Sequor Law Picks Up Two Bankruptcy Attorneys From GrayRobinson

By Rick Archer

Leyza B. Florin and Fernando Menendez Jr.

Sequor Law has added two former GrayRobinson PA shareholders, including one of the founding members of that firm’s Miami office, to its own Miami-based bankruptcy practice, the firm has announced.

In a statement released June 4, Sequor Law said new partners Leyza B. Florin and Fernando Menendez Jr. have experience dealing with complex and cross-border bankruptcy cases, which would be a particular asset to the firm.

“The firm not only gains two outstanding lawyers with years of experience in insolvency, restructuring and commercial litigation but their bilingual and multicultural heritage will add to the growth of our market leadership in international asset recovery and cross-border insolvency,” Sequor Law founding shareholder Ed Davis said in the statement.

Seven years ago Florin, a graduate of the University of Miami School of Law, was one of the founding shareholders of GrayRobinson’s Miami office.

The statement said Florin has a wide range of litigation experience with a special emphasis on complex business bankruptcy and commercial litigation matters. She has extensive international bankruptcy experience, including with the Chapter 15 proceedings for Barbados-based British American Insurance Co., where she served as U.S. counsel for the court-appointed representatives from 11 different jurisdictions

She is also a Florida Supreme Court Certified Civil Mediator. Menendez, a New York University School of Law graduate, also spent seven years with GrayRobinson after starting his career at White & Case LLP.

Menendez has worked a broad range of business reorganization and restructuring matters as well as complex and contested bankruptcy issues, the statement said. According to his biography on the firm’s website, one major case Menendez has handled was representing the holders of more than $30 million in secured debt in the contested Chapter 11 of the owner of a large Miami real estate parcel.

Both attorneys credited what they called Sequor’s focus on international business as their reasons for joining the firm.

“I think we were both concerned about widening the breadth of our international practice,” Menendez said in a phone interview Monday. “They’re already in these markets. I think we have the opportunity to expand our relationships overseas.”

In the statement, Florin said they had both worked with a number of Sequor’s attorneys for years and had “long admired” the firm.

“They have significant depth in the cross-border area,” Florin said in the phone interview. “They have a really deep bench.”

Miami-based Sequor represents financial institutions, governments, and public and non-public companies in commercial litigation, financial fraud cases and bankruptcies in the U.S. and internationally, according to the statement.

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