Money, real estate, a wiped USB drive. Why 5 South Florida attorneys had issues
Questions about missing money, missing information and real estate funny business were among the reasons five lawyers from the Miami-Fort Lauderdale area wound up on the monthly Florida Bar discipline list.
The list covers attorneys whose discipline cases ended in punishment by the state Supreme Court. They’re listed below in alphabetical order with photos, if previously photographed by the Miami Herald or if the attorneys put a photo on their Florida Bar profiles.
Xenia Hernandez, West Miami-Dade
Xenia Hernandez chose not to fight.
A complaint by a client who claimed Hernandez wouldn’t give him his settlement money sent the Florida Bar looking into the personal injury attorney’s trust account. The Bar’s audit accused Hernandez of misappropriating anywhere from $169,000 to $381,000, and the Bar successfully requested Hernandez receive an emergency suspension.
MORE: A Miami personal injury attorney misappropriated up to $381,000, Bar says
That suspension would have officially began on May 27, but Hernandez decided to skip it and slide all the way to the big finish. Four days earlier, she filed for disciplinary revocation with leave to seek readmission after five years and asked for the revocation to begin on May 27.
Hernandez, who joined the Bar in 2017, gets, essentially, disbarred for five years. In return, the Bar discipline case against her about all those alleged misappropriated funds disappears. Disciplinary revocation has no effect on any current or future criminal or civil court matters connected with the actions in the discipline case.
This is a common move for attorneys who see no point in going through the discipline process for one or several reasons: They expect disbarment; lack the time, money or desire to fight the discipline case; they no longer wish to be attorneys, either through souring on the profession or being near retirement.
Even before she filed for disciplinary revocation, Hernandez began shedding her attorney skin. The commercial space and phone number of Xenia Hernandez Law, 6923 NW 77th Ave., now belong to Florida Injury Solutions, President and “Principal Attorney” Siobhan Bonilla. Bonilla came out of Ave Maria School of Law the year after Hernandez.
Hernandez “recognizes she was unskilled and negligent in the handling of her trust account reports and reconciliations when she opened her firm in 2023 and accepts that mistakes were made,” her disciplinary revocation petition says. She “has hired Gary W. Fagg, CPA, who has significant experience and expertise in lawyer trust account compliance, to assist her in providing forensic accounting services to ensure the accuracy and eventual disposition of all client ledger balances upon court approval.”
Hernandez can apply for readmission on May 27, 2030.
MORE: Supreme Court suspends license of Coral Gables attorney accused of swindling clients
Elliot Kozolchyk, Fort Lauderdale
Elliot Kozolchyk, admitted to the Bar in 2009, made getting people their unpaid wages his bailiwick and maintains that today through his Fort Lauderdale firm, Koz Law.
As noted in the referee’s report, “the amount due to the client often is relatively small. However, under the Fair Labor Standards Act, [Kozolchyk] is entitled to reasonable attorney’s fees if his client is the prevailing party.”
But, back in 2019, two federal judges referred Kozolchyk to the Ad Hoc Committee of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida.
“The referral alleged [Kozolchyk] failed to expedite his clients’ cases by refusing to settle his attorney’s fees in proportion to the amount the underlying claim was worth,” the referee’s report said. “The two complaining judges expressed concern that the above referenced practice led to a delay in the resolution of the cases and a greater amount of attorney’s fees than should have been incurred.”
Kozolochyk and the Ad Hoc Committee settled on a public reprimand in March. On the state level, he filed a guilty plea for consent judgment.
Because Kozolchyk cooperated fully with the Ad Hoc Committee and showed “professional and personal maturation during this lengthy process” (i.e., he hired an associate, got married and just became a father), case referee Judge M. Katherine Mullinax recommended acceptance of the consent judgment.
Kozolochyk received a public reprimand from the state Supreme Court.
Alexa Martinez, Kendall
Two months after her 2016 admission to the Bar, Alexa Martinez joined North Miami-Dade’s Silverberg Britto in February 2017. Less than four months later, Silverberg Britto, fired her.
According to the report by case referee Judge Marcus Armas, Martinez left this professional divorce in possession of a USB drive that she knew was Silverberg’s and had some documents belonging to Silverberg. Silverberg demanded the USB drive back. Martinez said she would return it.
But “after multiple requests and assurances, the USB drive was ultimately returned, but it was returned empty, meaning that everything that had been on the drive (i.e., potential evidence in a matter likely to result in litigation) had been erased or deleted,” the referee’s report stated. “I find this spoliation of potential evidence to be a significant breach of [Martinez’s] ethical obligations...”
Armas also found Martinez guilty of minor misconduct after her firing in her contact with Silverberg clients on whose cases she’d worked. Armas also found her guilty of filing a notice of appearance without client authorization, then delayed her withdrawal from the case beyond reason.
Armas recommended a 10-day suspension for Martinez. But the state Supreme Court, reviewing the case at both the Bar’s and Martinez’s request, thought Armas should have found her guilty of misconduct in filing other notices of appearance for Silverberg clients without authorization. Also, in one case, she took a month to withdraw from the case.
The court bulked the suspension to 90 days.
Brad Schandler, Hollywood
A complaint by Hernando Posse got the Florida Bar looking into foreclosure sales involving Hollywood attorney Brad Schandler (admitted in 1983). That Bar investigation closed with no action.
Miami Herald stories on Schandler’s method of using court judgments and, possibly, people bidding under phony names to snag the condos dirt cheap got the Bar reopening the investigation. That investigation ended when Schandler said a legal “no mas” and refused to fight anymore — he requested disciplinary revocation.
MORE: Attorney in Herald condo sale investigation loses his license — as he requested
A displeased Posse expressed incredulity at, he said, “how corrupt the whole system is.”
Bruce Warner, Parkland
Bruce Warner of Parkland’s Warner Law Office joined the Bar in 1983. Warner’s guilty plea in the discipline case says a mother paid him $1,900 to be her attorney in a case that would return her child to her physical custody.
But Warner admitted he “did not keep the client reasonably informed about the status of her child custody matter” and “did not file any pleadings in court on behalf of the client to advance the client’s objectives to have her minor child returned to her physical custody.”
The mother fired Warner and asked for a refund. After 10 months, Warner refunded the $1,900 plus another $100.
The referee agreed with Warner’s claimed mitigation factors of remorse, an absence of dishonest or selfish motive, cooperating with the proceedings and dealing with personal or emotional problems.
Warner finished serving his 10-day suspension earlier in August.
This story was originally published August 18, 2025 at 9:54 AM.
