In June of each year, Super Lawyers Magazine publishes its annual list of the top attorneys in Florida.  Power players in the legal world anxiously await this issue in the hopes that their hard work will be recognized.

Yeah, it’s a lawyer thing.

According to the Florida Bar, as of May 1, 2014, there were 98,595 attorneys licensed to practice in the State of Florida.  Since only about 3,500 of them make the list, it really is a big deal.  Even if a lawyer isn’t ranked among the Top 10, or even the Top 100, it’s still an honor to be nominated.

As soon as my office copy arrived in the mail today, I quickly turned to the The Top 100 attorneys listed on page 28 (the 2014 list is not available online yet), to see if I recognized the names of any of the newly crowned Super Lawyers.

No surprise that Roy Black was ranked number two.

Big surprise that our very own local lawyer to the criminal stars, Benedict P. Kuehne, was not in the Top 100, even though he one of the lucky chosen few named as a Super Lawyer.

You may wonder where I’m going with this post, other than to yet again express my grudging admiration for Big Ben.  The truth is, if he didn’t represent dirtbags and criminals, I’d be his biggest fan.

But this is not about Ben Kuehne.

As fate would have it, one of the Top 100 Super Lawyers in Florida is none other than Alan Kluger, Esquire, of the firm Kluger, Kaplan, Silverman, Katzen & Levine, P.L., which firm represents the MOCA board of trustees in its lawsuit against the City of North Miami.

Yeah, I know it’s just a weird coincidence that I came across his name on the very day the Miami New Times leaked reported that North Miami pretty much came out ahead in the Court Ordered mediation talks, which ended yesterday.

In another strange but true coincidence, I just received an email that included a statement by Olivia S. Benson and Gilbert K. Squires, the outside council representing the City of North Miami, advising the New Times that they got their facts wrong:

Hmm.  Well this sure makes things interesting, doesn’t it?

Then again, there’s never a dull moment in North Miami.

If you believe this new twist in the never ending North Miami/MOCA drama, we still don’t know how it will play out.

But…

If you suspect the New Times got it right, then you gotta love the fact that one of the Top 100 Super Lawyers in Florida just got his ass kicked by Benson & Squires, Esquires.

Whoever they are.

This isn’t Alan Kluger’s first brush with notoriety.  He is already the dubious recipient of a Random Pixels Losers Corner honorable mention.

On November 6, 2012, RP posted a blog about Alan’s over-sized ego and insufferable behavior, and published this Gotta-Love-It picture:

Random Pixels noted, “In short, Kluger is a living, breathing caricature of a pushy, obnoxious lawyer we all love to hate.”

In the event that the New Times’ story is on the money, to this I would add:

Oh yeah.

I really do love saying that.

It never gets old.

Stephanie Kienzle
“Spreading the Wealth”