Statewide law firm Broad and Cassel today announced Frank P. Terzo and Michael D. Lessne have joined the Fort Lauderdale office as partners, beefing up the firm’s health law and bankruptcy practice groups while creating a new health care insolvency service for the firm.
“With the addition of Frank and Michael comes the ability to offer new expertise in health care insolvency as clients navigate complex waters in today’s ever-changing environment and attempt to better address government and other third-party financial demands,” said Gabriel Imperato, managing partner of the firm’s Fort Lauderdale office. “This is an area of law that is seeing significant growth across the nation, so this transition comes at an especially critical time.”
Frank Terzo joins Broad and Cassel’s Health Law and Bankruptcy & Creditors’ Rights Practice Groups. He previously served as executive partner and chair of GrayRobinson’s bankruptcy practice group. While there, he was involved in a wide range of insolvency matters, including representation of corporate and consumer clients in complex workouts, bankruptcies, assignments for the benefit of creditors and receiverships. He also has substantial experience in both the prosecution and defense of all forms of complex bankruptcy litigation, including preference and fraudulent transfer proceedings and complex contested matters.
“What we are building here is a national health care insolvency practice, and we’re accomplishing that through a merging of minds, if you will,” said Terzo. “In my opinion, Broad and Cassel has one of the top health law practices in the country, and now we will build upon that success offering a specialized area previously unavailable to the firm’s clients. For clients, it’s about protecting themselves, a survival of the fittest of sorts. For the firm, it’s about offering clients a full spectrum of services to meet their needs in what has become a challenging and rapidly evolving health care system.”
Terzo’s previous experience as a chief executive officer coupled with his vast experience in the health care realm will build upon Broad and Cassel’s already strong breadth and depth of experience in health law, as he brings 18 years of experience in the health care industry, successfully starting, managing and operating various public companies prior to entering the legal field. Additionally, he has represented trustees and committees in hospital, nursing home, diagnostic center and HMO matters, and he has been appointed as a Patient Care Ombudsman.
Most recently, Terzo was involved in a large, complex Chapter 11 health care matter in opposition to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and the Florida Agency for Healthcare Administration that was pending in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in the Middle District of Florida, Tampa Division. As special health care insolvency counsel for the provider, Terzo has assisted in taking the bankruptcy court’s decision through two levels of appeal up to the 11th Circuit Court of Appeal. The case has received national notoriety as the debtor pursues a petition for Writ of Certiorari to the United States Supreme Court.
Terzo is admitted to practice in Florida; the U.S. District Courts for the Middle, Northern and Southern Districts of Florida; the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Tennessee; and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit. Additionally, he remains active in various professional and community organizations, including serving on the board of directors for the Boys & Girls Clubs of Broward County; as a past adjunct professor at Nova Southeastern University Shepard Broad College of Law and Florida International University College of Law; on the American Bankruptcy Institute’s Committee on Health Care Insolvency; and as a past director for the Bankruptcy Bar Association of the Southern District of Florida, among others.
He holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Cincinnati and received his juris doctor from Nova Southeastern University Shepard Broad College of Law.
Michael D. Lessne also joins Broad and Cassel as partner in the Bankruptcy and Creditors’ Rights, Health Law, and Commercial Litigation Practice Groups. A licensed CPA in Florida, Lessne provides counsel to businesses and individuals in a broad array of restructuring and insolvency matters, including to debtors, lenders and other creditors, and fiduciaries in complex business and consumer bankruptcy matters, state court assignments, and out-of-court workouts, as well as in state and federal court proceedings involving complex litigation. Lessne has represented bankruptcy trustees in a variety of matters, including in health care provider cases and in cases involving fraud and Ponzi schemes, Prior to joining the firm, he was a shareholder with GrayRobinson in Fort Lauderdale.
“What’s attractive to me is the ability to offer what is a growing need for clients while expanding an already established and nationally recognized health law practice,” said Lessne. “The reputation of the firm and its attorneys really speaks for itself.”
Lessne is admitted to practice in Florida; the U.S. District Courts for the Middle, Northern and Southern Districts of Florida; the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit; and the U.S. Supreme Court. He holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in accounting from the University of Florida and received his juris doctor from the University of Miami School of Law.
A rising star both professionally and civically, Lessne serves as the Broward director for the Bankruptcy Bar Association for the Southern District of Florida; as an advisory board member for Keiser University’s Legal Studies program; on the board of directors for Deliver the Dream, a nonprofit organization helping families experiencing a serious illness or crisis; as a member of the steering committee for the Ghost Light Society at the Broward Center for the Performing Arts (and he was just named co-chair of its annual soiree); as a steering committee member for the Historic Stranahan House Museum’s annual Holiday Hangover (new-year kickoff); and as a committee member for the Turquoise Takeover Task Force for the American Lung Association in Broward County. Lessne is a graduate and past curriculum chair of Leadership Fort Lauderdale and is in the current Leadership Broward class.
The addition of Terzo and Lessne rounds out a string of announcements tied to Broad and Cassel’s growth in South Florida and the state in recent weeks. The firm recently announced the lateral hiring of Partner Gary M. Freedman in the Bankruptcy and Creditors’ Rights and Commercial Litigation practice groups. In Orlando, James Lovegren joined as of counsel in the Real Estate Practice Group.Broad and Cassel established its Fort Lauderdale office in 1987. The firm’s Fort Lauderdale attorneys focus their practices primarily in the following areas of law: Health Law and Litigation, Appellate and Constitutional Law, White Collar Defense and Compliance, Commercial Litigation, and Corporate and Securities. Broad and Cassel, founded on Jan. 1, 1946, has more than 170 lawyers and 200 support personnel located in nine offices throughout the state of Florida. The firm has extensive experience in a wide variety of corporate practice areas and industries. For more information, please visit us online at http://www.broadandcassel.com/ or follow us on Twitter and Facebook.