Miami City Attorney’s Office Grapples With Resignations Amid Méndez Turmoil

The hits keep coming for the Miami city attorney's office.

In an email to the Florida Bar obtained by New Times, Miami city attorney Victoria Méndez disclosed that three staff lawyers have departed from her office in recent months, two of whom resigned. The exodus comes as Méndez finds herself at the center of controversy on multiple fronts, including scrutiny over her family's alleged profiteering from real estate transactions tied to the Guardianship Program of Dade County.

"I have two attorneys on maternity leave," Méndez wrote to the Bar in February. "Another two attorneys have resigned and another attorney has retired. My deputy city attorney is dealing with a family emergency. We are going through a difficult time in the office with workloads and in the process of hiring for these recent and other vacancies."

Méndez sent the email in reference to a new Bar complaint filed against her by filmmaker Billy Corben, a frequent speaker at city meetings and outspoken critic of the Miami City Commission.

Corben, who submitted the grievance under his legal name William Cohen, claimed Méndez violated Bar rules and acted unprofessionally during a recent commission meeting when she called him "a vile little man" on the dais and wrongfully accused of him being paid by third parties to sully her reputation at commission meetings. Méndez lashed out after Corben decried Miami officials and referred to her as "a mob lawyer."

Citing the staffing issues, Méndez requested that the Bar grant her an extension to provide her response, which was due on February 21. She received the extension and now must submit a response by March 21 before the Bar decides whether Corben's complaint will move forward.

Kenia Fallat, Miami's director of communications, confirmed to New Times that three lawyers have left the city attorney's office since November 2023. Assistant city attorneys Brandon Fernandez and Lauren Kain Whaley resigned from their positions, and assistant city attorney William Juliachs retired from city service.

Fernandez, who had worked for Méndez since October 2021, left the city attorney's office in February and took a similar position as a municipal lawyer for the City of West Palm Beach.

Kain Whaley's profile indicates she stepped away from her position in November 2023, having worked for the Miami city attorney's office for roughly two years and nine months. The LinkedIn for Juliachs notes he joined the law office of Sadow & Gorowitz in February after a 17-year career as a municipal attorney.

New Times' messages to the three attorneys' LinkedIn profiles went unanswered. The city has not responded to a request for comment on whether the attorneys enumerated their reasons for leaving.

The Miami City Commission voted to end Méndez's more than ten-year tenure as city attorney in June 2024 amid multiple scandals involving her and her family.

Last spring, Jose Alvarez sued Méndez and her husband Carlos Morales, alleging they cajoled him into selling his Little Havana family home for less than its market value and then resold the house for a windfall. He alleged the couple profited from the city code enforcement board's decision to wave $270,000 in fines that had long been accruing on the home.

A WLRN investigation later detailed Mendez's family ties to companies that flipped homes from the nonprofit Guardianship Program of Dade County, acquiring the properties at well below market value and selling them for big profits, sometimes within a matter of weeks. The program lines up care for mentally incapacitated people, often elderly, who do not have anyone to take care of them, and sells their property to help pay for their expenses.

Since at least April, the Florida Bar has been investigating Méndez and her connection to the business dealings.

Méndez denied the allegations and called WLRN's investigation a "hit piece." She has asserted that her opponents have been trying to bully her out of her position on the basis of false allegations and threats of litigation.

Méndez has also been named as a defendant in litigation in which Little Havana businessmen Bill Fuller and Martin Pinilla alleged Commissioner Joe Carollo weaponized city departments to harass their businesses. The duo won a $63.5 million judgment against Carollo individually and are pursuing additional claims against the City of Miami, Méndez, and other top municipal staffers who they claim facilitated the harassment. The city has spent millions on Carollo's attorney fees, with Méndez maintaining Carollo is entitled to legal representation from the municipality.

On top of this, the city faced the loss of more than $56 million in tax revenue after the State of Florida found the city had been operating with an illegal budget since last fall following shaky legal advice about the validity of a budget vote. 

Despite the state's position that the city needed a unanimous five-member commission vote to approve its property tax rate and warnings from the Florida Department of Revenue, Méndez reportedly told the commission it could move forward with a four-member commission vote. When the vote took place, commissioner Alex Díaz de la Portilla had been suspended from office after he was arrested on bribery, money laundering, and corruption charges.

The budget debacle led to sharp criticism from newly elected commissioner Miguel Gabela, who requested the city attorney's immediate resignation in December. The following month, the commission voted to extend her contract until June.