareholder responsible for the judgment, expenses and about $5 million in compensatory and consequential damages.

Court records show Morgan and fellow Buchanan Ingersoll shareholders Jennifer Olmedo-Rodriguez and Matthew J. Feeley represented Jain, Murphy and H-H Investment, but the malpractice lawsuit only names one partner. The malpractice complaint alleges Morgan inquired about the missing original note but never questioned its absence in official pleadings.

Boies Schiller Flexner

Miami Developer Avra Jain filed a malpractice and breach of fiduciary duty lawsuit against Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney, seeking about $15 million from the firm and shareholder Richard A. Morgan.

Jain is a Wall Street financier-turned-developer, known for transforming warehouses to lofts and condominiums, and revamping motels on Biscayne Boulevard near downtown Miami. But after a courtroom defeat in a multimillion-dollar spat with a onetime partner, Jain wants the court to hold her former lawyers responsible for what she suggests is an amateur litigation mistake. She claims Buchanan Ingersoll attorneys failed to ensure the plaintiff in the case against her had the signed financial document at the center of the dispute.

“The requirement to put the original promissory note into evidence is something that's a very basic and fundamental requirement under Florida law,” said her attorney Bruce Weil of Boies Schiller Flexner.

Buchanan Ingersoll spokeswoman Ela Voluck declined comment, and the firm has not responded to the lawsuit.

Jain and fellow investors Paul Cashman Murphy and defunct H-H Investments LLC were defendants in a February 2009 suit by former business associate Abraham Cohen, who alleged they owed him more than $4 million for his stake in a failed real estate venture. They lost at trial, and again before a state judicial panel when the Third District Court of Appeal ruled largely in their opponent's favor on April 19.

Cohen claimed the group agreed to pay $5 million for his 20.3 percent membership interest in Blueview LLC, a company developing a luxury condominium project near a landmark Trump-branded property in Doral. He alleged they contracted in June 2007 and paid $950,000 but stopped paying in 2008—right around the time the housing bubble burst. He sued H-H Investments to collect on the promissory note and sought to enforce the guaranty against Murphy and Jain.

“The guaranty follows the promissory note,” Weil said. “So if there is no promissory note, there is no guaranty.”

Jain and other defendants in the underlying case filed a counterclaim for fraud and misrepresentation, among other causes of action, alleging Cohen saddled them with a failing development that ultimately reverted to the mezzanine lender. They accused Cohen of lying about the project's viability to induce their participation, then deceiving them about the reason for his exit.

Jain told her former Buchanan Ingersoll attorneys “Cohen has recognized the issues and that he tore up the original note,” according to the legal malpractice suit filed Nov. 20 in Miami-Dade Circuit Court.

“The allegation is that her lawyers failed to object or raise the fact that the plaintiffs in the underlying action didn't have the original promissory note,” Weil said.

Cohen prevailed before Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Jacqueline Hogan Scola, who in January entered a nearly $8.2 million final judgment in his favor. That judgment included nearly $4.1 million in principal, about $174,800 in interest from June 2007 to May 2008 and nearly $4 million more in interest through January. Cohen sought a bigger payday on appeal, but the Third DCA affirmed Scola's decision.

Now Jain wants a court to hold Buchanan Ingersoll and its shareholder responsible for the judgment, expenses and about $5 million in compensatory and consequential damages.

Court records show Morgan and fellow Buchanan Ingersoll shareholders Jennifer Olmedo-Rodriguez and Matthew J. Feeley represented Jain, Murphy and H-H Investment, but the malpractice lawsuit only names one partner. The malpractice complaint alleges Morgan inquired about the missing original note but never questioned its absence in official pleadings.