Fort Lauderdale-based law firm Kubicki Draper and partner Jane Rankin are defendants in a legal malpractice suit claiming the lawyer helped an alleged client-turned-lover draft a lease agreement for a property he no longer controlled.

The firm and attorney are defendants in the Palm Beach Circuit Court suit by Love's Bridge View LLC, a real estate company that news reports say is part of a family-owned $550 million real estate empire. Rankin and the firm are accused of legal malpractice, breach of fiduciary duty and breach of contract.

The complaint alleges Rankin was counsel for Love's Bridge View but that she acted against its interests when she allegedly drafted a lease agreement at the request of an ousted executive, with whom she allegedly had a romantic relationship.

Now, counsel for Love's Bridge View say the suit is the first of many as related companies are gearing to bring similar claims against the South Florida firm and attorney.

Neither Rankin nor Kubicki Draper responded to press inquiries.

Richard Burton Bush, a partner with Bush & Augspurger in Tallahassee, represented Rankin when she testified in divorce proceedings for the ousted real estate executive. He declined comment for her and the firm.

"Neither Mrs. Rankin nor Kubicki Draper comment on pending litigation," Bush said.

Judge alludes to Rankin's 'Faulty Memory'

The allegations stem from Rankin's and Kubicki Draper's work for South Florida real estate magnate Burton Handelsman and his companies. They stretch back to March 2016, when Handelsman was in divorce proceedings with his wife of nearly seven decades, Lucille "Lovey."

As recounted in the complaint, Lucille Handelsman claimed during the divorce proceedings that her husband had been having an affair with Rankin, who had served as his attorney since 2005.

Another unpleasant development for the attorney: The judge found Rankin and Burton Handelsman had lied to the court when the attorney served as a key witness for her client during the divorce case.

"The fact that Burt now admits that Rankin's portion of their coordinated story was materially inaccurate (after being confronted by irrefutable evidence) merely reinforces the court's conclusion that the entire tale was an intentional fraud on the court," Palm Beach Circuit Judge Scott Suskauer ruled in a November 2017 order.

Suskauer ruled the mogul and Rankin had a submitted a fraudulent operating agreement into evidence to bolster their claim that Handelsman legally retained control of the companies.

"This is not a situation where Burt was deprived of the opportunity to offer evidence in defense of the claim that he is engaged in sham litigation," Suskauer found. "The fact that Burt now concedes that the 'story' about the 2002 operating agreement was false does not mean that he can make the problem go away by requesting a new hearing where, apparently, he and/or Rankin intend to change their story into one of 'faulty memory.'"

The judge then sanctioned Handelsman by awarding the mogul's children and ex-wife attorney fees because of "the sham litigation." In his final judgment in April 2019, Suskauer again pointed to Handelsman's "malfeasance."

Handelsman challenged Suskauer's ruling with a pending appeal before Florida's Fourth District Court of Appeal.

Long history

The legal malpractice suit claims Rankin refers to herself as Burton Handelsman's "consigliere" after serving as his lawyer and business adviser for nearly 18 years. It claims Rankin spent nearly two decades as "the primary lawyer for the Handelsman empire" and provided legal services to the couple, their adult children and the family's real estate companies.

But it alleges the attorney changed direction along the way.

"She secretly became the executor of Burt's estate, the trustee of his numerous trusts, and—pursuant to a power of attorney—the person in charge of his health and financial decisions in the event of his death or disability," the complaint claimed, alleging Rankin and the firm "picked sides" in the Handelsman divorce.

After the divorce Handelsman's family removed him as acting manager of multiple companies, including Love's Bridge View. It replaced him with his daughter, prompting Handelsman to sue his children and seek an injunction in Palm Beach Circuit Court to prevent ouster.

The suit claims Handelsman and Rankin also made a clandestine move. It alleges that even though Handelsman no longer had control over the companies or their assets, he had Kubicki Draper file a 99-year lease for a West Palm Beach property the businesses owned.

The complaint alleges a breach of fiduciary duty because it claimed the law firm also represented the companies.

"You're never supposed to worry your lawyer is going to turn against you," Bridge View's attorney and Fisher Potter Hodas partner Jeff Fisher said. "The loyalty of a lawyer to a client is supposed to be sacrosanct."

The complaint further points to multiple omissions and inconsistencies in the allegedly unauthorized lease.

A "purported 99-year lease for Bridge View is not a document that a reasonable lawyer would prepare," the suit alleged. "All of this was part of a plan by Burt, aided and furthered by Rankin and Kubicki Draper, to manipulate the title and value of the multimillion-dollar Bridge View property as part of the divorce action."

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