A Fulton County jury ordered a local lawyer to pay $1.5 million to a pair of investors whose money disappeared along with their dreams of a big payoff from a failed Costa Rican resort.

The jury found attorney S. Alan Cohn and his former firm, Cohn, Fyvolent & Shaver, liable for claims of legal malpractice and breach of fiduciary duty stemming from Cohn's role in the ill-fated investment in the Santosha Resort development. It was to have been a 697-acre spread of individual hand-carved “estates” imported from Bali, boasting swimming pools, clubs and a recording studio, on Costa Rica's Golfito Bay.

Cohn, Fyvolent has since been absorbed by Aldridge Pite, a multistate firm specializing in financial and real estate law.

To view a video clip of the trial, click here.