Holland & Knight LLP is staring down a massive malpractice fight in its own backyard, with former client MV Realty accusing the firm of professional negligence and seeking as much as $1.2 billion in damages in Miami-Dade Circuit Court.
In a complaint filed this week, MV Realty says Holland & Knight greenlighted its controversial Homeowner Benefit Agreement program and never warned that the long-term listing contracts might run afoul of the law. The agreements advanced homeowners relatively small amounts of cash in exchange for exclusive 40-year listing rights and a 3% early termination fee, and MV Realty says it ultimately poured about $156 million into the business. The company is now asking a judge to award between $400 million and $1.2 billion.
As reported by Reuters, MV Realty PBC LLC lodged the malpractice suit on July 22 in the 11th Judicial Circuit in and for Miami-Dade County, case No. 2026-014644-CA-01. The defendants are Holland & Knight and three of its partners, Jesus Cuza, Rebecca Canamero and Raul Cosio. MV Realty is represented by AXS Law Group attorneys Jeffrey Gutchess and Jack Flagg, who are asking the court to sign off on as much as $1.2 billion in damages.
State crackdown on HBAs
The National Consumer Law Center has tracked a wave of court orders and settlements targeting MV Realty's Homeowner Benefit Agreements. Judges and regulators in multiple states have voided HBA contracts and required the company to cancel recorded memoranda that, according to critics, effectively operated like liens on homeowners' titles.
In Georgia, that scrutiny turned into a seven-figure hit. Attorney General Chris Carr secured a $1 million consent judgment this month that wiped out MV Realty memoranda and ordered restitution for affected homeowners, according to the Georgia Office of the Attorney General.
What MV Realty alleges
MV Realty insists it was not freelancing. The company says it relied on Holland & Knight's guidance while rolling out the HBA model and that the firm should have clearly warned that the business plan could not be carried out lawfully before MV Realty sank serious money into it, according to Law360.
The complaint repeats that MV Realty invested about $156 million in the HBA venture and says the fallout from mounting enforcement actions has left the company seeking a court judgment between $400 million and $1.2 billion.
Legal implications
Under widely accepted standards, a legal malpractice plaintiff has to do more than show a bad outcome. To win, the client generally must prove there was an attorney-client relationship, a breach of the lawyer's duty of care, proximate causation and actual damages, a framework outlined by the Legal Information Institute at Cornell Law School.
That often turns malpractice cases into a demanding “suit within a suit,” as courts rehash what would have happened in the underlying matters. Legal commentators point out that, in sprawling, multi-state disputes like MV Realty's HBA saga, tracing causation and quantifying damages can become a procedural slog, with plenty of room for both sides to argue over who is really to blame.
Holland & Knight did not immediately respond to requests for comment, according to Reuters. The case is styled MV Realty PBC LLC v. Holland & Knight LLP, No. 2026-014644-CA-01, in the Circuit Court of the 11th Judicial Circuit in and for Miami-Dade County.
