hess kennedy

debt settlement Complaints Lead to Search for 'Attorney'
Bud Newman
Daily Business Review
04-16-2008


A man named Edward T. Kennedy is listed as a name partner at the embattled Hess Kennedy law firm in Coral Springs, Fla., but no one with that name is licensed to practice law in Florida.

A Florida Bar complaint filed March 13 against Laura Hess, the Hess in Hess Kennedy, notes Florida lawyers are barred from forming partnerships with nonlawyers in a legal practice. The thrust of the complaint is that the law firm is running a "deceptive debt settlement scheme" that is long on fees and short on assistance.

The law firm and related companies are targets of hundreds of consumer complaints nationally, and the Better Business Bureau of Southeast Florida gave it a failing grade. No one has estimated the full scope of an alleged debt scheme, but in North Carolina alone, more than 220 residents claimed they paid Hess Kennedy more than $500,000.

State corporate records at various times list addresses for Kennedy in Coral Springs, New York and the Cayman Islands.

New York lawyer Edward T. Kennedy is a taxation attorney and accountant with the Jones Day law firm in Manhattan. Asked Monday if he had any connection to the Coral Springs firm, Kennedy said, "No, not at all." But he said he was asked the same question by the West Virginia attorney general's office about two months ago.

A Chase Bank lawsuit filed in February against the law firm claims Kennedy may be Edward Cherry, who is listed in state corporate records as a business partner in Hess Kennedy and several affiliated companies.

The Bar joined the attorneys general of Florida, North Carolina and West Virginia, Chase Bank and Cherry's former employer in court against Hess Kennedy, its affiliates or its principals. Hess denied Kennedy and Cherry are the same person in a countersuit filed against the bank March 7, saying: "Edward T. Kennedy is a human being who is not Edward Cherry. Edward Kennedy resides in Brussels." No other information about Kennedy was provided.

But the existence or whereabouts of Kennedy may be the least of the problems facing Hess and Cherry. Hess, a Florida Bar member since 2000, is fighting the 10-count, 119-page complaint in her second run-in with the Bar. She was disciplined with a public reprimand in 2005 for drunken driving convictions. Cherry is a defendant in a pending Broward County civil suit claiming he embezzled at least $600,000 from the company he worked for just prior to joining the Hess Kennedy businesses. His attorney said Cherry committed no wrongdoing. Hess could not be reached for comment despite repeated requests via phone, e-mail, a message left in person at her Coral Springs office and through her attorneys. Cherry could not be reached for comment at the law firm or by phone.

The Florida Bar alleges Hess Kennedy's operation is "designed to extract upfront fees from financially strapped clients whether or not any useful services are performed" for them. Clients "rarely obtain debt settlements ... and end up in a far worse financial position" than before.

The Bar also claims:

Hess and her agents are running an illegal advance-fee scam.
She failed to provide clients with competent representation.
She charged excessive fees for her services and shared fees with nonlawyers.
The firm failed to place customer payments into trust or escrow accounts as promised in advertising and agreements or by sales agents as required by Bar regulations.
In her reply Monday to the Bar complaint, Hess denied operating any scheme and rejected allegations that her firm intentionally preyed upon unsophisticated clients to collect large legal fees. She conceded some of her client agreements specified funds would be placed in client escrow accounts for subsequent payment to creditors but acknowledged no such funds were maintained. In an earlier response to the Bar last October, she said funds collected were for legal fees and not to pay clients' creditors.

Hess attorneys Culver Smith of Fox Rothschild in West Palm Beach and Kevin Tynan of Richardson & Tynan in Tamarac filed for dismissal of the complaint. Palm Beach Circuit Judge Jack Cook has been appointed as the referee to hear the trial. No date has been set.

Tynan told the Bar last October that "Hess and her law firm are engaged in some very cutting-edge litigation in a very technical area of the law that is heavily regulated." While there have been some "growing pains" at the firm, he said there should be no charges against Hess because clients who complained had gotten refunds. The Bar complaint noted Hess Kennedy gave almost no refunds until the professional investigation began.

As for Cherry, he was sued in 2003 by his former employer, Internet Billing of Deerfield Beach, which claims he embezzled at least $600,000 days before he abruptly resigned from the firm.

The suit said Cherry was listed as Internet Billing's "in-house counsel" even though he is not licensed to practice law in Florida. The company claims Cherry revived and had total control over an administratively dissolved Florida company called Esquire Escrow and used his position at Internet Billing, known as iBill, to get fellow employees to funnel company funds to Esquire Escrow.

Three days before quitting iBill in February 2003, Cherry made a $500,000 withdrawal from Esquire Escrow. The withdrawal slip filed as an exhibit in the case said the money was transferred "to personal and children's accounts." Cherry also made tens of thousands of dollars in additional cash withdrawals of Esquire Escrow funds from money machines and from banks during 2001 and 2002, court documents showed.

Bank records included in the court file show Cherry withdrew at least $12,200 from Esquire Escrow accounts at ATM machines in May 2002. A company bank card was used for a $763 purchase at a Sunglass Hut the same month and $3,130 in charges at Fort Lauderdale's upscale Voodoo Lounge the next month.

In an Oct. 30, 2003, deposition, Cherry invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination and refused to answer any questions about what happened to the money moved from iBill to Esquire Escrow.

Boca Raton solo practitioner Charles Wender, who represents Cherry and who was present at the 2003 deposition, said Cherry's "position is that he is totally innocent and these are just wild allegations that they obviously can't prove."

Internet Billing attorney Anthony Carriuolo of Berger Singerman of Fort Lauderdale, who conducted the deposition, said documents show Cherry "was just siphoning off tons of money."

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