Paul O. Lopez’s superpowers include crafting strategy and keeping his cool

A feature article by Harris Meyer and Craig Ambrosio

Coming out of law school, Paul Lopez knew there was only one job for him: trial lawyer. "I didn’t know there was any other kind," he says with a laugh.

Lopez made his wishes known to Tripp Scott, where he had clerked the previous summer, when the firm hired him. "They promised to let me be in the courtroom. I didn’t want to be a bookworm doing research and writing. I volunteered to try any type of case that was scheduled for trial, whether it was an auto accident case or a breach of contract case or an eviction," Lopez recalls.

Indeed, it was an early, "small" trial that taught him a lesson he shares to this day with the younger attorneys he mentors.

"The father gave me a hug and thanked me for helping heal the family," he recalls. "This was one of my smallest cases, but it always stayed with me that, in every case, I’m dealing with people’s lives, not just dollars and cents."

Since then, Lopez, who’s now the litigation chair and chief operating officer of his 51-lawyer firm, has expanded into many areas, including employment and shareholder disputes, class action, RICO cases, and racial and sexual discrimination matters.

His skills and credibility with judges and juries have made him one of South Florida’s leading lawyers in complex commercial and employer-side employment litigation in state and federal courts. Now 56, he’s stayed with Tripp Scott since 1993, the year he graduated from Stetson University College of Law.

"There are always opportunities to see if the grass is greener, but I felt I was in the perfect place for what I wanted to do, which was to try cases," he says.

THESE DAYS, many of those cases happen via Zoom, as with a business-dispute mediation from earlier this year. At the start, the mediator, former Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Scott J. Silverman, assured Lopez’s client he had chosen an exceptional lawyer for his dispute.

"When I went on the bench, I first thought it didn’t matter who the lawyer was," Silverman comments to Lopez’s client. "I quickly realized that was 180 degrees wrong. Good lawyers who know the system, know what questions to ask and are prepared make a genuine difference in the outcome. Paul is the real deal."

Following Lopez’s opening statement laying out the elements of the case and accompanied by PowerPoint slides, the defendant company’s attorney comments, "I’m trying to think. That was quite an extensive presentation you had there."

Before long, Silverman is convinced by Lopez’s arguments. After caucusing with the opposing side, Silverman comes back and tells Lopez and his client that he has pressed the defendants to agree to the terms Lopez was seeking. "I told them there’s a really, really good chance you lose this and it’s over for your business."

But Silverman goes on to say the defendant balked for reasons he could not understand. "I can’t use a two-by-four or a brick. I’m not allowed," the judge quips.

Talking about the case later, Lopez acknowledges he had an advantage because he had built credibility with Silverman from prior cases. "But you still have to have the facts on your side," he says. "If I have a bad hand, I’ll be honest about it. I’m not going to advocate a bad position." The case is now headed for trial, with Lopez additionally asking for punitive damages.

Fort Lauderdale business litigator Jordan Shaw had a bench trial against Lopez last year involving a commercial eviction. "There are very few lawyers who have the ability and willingness to proceed to trial on complex commercial litigation, and I consider Paul to be one of the best among that very small group," he says.

In another case, Shaw says, he was originally up against lawyers from an AmLaw 100 firm and "it was very one-sided in our favor." Lopez was hired to replace those lawyers for the trial. "Then the entire posture of the case changed, and it became a battle," Shaw says. "He’s a great lawyer and a consummate professional."

Last year, a federal judge appointed Lopez and firm associate Jennifer Wahba as receivers for a Broward County trucking firm whose president was accused in federal civil and criminal complaints of operating a $100 million Ponzi scheme. So far, Lopez says, he and Wahba have recovered about $4 million in real estate holdings. Now they’re seeking recoveries from accounting firms, working closely with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Miami, and forensic experts.

"It’s fascinating," Lopez says. "We’re knee-deep in understanding the trucking business and becoming pseudoexperts. In South Florida, you see so many levels of fraud with developers and contractors and hustlers. It seems like we’re ripe for this type of thing."

In another federal case, from 2018, Lopez won a $30 million verdict for 1,800 German investors in a rare civil RICO matter alleging fraud by the managers of a New York real estate holding company. Those managers later were convicted of criminal fraud by federal prosecutors, who built on Lopez’s evidence.

Having represented victims in a number of large business fraud cases, Lopez has thought a lot about what motivates the perpetrators. "The common thread you see is their rationalization that they are running a legitimate business that would be OK at the end of the day and ultimately recoup the assets and cover up the fraud," he says. "That maybe allows some of these people to sleep at night. 

Lopez's parents were Cuban immigrants from wealthy families whose assets were seized by the Castro government. They arrived in Miami as teenagers in 1960 and met later. His father was a payroll clerk; his mother ran a babysitting service for neighbors. She also taught Spanish at St. Rose of Lima so that Lopez and his sister could attend the parochial school.

An interest in sports initially led Lopez to secure a bachelor’s in journalism from the University of Florida with an eye toward becoming a sports journalist. When he discovered the entry-level pay was low and he’d have to start out in small towns, he lost interest. On a whim, he took the LSAT and scored well enough to have most of his tuition paid at Stetson Law.

His clients are fans of both his personal and strategic skills. Bruce Moldow, chief legal officer at Fort Lauderdale construction firm Moss & Associates, says that in representing his firm in an employment dispute, Lopez shrewdly narrowed the issues during mediation to sharply reduce potential monetary damages in the subsequent arbitration. 

"We won that case in mediation whether the other side realized it or not," Moldow says. "He also did a really good job of reminding me that the case was business, not personal. Employment law cases are often highly emotional. He defuses that and gets to the nub."

Scott Crockett, CEO of Everest Business Funding in Doral, says Lopez is a strong negotiator who always looks many steps ahead. He cites a case in which Lopez resolved a dispute with the landlord of Everest’s new corporate office, reducing costs demanded by the landlord due to the company’s unavoidable moving delay.

"Paul is the ultimate chess player in being able to see around corners," Crockett says. "One of his other superpowers is never losing his cool when opponents are losing theirs. He’ll take those situations and turn them to strategic advantage.

"I even reach out to him for things in my personal life, because I value his judgment and counsel," Crockett adds.

Lopez takes a practical view of the many cases where he has conducted internal company investigations into allegations of sexual harassment and racial discrimination and defended the firms.

"Those are interesting cases with salacious allegations, which are sometimes true and sometimes not," he says.

When not trying cases, Lopez often devotes himself to Bar activities. For 25 years he has served on the Judicial Nominating Commission for the 4th District Court of Appeal, and for 15 years he’s served on the executive committee of the Broward County Chapter of the Federal Bar Association. He’s also served on judicial reelection committees. "I’m happy to support judges I believe in," he says. 

Otherwise, he tries to stay out of politics: "Better to maintain some level of neutrality."

Lopez has also been heavily involved with the Boys & Girls Clubs of Broward County, once serving as board chairman. "That’s my big passion," he says. "It’s a wonderful group of people devoted to helping kids from poorer families, giving them a support network and a place to go and increasing their skill sets. We’re super-proud of their graduation rates."

In his personal life, Lopez and his second wife, Barbara, have spent lots of time over the past four years traveling around the country to watch his daughter, Allie, play in Bucknell University volleyball games. He communicates every day with his two daughters and his stepdaughter, all now in their 20s, and credits his close relationship with his two daughters to having raised them as a single dad for four years after a divorce from his first wife.

"I had wonderful [firm] partners who were very supportive and accommodating during that period, and I also had a wonderful family that helped me get my girls to school and after-school activities," he recalls.

Over the past decade, Lopez has gradually started doing more work as a certified mediator and arbitrator. He’s handled more than 300 cases in those roles. He says it’s made him a better trial lawyer because he gets to hear what’s effective and not in how attorneys argue their cases.

Asked if he’s thought about seeking a judgeship, he says no. "I am good friends with many state and federal judges, and when you understand the day-to-day drudgery of what they actually do, it does not really appeal to me," he says.

Broward County Circuit Judge Jeffrey Levenson recalls a recent case in which Lopez’s arguments ultimately swayed him to grant his motion to dismiss. "He’s really a lawyer’s lawyer," says Levenson. "A very persuasive advocate."