ORLANDO – Robert Hosch Jr., the founder of Butler & Hosch law firm, has begun the process to resign from the Florida Bar Association but admits no wrongdoing.
Allegations have swirled around Hosch since the closing of his firm on May 14, 2015. The firm was one of the nation’s largest foreclosure law firms at the time.
“There’s no admission to wrongdoing,” Michael Tessitore of Moran, Kidd, Lyons and Johnson PA told the Florida Record. Tessitore called himself Hosch’s personal council in Florida.
By resigning from the Florida Bar Association, Hosch will surrender his ability to practice law in the state of Florida. It’s a move that must be approved by the Florida Supreme Court.
If the court approves his petition, the Florida Bar Association will drop any and all investigation into complaints made against Bosch. The exact nature of these complaints has been a subject of some speculation in the press.
An Orlando Sentinel article had to be corrected after it came to light that some of the rumored allegations against Hosch could not be backed up with facts.
“Originally they said things like, he had admitted to the allegations, they said he was involved in a WARN Act lawsuit when in fact he was dismissed from that suit,” Tessitore said.
That lawsuit was brought by former employees of Butler & Hosch PA, alleging that the firm and Hosch had violated the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act by not giving proper notice before closing its doors and leaving about 700 employees out of work. The judge told the plaintiffs that they could not bring suit against Hosch because there is no individual liability under the WARN act. However, they can bring suit against the firm.
The Florida Bar Association was investigating an alleged failure by Hosch and the firm to inform the Bar that the firm’s attorneys had withdrawn from court cases. According to the Hosch’s petition, Hosch signed an assignment for the benefit of creditors, an alternative to bankruptcy that is intended to save time and expense while closing an insolvent company.
Hosch allegedly said that he believed the assignee to be a lawyer. However, the assignee purportedly was not, and court cases formerly handled by Butler & Hosch stalled as a result. This allegedly led to delays and additional fees in ongoing cases. At the time of its closing, Butler and Hosch handled about 60,000 foreclosure cases across the nation.
“The bottom line is that it was going to be a fairly expensive process for both sides to deal with the bar’s investigation and Mr. Bosch didn’t want to expend the resources, his or the Bar’s,” Tessitore said.
Bosch has told press outlets that he is focused on new opportunities. Tessitore could not speculate on what those opportunities might be.
“He was very successful in building a very big organization but I don’t know exactly what his next project is going to be,” Tessitore said.