The Florida business law firm Berger Singerman is pleased to announce that attorney James C. Cunningham, Jr. has been named a shareholder.  He is a member of the firm’s Dispute Resolution Team, resident in its Miami office.

Cunningham joined the firm in 1998 and focuses his practice to commercial litigation with a concentration in labor and employment law.

“James is an extremely talented attorney with a wealth of commercial litigation experience, as well as a strong labor and employment law background, and we are pleased to announce that he is now a shareholder,” said Mitchell W. Berger, Chairman of Berger Singerman.

Mr. Cunningham has been in private practice as a litigator since 1981.  He has been involved in significant litigation, including John F. Kennedy Memorial Hospital, Inc. v. Bludworth, 452 So.2d 921 (Fla. 1984), by which the Supreme Court of Florida first recognized and set standards for living wills, and Telesat Cablevision, Inc. v. The City of Riviera Beach, Florida, 773 F. Supp. 383 (S.D. Fla. 1991) in which the trial court rejected First Amendment challenges to cable television regulations and recognized a municipality’s compelling governmental interests in regulating use of public rights-of-way.  He has also been lead counsel in a significant case of securities fraud.  Mr. Cunningham has litigated cases under the Americans With Disabilities Act and federal labor and employment statutes.  He also was on the litigation team of a fired CEO of an international holding company. The litigation, claiming breach of contract, invasion of privacy, conspiracy to invade privacy, defamation and conspiracy to defame, resulted in a multi-million dollar settlement for the CEO.

The Florida business law firm Berger Singerman is pleased to announce that fifteen lawyers were recently selected by their peers for inclusion in the recently released edition of The Best Lawyers in America.

Since its inception in 1983, Best Lawyers has become universally regarded as the definitive guide to legal excellence. Because Best Lawyers is based on an exhaustive peer-review survey in which more than 25,000 leading attorneys cast almost two million votes on the legal abilities of other lawyers in their specialties, and because lawyers are not required or allowed to pay a fee to be listed, inclusion in Best Lawyers is considered a singular honor. Corporate Counsel magazine has called Best Lawyers “the most respected referral list of attorneys in practice.”

The Berger Singerman attorneys included in the 2009 edition are:

·        James L. Berger - Real Estate Law

·        Mitchell W. Berger - Commercial Litigation

·        John D. Eaton - Bankruptcy and Creditor-Debtor Rights Law

·        Brian K. Gart - Bankruptcy and Creditor-Debtor Rights Law

·        Jordi Guso - Bankruptcy and Creditor-Debtor Rights Law

·        Melanie Ann Hines - Administrative Law

·        Charles H. Lichtman – Commercial Litigation

·        Daniel D. Mielnicki – Tax Law

·        Sheldon S. Polish - Tax Law

·        Leonard K. Samuels - Labor and Employment Law

·        John “Jack” C. Shawde - Bankruptcy and Creditor-Debtor Rights Law

·        Paul Steven Singerman - Bankruptcy and Creditor-Debtor Rights Law

·        Arthur J. Spector - Bankruptcy and Creditor-Debtor Rights Law

·        Daniel H. Thompson - Administrative Law, Environmental Law

·        Bruce L. Udolf - Non-White-Collar Criminal Defense, White-Collar Criminal Defense

McDonald Clark was the marketing genius behind Alamo-Rent-a-Car’s glory days.    When Alamo was taken over by Republic Industries in 1996, Republic entered into a new employment contract with Clark which provided for certain payments to Clark for 10 years if his contract was not renewed.  Republic later changed its name to AutoNation and spun off Alamo into a separate company.  When Alamo went bankrupt, AutoNation refused to make the payments.

Clark hired the attorneys at Kelley / Uustal to fight to enforce the agreement.  After six years of litigation, the jury found that Clark was entitled to $1,098,800.  The jury deliberated for only a few minutes after the four-day trial, which included testimony from a host of former Republic executives, including Steve Berrard and Michael Karsner.

“McDonald had a contract which was negotiated by Republic, written by Republic on Republic letterhead, and signed by Republic’s CEO, Steve Berrard,” explained John Uustal, who tried the case with his partner, Todd Falzone.  “Republic tried to use Alamo’s bankruptcy as an excuse to avoid responsibility.  But the jury didn’t buy it.  A deal’s a deal.”

Clark’s five-year contract with Alamo included a 10-year, $100,000-a-year salary continuation benefit that would begin at the end of the contract.  One year into the contract, Alamo was sold and Republic, now AutoNation, renegotiated the contract.  In 2000, the contract was not renewed, and Clark began receiving his salary continuation payments.  By November of 2001, however, Alamo filed bankruptcy and the payments stopped.

“AutoNation’s CEO gave Mr. Clark his word that this contract would be fully honored.  But when it came time for them to make good on that promise, AutoNation turned its back,” said Falzone.  “Thanks to the Judge and Jury, we had a fair trial and a just verdict.”

Mr.  Clark’s claim for attorney’s fees is still pending.