Movers in South Florida

Sylvester Lukis named managing partner at Ballard Partners

Sylvester "Syl" Lukis has been named managing partner at the new Miami-based government affairs firm, Ballard Partners. He will continue to expand the firm's lobbying efforts in South Florida. He has more than 30 years of legal and government relations consulting experience at the federal, state and local levels, including serving on the U.S. State Department's Cuban Haitian Task Force and also as a principal assistant to the general counsel of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. After leaving federal employment, he served as principal lobbyist for a D.C. firm, working on behalf of several local governmental entities, including Miami Dade County, the cities of Miami and Miami Beach and the Miami Dade County School District. Before joining Ballard, he moved his operations to Florida in 1996, where he established a state and local government relations consulting practice serving the cruise, health, corrections, infrastructure, communications and information technology industries.

 

Alfredo L. Gonzalez named partner at Genovese Joblove & Battista

Alfredo L. Gonzalez has joined Genovese Joblove & Battista, P.A. as a partner in the law firm. He has more than 30 years experience in real estate, international transactions, land use, governmental, environmental and aviation law. Before joining the firm, he was the chief executive officer of Yoss LLP and past head of the real estate and governmental practice groups.

Eduardo Santos named vice president of public policy for MasterCard Latin America

Eduardo Santos has been named vice president of public policy for MasterCard Latin America and the Caribbean region. He will be responsible for formulating and implementing the company’s public policy initiatives in the region. He regularly visits senior government officials in Latin America, and senior officials of the U.S. government, multilateral agencies, NGOs and other stakeholders to discuss policy issues relating to MasterCard’s mission and goals and to the financial payments industry. He is based in Miami. Before joining MasterCard, he was government affairs manager for Latin America at Hewlett-Packard. Before that, he spent more than 20 years working in the international commercial and investment banking sector as a senior lending and private banking executive at Florida International Bank, Espirito Santo Bank, Barclays Bank and Bank Leumi Le-Israel.

George Platt named managing partner at LSN Partners in Fort Lauderdale

George I. Platt has joined LSN Partners, a government affairs and strategic business development firm, as managing partner of the Broward office in Fort Lauderdale. He will focus on providing his expertise in government relations and strategic planning. He will continue to be Of Counsel at the firm of Shutts & Bowen to assist clients when legal services are needed. He previously served 13 years as managing partner of Shutts & Bowen in Fort Lauderdale. He also was a Broward County commissioner, serving as chairman of the Metropolitan Planning Organization and the Value Adjustment Board. He also was a commissioner on the Broward County Charter Review Commission.

George I. Platt has joined LSN Partners as managing partner

George I. Platt has joined LSN Partners, a government affairs and strategic business development firm, as managing partner of the Broward office in Fort Lauderdale. He will focus on providing his expertise in government relations and strategic planning. He will continue to be Of Counsel at the firm of Shutts & Bowen to assist clients when legal services are needed. He previously served 13 years as managing partner of Shutts & Bowen in Fort Lauderdale. He also was a Broward County commissioner, serving as chairman of the Metropolitan Planning Organization and the Value Adjustment Board. He also was a commissioner on the Broward County Charter Review Commission.

James J. Gangitano named an associate at Miami law firm Lyons & Lurvey

James J. Gangitano has joined Miami-based law firm Lyons & Lurvey, P.A. as an associate. He is a former prosecutor with 15 years of civil litigation experience. His areas of practice will include commercial litigation, business formation and transactions, securities law, tax controversy and IRS representation, government and internal investigations, and forfeiture law. He will lead the firm's corporate law practice.

Ryan O'Quinn, Ryan Stumphauzer form boutique litigation law firm in Miami

Ryan Dwight O’Quinn and Ryan Stumphauzer have formed O’Quinn Stumphauzer, P.L., a boutique litigation firm in Miami. The firm will focus on government regulatory enforcement matters, white collar criminal defense, internal investigations, receiverships and whistleblower suits. O’Quinn’s practice concentrates on fraud in the securities and commodities industries. For nearly a decade, he served as a key financial services regulator as senior counsel in the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Enforcement Division, and as an Assistant United States Attorney with the Southern District of Florida’s Securities and Investment Fraud Initiative. Stumphauzer’s practice focuses on fraud in the health care industry. He served as the Health Care Fraud Coordinator and Deputy Chief of the Economic & Environmental Crimes Section at the United States Attorney’s Office, where he supervised the Southern District of Florida’s Medicare Fraud Strike Force.

Ward Damon Posner Pheterson & Bleau law firm adds two partners

Christopher Gagic and Sally Still have been named partners, and George Weinstein has been named Of Counsel at the law firm of Ward Damon Posner Pheterson & Bleau in West Palm Beach.

Gagic will focus his practice on estate planning, special needs planning, multigenerational family and business succession plans, probate and trusts, taxation, and federal estate and gift tax returns.

 

Still will specialize in employment and labor related matters, including administrative actions, federal and state court litigation, arbitration and appeals. She concentrates on Title VII, ADA, FMLA, OSHA and FLSA.

 

 

Weinstein (no photo available) will concentrate on estate planning and related income, gift and estate tax issues.

R. David Paulison named to board of trustees of Underwriters Laboratories

R. David Paulison, former director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), has been elected to the board of trustees of Underwriters Laboratories (UL). Paulison, a Miami-Dade resident, led FEMA from 2005 through 2009. He is credited with guiding the federal agency through the development of next-generation processes, technologies and infrastructures needed for better response to future hazards and disasters. He began his career as a firefighter in 1971 and rose to become fire chief of Dade County in 1992, a position he held through 2001. In 2001, he joined the federal government as administrator of the United States Fire Administration.

Fátima Pérez Fernández joins Akerman Senterfitt as public policy advisor

Fátima Pérez Fernández has joined Akerman Senterfitt as public policy advisor in the law firm's Miami and Tallahassee offices. She has more than 14 years experience in governmental and external affairs at the state legislative and municipal levels of government, and in the corporate communications industry.