Florida legal publication Daily Business Review has selected Squire Patton Boggs Miami partner Alvin B. Davis to be included on its Most Effective Lawyers List. Recognized in the “Real Estate-Litigation” category, Mr. Davis played the lead role in a colorful three-day trial that resulted in regaining the ownership of 17 high-end homes for our investor client.
The case encompassed wealth, professions of undying love, an undisclosed marriage or two, sophisticated fraud, a tapestry of lies, and an unsurprising 30-year age gap. At the end of a nine-year real estate investment program, the younger Miami international tax attorney announced, to the astonishment of her older former lover, a high-net-worth Belgian real estate investor, that the 17 South Florida homes purchased with his funds had been a “gift” to her. In the absence of anything remotely approaching proof, the judge found her claims “outlandish” and “a complete fabrication”. After chastising the Defendant Lawyer, her lawyers and her accountants, the Judge awarded our client sole ownership and control of all of the properties and entered a US$2.58 million judgment against the client’s now ex-lawyer. She was required to vacate the largest of the residences in which she had been residing, rent-free, for six years.
For their intensive research, relentless discovery efforts and well-designed trial strategy to prove a negative (no ownership transfer), DBR designated Alvin Davis of Squire Patton Boggs and co-counsel Damian & Valori | Culmo as “Most Effective Lawyers” in the category of Real Estate-Litigation.
Mr. Davis’ legal practice focuses on high-profile, complex litigation, arbitration and international dispute resolution in the areas of securities and shareholder class actions, products liability, environmental claims, regulatory proceedings and a host of sophisticated contractual disputes. Mr. Davis is regularly recognized as a leader in his field, receiving rankings in Florida Super Lawyers, The Legal500 US, Benchmark Litigation, Best Lawyers in America, Chambers USA, and Florida Trend magazine. In 2019, Mr. Davis was part of a firm team that was recognized by DBR to its inaugural Florida Trailblazers list.