Firm News

Kathy Townsend – Chapter President Elect for 2012

Kathy Townsend has more than 20 years of experience in both government and private law firms. She has most recently worked extensively with hundreds of Community Association Boards of Directors and CAMs throughout the Gulf Coast of Florida assisting lawyers in the areas of collections, liens, foreclosures, governance, and a variety of litigation. Townsend works exclusively as Keefe Anchors Gordon and Moyle’s Community Association representative. Townsend earned a political science degree from the University of Alabama at Birmingham where she graduated Magna Cum Laude, Phi Kappa Phi, and Pi Sigma Alpha. She is on the Board of Directors of the North Gulf Coast Chapter of Community Associations Institute and served as an officer during her first three-year term. She was re-elected for a second term and is currently serving as president-elect for the North Gulf Coast.

Excerpt reprinted from Walton Sun.

Read the full story here.

Larry Keefe of Keefe, Anchors, Gordon and Moyle has been named a Super Lawyer for five consecutive years.

Super Lawyers is a rating service of outstanding lawyers from more than 70 practice areas who have attained a high-degree of peer recognition and professional achievement. The selection process is multi-phased and includes independent research, peer nominations and peer evaluations.

Super Lawyers magazine features the list and profiles of selected attorneys and is distributed to attorneys in the state or region and the ABA-accredited law school libraries. Super Lawyers is also published as a special section in leading city and regional magazines across the country.

Super Lawyers magazine is published in all 50 states and Washington, D.C., reaching more than 13 million readers.

For more information visit:
http://www.superlawyers.com/florida/lawyer/Larry-Keefe/b18a216f-4143-4fef-99b4-aa60a41c1cbc.html

Corks N’ Canvases Okaloosa is Big Brothers Big Sisters annual wine tasting & art auction. All funds benefit Big Brothers Big Sisters of Northwest Florida. The event features a wine tasting, heavy hors d’oeuvres by Clemenza’s, live entertainment, and a silent auction.

The event will be held from 6:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. on Saturday, May 5 at Warren Averitt O’Sullivan Creel located at 45 Eglin Pkwy in Ft Walton Beach. Tickets are $30 per person. To RSVP, please call Courtney Humbaugh at (850) 433-5437 or email: chumbaugh@bbbsnwfl.org  

For more information visit:
http://www.bbbsnwfl.org/events.asp

FORT WALTON BEACH – Keefe, Anchors, Gordon, and Moyle recently co-sponsored an event supporting the Navy SEAL Foundation, Wounded Wear, and the Freedom Alliance Scholarship fund.

Special Guests included: Colonel Bud Day Medal of Honor Recipient; Ms. Debbie Lee Gold Star mom, mother of the first Navy SEAL killed in Iraq; CSgt Major Billy Waugh, CIA/Special Forces(Ret.); Gary O’Neil Department of Defense Anti-Terrorism Team (Team Blue Light – Precursor to Delta)

For more information on the event please visit the NWF Daily News online edition.

For more information on these charities and upcoming events visit:
http://www.theroguepatriot.org/

The energizing sounds of iconic big band Pink Martini will fill the air on Tuesday, April 3, as Pink Martini with lead vocalist China Forbes takes center-stage in Sinfonia’s Gala Event at the Emerald Coast Convention Center on Okaloosa Island.

Having shaken up the music world in their debut in 1994, Portland, Oregon-based Pink Martini has been featured around the globe from the Cannes Film Festival to L.A.’s Disney Concert Hall to Singapore.

You may not even know that you are familiar with their oeuvre considering that their music has been featured on compilations from Starbucks, commercials for Volkswagen, Lexus and in top-rated TV dramas such as “The West Wing,” “The Sopranos” and films such as “Nurse Betty” and “In the Cut,” just to name a few.

Their four albums have a combined total sale of over two million units and include “Sympathique,” “Hang on Little Tomato,” “Hey Eugene” and the recently released “Splendor in the Grass.”

The Emerald Coast Convention Center will be transformed into an elegant cabaret theater and patrons will enjoy table seating with light hors d’oeuvres during the performance. Cash bar will be available.

This is a not-to-be-missed event! Purchase tickets online by visiting www.SinfoniaGulfCoast.org or by calling the box office at 850-269-7129.

Excerpt reprinted from the Walton Sun.

Read the full story here.

Excerpt reprinted from the Pensacola News Journal.

Read the full story here.

kmcfarland@pnj.com  

In the summer of 2008, the Andrews Institute lauded the arrival of Dr. Leon Paulos as a medical coup.

He was so talented that Andrews’ parent company, Baptist Health Care Corp., was willing to pay him $950,000 a year, plus 75 percent of the net income from his practice, in its quest to make the Gulf Breeze sports medicine facility an even more high-profile treatment and research facility.

So skilled as an orthopedic surgeon that professional quarterbacks and basketball players trusted their knees, shoulders and, ultimately, their livelihood to his hands.

So innovative that he held nearly a dozen patents related to orthopedics.

So highly sought after that the Andrews Research and Education Institute, as is the facility’s full name, would be renamed the Andrews-Paulos Research and Education Institute, putting Paulos’ name on the marquee beside the name of the founder, orthopedic surgeon Dr. James Andrews.

Paulos, now 65, signed a one-year contract, then the next year, a five-year, three-month contract.

But Paulos’ second contract would turn out to be short-lived. Abruptly, last May 19, Baptist executives fired him, and according to him, sent out a systemwide email the next day instructing managers to call security if they saw him on the premises.

Last October, Paulos sued Baptist Heath Care and the Andrews Institute.

The 17-page lawsuit, peppered with explosive allegations, suggests Paulos was fired “because he objected to unethical practices at the hospital” and he “consistently pursued patient care over profit.”

The suit further claims that Baptist then blocked Paulos from setting up his own clinic in Okaloosa County to treat combat veterans returning to Hurlburt Field, Eglin Air Force Base and the Army’s 7th Special Forces Group.

Such a clinic would be in competition with the Andrews Institute’s mission to offer wounded service members the same type of treatment available to star athletes. So the suit says the hospital threatened to enforce a noncompete provision of his contract to prevent him from practicing competing medicine for two years within a 250-mile radius of the Andrews campus.

Excerpt reprinted from the Pensacola News Journal.

Read the full story here.

KAGM partner Jon Moyle was recently quoted in two local newspapers for articles about the approval of a 4% rate hike by Gulf Power. Mr. Moyle, who represents Florida Industrial Power Users Group, a group of large users of electricity that advocates for affordable rates and reliable electricity, stressed that with a sluggish economy, “now is not the time” for a raise in rates.

Read the Northwest Florida Daily News article HERE

Read the Pensacola News Journal article here: HERE

Governor Scott recently signed into law an insurance reform bill (Senate Bill 408) that will have significant consequences for consumers in the case of a catastrophic hurricane. Insurance companies will only pay the “Actual Cash Value” (ACV) of a damaged property, leaving it up to the property owner to pay the difference between the ACV and the cost of repair. Only after the owner has paid for the replacement work will the insurance company reimburse them for the full cost of repair.

“Upshot”: Property owners should be prepared to have cash on hand to cover the gap between the cost of repair and the amount of money their insurance company will reimburse them in the event of a hurricane. It may be wise to establish an emergency line of credit to help cover the cost of repair in the aftermath of the storm.

Keefe Anchors Gordon & Moyle is part of the legal team assisting Broward County and Osceola County in litigation against online travel company Expedia and others.  The case centers on whether Expedia and other major online travel companies owe millions of dollars in tourist-development taxes to local governments. Expedia and other internet-based travel companies charge customers for room rentals and add tax and fees to the amount charged to the customer.  However, the internet companies do not pay tax on the retail rate the customer pays for the room, and instead pay tax only on the wholesale rate that the internet companies pay the hotel.

Broward County argues that Florida law is clear that the tax should also apply to the retail rate that the internet company charges customers.  In addition to claims based on failure to pay the tax due and owing, Broward County has pending claims for conversion and civil theft. 

With the Emerald Coast’s tourist-driven economy, this case has important implications for local government. Check back for further updates as this case progresses.