Akerman is facing a malpractice lawsuit from a business associate of the late Miami Beach corporate raider Victor Posner who claims the law firm gave “negligent and reckless” legal advice to a court-appointed overseer of his estate.

A complaint filed April 10 in Miami-Dade Circuit Court pits Brenda Nestor against the law firm over its representation of Philip von Kahle, a lawyer and broker with Fort Lauderdale estate planner Moecker & Associates. Von Kahle took over from Nestor in 2015 as the curator of Posner's estate.

Posner, who built a fortune pioneering leveraged buyouts in hostile takeovers and served a federal sentence for income tax evasion, reportedly left behind a $321 million estate when he died in 2002 at 83. His DWG Corp. holdings included Arby's and Royal Crown, and his Sharon Steel Corp. takeover in 1969 was one of the first efforts to dismantle a profitable company and sell off its parts.

“The curator and Akerman were negligent and reckless in the exercise of their fiduciary duties to Nestor, resulting in damages to her,” the complaint said. “Akerman breached its fiduciary duty to Nestor by improperly advising the curator to take actions not for the benefit of the estate and its beneficiaries and interested persons he owed a fiduciary duty to, including Nestor, but instead for its own self-interests.”

The malpractice complaint, which does not name von Kahle as a defendant, walks through Nestor's ties to the Posner estate. She was initially appointed personal representative shortly after Posner's death. In the years that followed, Nestor agreed to pay a bond to Fidelity & Deposit Co. of Maryland Inc. that, in effect, allowed her to operate a Posner realty business through the financier's estate. That bond was initially worth $16 million but was upped to $23.1 million.

After Nestor served for more than a dozen years as the estate's representative, a Florida judge in 2015 ruled she failed to obey court orders directing her to provide an accounting of the estate's financial situation. Judge Celeste Muir then appointed von Kahle to take over as the estate's representative, or curator.

Represented by Akerman, von Kahle filed a lawsuit against Fidelity to claim the $23.1 million bond. In that suit, which was later settled, von Kahle alleged Nestor's time as the estate's representative coincided with $375 million in losses, bringing the value of the estate to negative $50 million.

In the malpractice complaint, however, Nestor alleges that during her time overseeing the estate, its resources were drained as she worked through a number of issues, including disputes with Posner's children, tax liability, potential environmental liability tied to Posner's businesses funding pension plans.

She alleges von Kahle, under Akerman's legal guidance, acted in complete ignorance of those issues by filing the Fidelity lawsuit.

“Boiled down, the curator's claims are not just equivalent to 'Monday-morning quarterbacking' Nestor's decisions, but rather do so under an acknowledgment from the curator that he has not even watched the game, doesn't know who the players are and didn't know the rules of the game being played,” the complaint said.

Christopher Carver, an Akerman litigation partner in Fort Lauderdale who is defending the firm against the malpractice case, did not respond Friday to a request for comment. But Akerman responded in court to Nestor's malpractice suit May 9, raising several arguments that the firm believes should put an end to her claims.

“Nestor lacks standing to bring these claims against Akerman, even if she had standing (which she does not), her claims are barred by the applicable two-year statute of limitations and by judicial estoppel,” Akerman wrote. “And, of course, they are meritless on the facts.”

The firm also said there may be no need to weigh the merits of the malpractice suit in light of a recent ruling in federal bankruptcy court. Nestor filed a personal Chapter 11 case in August 2017, declaring assets worth $10 million to $50 million, and liabilities in the same range. Earlier in May, the bankruptcy court issued an order that a trustee should be appointed for Nestor's Chapter 11.

Akerman argued that ruling should trigger a stay of the malpractice suit.

“A stay is warranted until both the trustee has been appointed and the trustee has had the opportunity to evaluate this action and determine whether it should even be prosecuted,” Akerman wrote in its May 9 motion to stay the malpractice suit.

Maury Udell of Beighley, Myrick, Udell & Lynne in Miami, who represents Nestor against Akerman, said in an email Friday that Akerman's alleged advice to the curator had a direct impact on Nestor and Posner's estate. Udell also questioned Akerman's decision to defend itself in the malpractice suit.

“Apparently Akerman has decided initially to defend this case in house after refusing to provide its insurance information to my client,” Udell wrote. “Abraham Lincoln once said that a lawyer who represents himself has a fool for a client. We shall see.”