Casey, Ciklin, was it the Culture?

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The facts

Boose, Casey, Ciklin, Lubitz, Martens, O’Connell was the law firm we originally hired to help negotiate the Greater Bay contract, a contract that was signed by former Vice Mayor Retha Lowe when it was ripped out of the hands of the then mayor Marc Drautz in November 2006.  The following year, William Boose, a partner  at Casey Ciklin, went to prison, involved in the Masilotti scandal that put Masilotti in federal prison. The firm dropped the name of Boose.

Long time partner, Patrick Casey who helped start his firm in 1985, retired in 2012 and the firm immediately dropped the name Casey from the masthead. The firm did not honor his retirement benefits and he had to sue them in the amount of $511,200 and his share of the firm. Even the judge on the case said that managing partner Alan Ciklin's  testimony and credibility were questionable. Patrick Casey was just awarded $2.2 million and the firm is going to appeal. The judgment also affects every partner individually.

It came out during the trial that Casey, Ciklin had two sets of balance sheets dated October 31, 2012, the very day that Patrick Casey retired.  The Judge said that the evidence regarding another partner in the firm, Richard Martens, was a "charade being played out in order to manipulate a matter pending in the Family Division of this Court."

So, if a firm treats its founder this way and covers up for another partner in trying to eliminate alimony payments, and helped a former county commissioner hide profits from a land deal, you can't help but ask the question, "what else is or has been going on there throughout these 30 years?"  Is this the culture? You have to ask yourself, have all of their clients been represented fairly?

One of the partners, Brian Joslyn, was also the attorney that the City of Lake Worth hired to sue the petitioners on August 21, 2007 of We Love Lake Worth Political Action Committee of which Commissioner McVoy was the Chair. We Love Lake Worth, Inc. and its supporters were against the City's attempt to change our beach to a commercial zoning and allow a developer to grab our 19 acres of prime beachfront to develop a mall along with a parking garage. There was a citizens' law suit back then, McCauley/McNamara, against Greater Bay that stated it was not a 20 year lease but a 40 plus year lease as the development agreement had no time period where  performance was demanded. They could have tied up our beach for 100 years and our own attorneys missed this important factor. The WLLW case was dropped on June 23, 2009 after Greater Bay was relieved from its contract for non-performance. The private citizens' suit was dropped as well.

Casey, Ciklin represented the City of Lake Worth. They helped to negotiate the unfavorable Greater Bay contract and then after Greater Bay stalled for years and did nothing, they became our lawyers after the contract was terminated by the City Commission for non-performance. Who better to hire than the firm that actually helped draw up the original deal?  Brian Joslyn was then again appointed our "counsel," who helped drag out the case over three years and cost us $900,000 in legal fees just to end up recommending that we settle with Peter Willard and group (Greater Bay) for $1.6  million dollars. 

Joslyn put on some "mock" trials regarding Greater Bay. It never was mentioned in that public settlement meeting that he was arguing for Greater Bay during those "pretend" trials. Joslyn, the lawyer who was supposedly on our side, said that we "could have" lost millions more because he conducted four mock juries that "said so," a mockery in itself. This was all confirmed by Scott Maxwell. This majority commission that aligns itself with the original commission that got us into all of this costly predicament (other than Szerdi who was not yet elected and Christopher McVoy who was against Greater Bay) fell for the settlement deal, hook, line and "stinker."

Aside from this settle at all costs culture that we have at City Hall (suing its citizens is an exception), we put our faith and money in this firm and it cost us a bundle. Casey, Ciklin has been/is one of the most prominent long-time firms in Palm Beach County and now it's going to cost all of them with their prominent name dragged through the courts.