William R. Scherer co-founded the firm in 1974 with his late partner Rex Conrad. Over the past almost four decades, Mr. Scherer has grown Conrad & Scherer into one of Florida’s leading law firms and has expanded the firm’s presence with offices in New York, New York, Brevard, North Carolina, and Quito, Ecuador.
AV® Preeminent™ Peer Rated by Martindale-Hubbell® since 1987, Mr. Scherer is a seasoned trial attorney. He has litigated over 100 trials in both jury and non-jury cases before state, appellate, and federal courts. Mr. Scherer’s cases and legal accomplishments have received coverage by major television networks such as CNN, CNBC, MSNBC and FNN and national and local newspapers such as The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, The Wall Street Journal, South Florida Business Journal, the Daily Business Review, the Sun-Sentinel and the Miami Herald.
Mr. Scherer was lead counsel for victims of the infamous multi-billion dollar Ponzi scheme orchestrated by Scott Rothstein. Notably, Mr. Scherer led his complex litigation team and achieved an historic settlement returning to investors what is said to be the highest percentages of recovery for victims of a Ponzi scheme. News outlets described the settlement as a “huge victory” and a “landmark” lawsuit.
In 2005, Mr. Scherer served as plaintiff’s counsel in a high-profile commercial lawsuit involving the sale of a health insurance company and obtained, by jury verdict, one of the largest damage awards in Broward County history.
During the historical 2000 Presidential Election Litigation in Florida, Mr. Scherer led a team of attorneys representing President George W. Bush and personally represented the President in the Broward County recount.
In addition to his litigation practice, Mr. Scherer has also served as counsel to various government entities. From 1988 to 2005, Mr. Scherer served as General Counsel to the North Broward Hospital District, one of the largest public health care providers in the nation, with four hospitals and nine specialized treatment centers. As General Counsel for the Hospital District, he supervised teams of legal experts in healthcare and malpractice law, and was responsible for all trials and legal actions taken by or against the Hospital District.
Mr. Scherer began his legal career as a law clerk to the Indiana Supreme Court and the Honorable Charles Fulton, Former Chief of the United States District Court for the South District of Florida.
John Scherer is an Executive Partner in the firm’s Fort Lauderdale office. Mr. Scherer’s government relations practice focuses on providing clients throughout South Florida with strategic counsel on procurement and government contract issues. Mr. Scherer focuses his litigation practice on construction and land use litigation.
As a Certified General Contractor with significant experience in construction, Mr. Scherer is able to serve the firm’s clients either as special counsel or as an expert witness on large complex commercial and residential construction cases.
In addition to his role at Conrad & Scherer, Mr. Scherer is the President and Owner of Gulf Building and Gulf Design Group. Mr. Scherer’s experience at Gulf affords his clients the benefit of his business acumen and his hands-on knowledge of construction, development and government contracts.
Michael E. Dutko, Jr. is a partner in the firm’s Fort Lauderdale office. Mr. Dutko’s practice focuses on government relations and public policy, procurement and government contracts, zoning, land use and development, land use and real property litigation and general commercial and civil litigation.
Mr. Dutko has extensive experience in the field of local government law, representing developers and builders in private practice as well as having served as Assistant City Attorney for the City of Delray Beach. In addition to providing legal services on a wide range of local government matters, he also served as the City’s board counsel for the Site Plan Review and Appearance Board, Historic Preservation Board, Code Enforcement Board, Board of Adjustment, Planning and Zoning Board and City Commission, guiding each body through the consideration of complex legal and controversial matters.
In particular, Mr. Dutko worked closely with the City’s Planning and Zoning Department regarding the review and processing of applications for development in the City, which is widely regarded as one of South Florida’s premier locations. In addition to land development and zoning work, Mr. Dutko was a primary attorney responsible for the preparation of government contracts, review and drafting of solicitations for competitive procurements, ethics and Sunshine Law consultation, and labor and collective bargaining negotiations. Mr. Dutko was the City’s chief litigator in lawsuits arising during his tenure, including but not limited to writs of certiorari, negligence actions and ballot challenges.
Prior to the City of Delray Beach, Mr. Dutko served as an Assistant State Attorney with the Palm Beach State Attorney’s Office. There, he gained significant and valuable jury trial experience in cases ranging from driving under the influence to first degree murder. While at the State Attorney’s Office, Mr. Dutko was selected to join the office’s Public Corruption Unit, leading a team of investigators and prosecuting complex crimes committed by public employees, police officers, and elected officials. In addition to numerous other high profile and highly publicized cases, Mr. Dutko led Palm Beach County’s first successful prosecution to trial verdict of violations of Florida’s Sunshine Law, involving a city commission’s attempt to secretly authorize unlawful payments to a city manager.
Irwin Gilbert is a senior partner at Conrad & Scherer’s Fort Lauderdale office with a practice concentrating primarily on complex commercial litigation, general business litigation, construction defect litigation, class actions and professional liability. Practicing in State and Federal Courts in Florida and across the Country, Irwin represents fortune 100 companies in high stakes litigation. He has been selected as lead counsel for the defense in mass shooting cases.
Irwin believes that success depends on communicating with the client to fully understand the client’s needs and expectations and designing a strategy to achieve those results in the most efficient manner possible. He has repeatedly “compressed the timeline” of litigation to conserve the client’s resources and minimize the disruption of the client’s business. When it comes to litigation, time is money. Compressing the timeline means getting the case on the fastest track, deflecting delay strategies by opposing counsel and getting the case to a resolution before his clients exhaust their patience and their resources. While Irwin has extensive experience taking complex litigation through trial, he believes that most disputes have the potential for less expensive resolution if the issues and objectives are clearly identified at the outset.
Irwin’s clients have included banks, investment firms, executives, celebrities, legal professionals, and Fortune 500 companies. In some of his more groundbreaking decisions, Irwin reigned in fiduciaries who had exceeded their powers, including court-appointed guardians and Assignees for the Benefit of Creditors. Irwin has also protected business clients from lawsuits, including class action, antitrust matters and trade secrets cases. In several of these cases, more than one hundred million dollars was at risk.
Irwin has a wide range of experience practicing throughout the United States and has litigated cases in Great Britain and Japan. His original training was in antitrust and unfair competition, defending companies in Robinson Patman and price-fixing conspiracy cases. He also served as Chairman of the Business Law Section of The Florida Bar’s Antitrust & Trade Regulation Subcommittee and also as Chair of the Florida Bar’s Business Litigation Committee.
Prior to studying law, Irwin studied physics and electrical engineering and was engaged in government service. Irwin earned his Juris Doctor degree from the University of Buffalo, John Lord O’Brien School of Law and after clerking, began practicing in two large New York City law firms. Prior to joining the firm, Irwin was a Partner in his own practice also defending private lenders, construction companies and commercial real estate developers in complex commercial litigation.
Eric Hager is a partner in the Firm’s Quito, Ecuador office. His practice includes transnational litigation, appeals, commercial litigation, securities & financial regulatory litigation, consumer finance litigation, general civil litigation, land use litigation, and trust litigation.
Mr. Hager’s experience in complex litigation is varied. He has played key roles in diverse matters in a number of state and federal courts throughout the country and has managed multinational teams on difficult e-discovery and other discovery projects. Mr. Hager has represented a range of clients from the U.S. and abroad, including the former CEO of a publicly-traded company, small and mid-sized businesses, local governments, and non-profit organizations. He has also led or participated in appeals in multiple state and federal courts.
Mr. Hager has years of experience working with liability and damages experts in high-stakes commercial litigation. He has also worked closely with experts on foreign law from Ecuador, Colombia and Peru in order to file declarations from foreign law experts in U.S. courts. Mr. Hager has represented clients seeking and opposing discovery in relation to foreign legal proceedings under 28 U.S.C. § 1782, which is a statute allowing litigants to obtain discovery related to foreign legal proceedings using the assistance of U.S. courts. An example of a successful request for discovery under Section 1782, done in conjunction with local counsel, is reflected in the magistrate’s report from In re Solines, No. MC 18-3680, 2018 WL 2225134 (E.D. La. Apr. 30, 2018). Also, Mr. Hager has assisted clients with requests for international judicial assistance, commonly referred to as letters of request or letters rogatory. In addition, Mr. Hager provides the firm’s Latin American clients with assistance in cross-border litigation and transactions.
Mr. Hager has experience briefing a wide range of complicated legal issues. Representative issues include defenses to claims common to commercial litigation, such as claims for breach of contract, fraud, and tortious interference; choice of law, including between foreign and U.S. law; international comity, forum non conveniens, and other defenses typical in transnational litigation; statutory construction of state, federal, and foreign statutes; removal from federal court and remand to state court; the intersection of state property law and federal tax law; standing and capacity to sue; issue and claim preclusion; tolling of the statute of limitations and other timeliness issues; and procedural issues associated with a variety of pre-trial motions, including motions to dismiss, motions for summary judgment, discovery motions, and motions in limine. Mr. Hager also has experience arguing motions on complex issues before state and federal courts.
Prior to focusing on commercial litigation and appeals, Mr. Hager spent over six years primarily representing the firm’s clients seeking to hold multinational corporations accountable for human rights abuses. In that role, he took and defended depositions abroad and in the U.S., obtained a reversal on a key issue from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, briefed numerous other appeals, and led discovery-related and other field work in remote regions of Colombia, Ecuador and Peru.
Before joining the Firm in 2009, he practiced as a commercial litigator, primarily working on consumer financial services matters in the Washington, D.C. office of a large national firm.
Mr. Hager is fluent in Spanish, resides in Quito, Ecuador, and has traveled extensively throughout South America’s Andean region on business.
Russell O’Brien is a Partner in the Firm’s Fort Lauderdale office and concentrates his practice on contract disputes, securities litigation, fraud (misrepresentation, inducement, transfers, aiding and abetting and conspiracy), fiduciary relationships and business torts, shareholder disputes (direct and derivative), and class action defense. He also has experience in admiralty law, including vessel acquisitions and sales, vessel refurbishment and repair, vessel charter, and foreclosing and defending against necessaries liens and first preferred ship mortgages.
Russell is the Firm’s Administrative Partner and manages the Firm’s eDiscovery department. He regularly advises corporate clients regarding eDiscovery planning and protocols, e-Retention, and litigation concerning eDiscovery disputes.
Russell has represented Fortune 500 companies, small businesses and individuals in both jury and bench trials, and has wide-ranging courtroom experience in both state and federal court. Prior to joining Conrad & Scherer, Mr. O’Brien practiced at an AM 100 law firm, primarily representing financial institutions in class action litigation.
Steven Osber is a senior partner at Conrad & Scherer’s Fort Lauderdale office with a practice concentrating primarily on commercial and business litigation. Mr. Osber’s case representation ranges from routine litigation matters and third party insurance litigation to highly complex litigation including partnership/shareholder disputes, commercial eviction matters, real estate litigation and construction litigation.
In addition to his extensive experience in commercial litigation and construction related litigation, Mr. Osber has handled a number of significant cases representing businesses in a variety of cases involved sophisticated legal issues through trial and obtained successful results for his clients. Mr. Osber is also valued as a contributing litigator in the firm’s labor and employment cases. He also serves as outside general counsel advising various businesses on day to day legal matters.
Mr. Osber’s expansive litigation experience includes more than 100 state and federal jury and non-jury trials, as well as extensive binding arbitration experience. He is also proficient in appellate cases, having prepared appellate briefs on a variety of matters, argued before various appellate tribunals, and has obtained favorable opinions in the appellate courts throughout the State of Florida. He is rated AV Preeminent by Martindale-Hubbell, which indicates a demonstration of the highest professional and ethical standards and is the highest rating a lawyer can receive. He has also been recognized as a top lawyer in the South Florida Legal Guide in 2011, and from 2014 to present day.
Janine McGuire is a senior associate in the firm’s Fort Lauderdale office. Mrs. McGuire provides key appellate and litigation support for the firm’s diverse clientele throughout all stages of litigation.
Having extensive insight as to appellate issues and process, Mrs. McGuire works closely with the firm’s litigation teams during the trial court stages to ensure that appellate rights are preserved with a proper and compelling record should an appeal be necessary.
Mrs. McGuire has practiced within many areas of law in addition to appellate practice, including health care, medical malpractice, professional liability, governmental and administrative law and complex commercial litigation. In particular, Mrs. McGuire’s experience in health care law includes managed care, risk management, medical staff/peer review, employment, and medical malpractice litigation.
Michael J. Mariani is an Associate in the firm’s Fort Lauderdale office, where he assists partners and senior associates in a variety of complex commercial litigation matters.
Prior to joining the firm, Michael spent the first three years of his legal career at a boutique securities litigation firm in Tampa, Florida, where he represented broker-dealers, registered investment advisors, and their associated persons in all phases of FINRA arbitration relating to customer disputes involving alleged violations of federal securities laws, unsuitability, unauthorized trading, churning, overconcentration, and unauthorized margin borrowing. Michael also counseled businesses and individuals during DOJ, SEC, and CFTC investigations and enforcement proceedings.
Michael obtained his law degree cum laude from the University of Florida Levin College of Law where he was a member of the Florida Moot Court Team. While in law school, Michael interned for the Honorable William P. Dimitrouleas, United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida. As a 2L, Michael was selected to compete in the 31st Annual Zimmerman Kiser Sutcliffe Final Four Moot Court Competition in front of a panel of federal and state judges where he was awarded both Best Overall and Best Oralist.
In addition to serving as the Internal Vice-President and Chair for Intermural Competitions for the Florida Moot Court Team. Michael also competed in several competitions including the National Moot Court Competition hosted by the New York City Bar where his team made the final four and finished with the second-highest brief score in the region. For his contributions to the team, Michael was awarded the William C. Gaither Memorial Award as a 2L and was inducted into the Order of Barristers as a 3L.
As a 3L, Michael was selected to compete in the prestigious Willem C. Vis International Commercial Arbitration Moot. Prior to competing in the preliminary rounds in Vienna, Austria, the team traveled to Paris, France to compete in various pre-moots including the International Chamber of Commerce Vis Pre-Moot where his team finished 1st Place beating out 24 other teams including Columbia University and University of Cambridge. Michael graduated cum laude from Florida Atlantic University with a degree in Criminal Justice.
Kirk R. vonHilsheimer is an Associate in the firm’s Fort Lauderdale office, where he assists partners and senior associates in a variety of complex commercial litigation matters.
While in law school, Mr. vonHilsheimer worked as a Summer Associate for the firm where he gained valuable hands on knowledge and experience from our seasoned trial lawyers. He earned his Juris Doctorate degree from the University of Florida Levin College of Law and his Bachelor of Arts degree from Duke University.
Mr. vonHilsheimer has worked on numerous cases, both at the state and federal level, and he offers experience assisting jury trials.
Outside of practicing law, Mr. vonHilsheimer has a passion for playing tennis and chess.
Angelica Zolnierowicz is an Associate in the firm’s Fort Lauderdale office where she assists partners and senior associates on a variety of complex commercial litigation matters.
Ms. Zolnierowicz earned her Master of Laws from Georgetown University Law Center and her Juris Doctorate from The Catholic University of America Columbus School of Law. She attended Boston University, where she obtained her Master and Bachelor degrees in International Affairs.
While studying at Georgetown, Ms. Zolnierowicz was selected by the Department of Defense to represent Georgetown Law Center at the United States Naval Base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba as a Department of Defense (DoD) Military Commission Observer. As a DoD observer of this select program, she saw live hearings of defendants charged in the September 11, 2001 terror attacks from the U.S. Military Base courtroom.
While in law school, Ms. Zolnierowicz worked for the New York State Office of the Attorney General’s Organized Crime Task Force, The World Bank’s Integrity Vice Presidency, and Montgomery County State’s Attorney’s Office. Ms. Zolnierowicz has experience working with two prominent law firms in Warsaw, Poland. She also worked on numerous litigation matters, both in the private and government sector.
Ms. Zolnierowicz has a keen interest in evolving blockchain technologies and criminal securities fraud. While working for a large Washington, DC law firm, she was an invited panelist speaker for multiple cryptocurrency and blockchain conferences.
Tommy W. Arnst is an Associate in the firm’s Fort Lauderdale office, where he assists partners and senior associates in a variety of complex commercial litigation matters.
Before joining Conrad & Scherer, Mr. Arnst spent three and a half years working in defense litigation for a prominent nationwide law firm, where he assisted clients in litigation relating to premises liability, torts, employment law, coverage issues, landlord-tenant law, and administrative law.
Tommy obtained his law degree cum laude from the University of Miami School of Law, where he made Dean’s List in the fall and spring of 2015 . While in law school, Tommy worked as a summer associate at a Fort Lauderdale-based law firm where his primary focuses included appellate law, municipal law, real estate law, and torts. He also clerked for the Honorable Dorian Daamorgian at the Fourth District Court of Appeal, preparing legal memoranda for the panel’s consideration in advance of hearing oral arguments and drafting opinions. Tommy has varied experience both in federal court and administrative law courts in his relatively short time as a practicing attorney.
As a South Florida native, Mr. Arnst has a vast understanding of his community and the people he represents. He spends a large portion of his time engaging in local events and activities while using his passion for sports as a means of building relationships within the community.
William R. Scherer, III serves as Of Counsel in the firm’s Fort Lauderdale office. Mr. Scherer focuses his practice on commercial and employment litigation, and personal injury. After more than 20 years of practice, he has gained experience in all phases of civil litigation, including jury trials, and has been AV Preeminent Peer Rated by Martingale-Hubbell since 2005.
In the area of commercial litigation, Mr. Scherer has handled complex commercial cases including secondary banking liability claims against financial institutions for aiding and abetting fraud, mold litigation between commercial landlords and tenants, director and officer liability claims, trademark and copyright infringement, music royalty disputes and various other business tort and contract claims.
Mr. Scherer has also represented many employers and employees in disputes arising under federal and state labor and employment statutes, including Title VII, Family and Medical Leave Act, Fair Labor Standards Act and the Florida Civil Rights Act. He has initiated and defended charges of discrimination before the Equal employment Opportunity Commission and often interprets, drafts and negotiates employment and severance agreements on behalf of employees joining or leaving company employment.
In addition to commercial and employment litigation, Mr. Scherer has litigated personal injury and wrongful death claims arising from automobile and motorcycle accidents as well as other circumstances where individuals have been injured.
Outside of the practice of law, Mr. Scherer is the father of two children, an accomplished musician and a martial arts student, currently holding a second-degree black-belt in Karate.
David Garcés is an Ecuadorian attorney in the firm’s Quito office. He focuses his practice on advising U.S. and Latin American clients on international negotiations, mergers & acquisitions, cross-border litigation, family law matters and real estate transactions. He has experience in corporate law, transactions, mergers & acquisitions, real estate, e-commerce, family law, probate and international law. Mr. Garcés regularly advises Ecuadorian and international clients on Ecuadorian and international family law, probate and real estate issues. In addition, he serves as an expert on Ecuadorian law, providing declarations used in federal court litigation.